Missing update announcements

Bernd Bartmann bernd.bartmann at gmail.com
Thu May 5 16:58:42 UTC 2005


On 5/5/05, John Dennis <jdennis at redhat.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-05-05 at 18:03 +0200, Bernd Bartmann wrote:
> > Again several updates/erratas for FC3 appeared on the download mirrors
> > but were never announced.
> 
> It's worthwhile to point out that the process for getting a new rpm
> signed and pushed is entirely manual done via email requests. A
> developer sends an email asking for the package to be pushed. It may
> take between 1 hour and 2 days for the request to be honored. He cannot
> generate the announcement until the sign/push occurs because the MD5
> sums won't be correct until the package is signed. So it is entirely
> possible for a package to get signed while the developer is gone and he
> may not be able to generate the announcement until he returns. Because
> of the manual nature of the process and the inherent delays it is
> entirely possible for several days to transpire between a package making
> an appearance and the announcement.
> 
> I'm not defending the process, but I trying to explain why it sometimes
> seems like announcements are delayed. The process should be fixed, but
> it is what it is :-(
> 
> > I've opened a bug for each missing
> > announcement:
> 
> How long have you waited for the announcement? If its less than 2 days I
> would give the developer a chance before opening a bug. I assume you
> have some automated script that is detecting these missed announcements,
> humans trying to juggle the process along with all the other things on
> their plate can't compete with computers waiting to catch them.

Every of the missing announcements is much longer than 2 days out.
Here are the dates when the files appeared on the download mirror that
I use:

perl-5.8.5-11.FC3, released 2005-04-27, #156366
logwatch-5.2.2-1.FC3.1, released 2005-04-26, #156367
devhelp-0.9.2-2.3.2, released 2005-04-22, #156017
epiphany-1.4.4-4.3.2, released 2005-04-22, #156016
mozilla-1.7.7-1.3.1, released 2005-04-22, #156015
logwatch-5.2.2-1.FC3, released 2005-04-21, #156014
firefox-1.0.3-1.3.1, released 2005-04-19, #156013
postfix-2.1.5-5, released 2005-03-17, #151588
nfs-utils-1.0.6-52, released 2005-02-19, #149901

Up to now I have no script to monitor the missing announcement. I'm
still hoping that this problem is addressed in a way so that it cannot
happen again. I just take a look at my rsync mirror logs and compare
them to the announcements that appeared on the mailing list. If no
announcement comes out within two days after the rpms appear on the
download mirror I open up a bug in bugzilla. So far most rpm packagers
were helpful and sent out the announcement when they see the
bugreport. But sometimes even this fails :-(
Why is it not possible to automatically sent out the announcement
after the rpms are signed and the MD5 sums are known?

Is it possible to trigger an email to the packager after the package
is signed? Something like a reminder "package is ready for
distribution, please sent out an announcement".

TIA,
Bernd.




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