[Libguestfs] [EXTERNAL] - Re: [EXTERNAL] - Re: Libguestfs desired version installation

[Raja Ram Sharma]

Hi Richard/Eric, 

I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for your invaluable contributions to "libguestfs" project.
And assistance with current issue "mount_local: unknown option 684826080".
 
The issue has been successfully resolved and our project is back on track.

Just to give one glimpse of what was error : It was a silly mistake while using library. 
We were not passing -1 as last parameter to guestfs_mount_local(guestfs *, basedir, -1);
due to which error was not consistent.

Your commitment to the open-source community is truly commendable. Your willingness to share your time, knowledge, and skills with others has a profound impact on community. Your guidance and support not only helped us overcome a technical challenge but also enriched our understanding of "libguesfs" project.

If there is anything we can do to support your projects or initiatives, please do not hesitate to let us know. Your work is essential, and we are here to assist in any way we can.

Once again, we greatly appreciate your help and look forward to many more collaboration in the future.

Marking this mail to an end milestone. Please forgive for any un-comfortability caused by us.



Thanks
Raja Ram (ArbitCode)



-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Blake <eblake at redhat.com> 
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2023 7:39 PM
To: Richard W.M. Jones <rjones at redhat.com>
Cc: Teja Konapalli <tkonapalli at opentext.com>; Divyanshu Kumar <dkumar3 at opentext.com>; libguestfs at redhat.com; Raja Ram Sharma <rsharma6 at opentext.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - Re: [Libguestfs] [EXTERNAL] - Re: Libguestfs desired version installation

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On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 10:16:10AM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 09:09:32AM +0000, Teja Konapalli wrote:
> > Hi Richard,
> >
> > Yes, you are correct my ask is without upgrading OS version(from 8.2 
> > to 9.0) is it possible to upgrade libguestfs alone to different 
> > versions.
>
> No, that is not supported.

Worded differently:

Libguestfs is open source.  Therefore, you have the freedom to install whatever libguestfs version you want on whatever underlying system you want - and it may even work the way you want.  However, if you choose to install a version of libguestfs on a distro that is different than the version that your distro already provides, then you will be stuck debugging any issues that arise on your own, and cannot reasonably expect either your distro or upstream to help you (your distro's answer will likely be "use the version we already debugged for you").

Upstream support is a limited resource - there are no contractual guarantees that anyone has to help you, and while it may be low cost when it works in your favor, you are far more likely to get responses based on the quality of effort you have put in to reporting problems accurately, rather than expecting others to do your homework for you.

You mention using RHEL; since you are already paying to use a distro, you might as well make the most of your support contract.  However, this is the upstream mailing list, and not the point of contact with your RHEL support contract.  Then as Rich has already mentioned:

> >
> > Since you have (still) not described the exact environment you're using, or even accurately described the problem you're having, I don't know if this will make any difference.

your distro support contract will likewise expect you to put in more effort of describing the actual scenario you are trying to solve, rather than the secondary problem of "can I upgrade libguestfs" that may or may not address the primary problem that you are facing.

--
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libguestfs.org