kernel posttrans and preun hooks for other packages

[Don Zickus]

On Sat, Feb 16, 2008 at 09:53:26AM -0600, Matt Domsch wrote:
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=433121
> 
> DKMS would like to have the opportunity to run it's
> auto-rebuilder/installer after a new kernel RPM has been installed,
> without having to wait for a system restart to run it.  Likewise, when
> a kernel RPM is removed, it would like to be able to run to remove
> modules managed by it.
> 
> Debian kernels intentionally run scripts located in
> /etc/kernel/postinst.d/ following new kernel package installation,
> /etc/kernel/prerm.d/ before kernel package removal.  DKMS drops a
> script into these directories, to perform the appropriate actions.
> 
> I want Fedora and RHEL kernels to do likewise.  Patch attached.
> This patch implements the same interface as that used for Debian and
> Ubuntu kernels.  The scripts are invoked with $1 = kernel version, and
> $2 = path to vmlinuz file.  (DKMS doesn't need $2, but I'm keeping the
> interface the same to match so people can reuse their scriptlets.)

I argued against this idea in RHEL because I believe blindly running
random scripts in a directory is an unsafe thing to do (despite its best
intentions it can still be abused).

Also from a support perspective, it becomes more complicated to support
kernel installs when random user scripts can cause unknown behaviour.

The RHEL thread started investigating the idea of a hook into an event
mechanism provided by a high level install app with the appropriate
logging.  The idea was to clearly separate a successful kernel install
from a poorly executed posttrans script.  This way developers didn't waste
their time trying to reproduce something that we clearly did not support.

Jon M. can probably fill you in better.

Cheers,
Don