From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Michael Tremer <michael.tremer@ipfire.org>
To: development@lists.ipfire.org
Subject: Re: Add "reinstall core update" button to Pakfire?
Date: Thu, 12 May 2022 10:20:49 +0100
Message-ID: <97290638-3ADA-4036-924B-11A59D84DA31@ipfire.org>
In-Reply-To: <bdd41c67-957c-c839-0419-748c67dcf219@leo-andres.de>
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Hello Leo,

> On 11 May 2022, at 13:18, Leo Hofmann <hofmann(a)leo-andres.de> wrote:
>=20
> Hi all,
>=20
> I saw this comment in the Pakfire functions library:
> https://git.ipfire.org/?p=3Dipfire-2.x.git;a=3Dblob;f=3Dsrc/pakfire/lib/fun=
ctions.pl;h=3Dd4e338f23ae8ae97d6f18c6d8890d13463dc5d30;hb=3Drefs/heads/next#l=
762
>=20
> And I remembered that sometimes people ask how to reinstall an update.
> For example because they have changed from the "testing" tree back to "stab=
le" and want to get the final release version of the update.
>=20
> Would it be worthwhile to add a "reinstall core update" button to the web i=
nterface? Or would that lead to people breaking stuff?
>=20
> Is decrementing '/opt/pakfire/db/core/mine' still the recommended way to do=
 that?
> https://wiki.ipfire.org/configuration/ipfire/pakfire/testing

Technically, that is all that needs to be done, and we semi-automatically do =
this when people change from one branch to another one. We then re-install th=
e latest version of the last update which is just a shot in the dark to keep =
systems somewhat close to the releases - which is always a little bit difficu=
lt in a test environment.

However, I am not in favour of making re-installing this too easy, because yo=
u can just see some of the outfall in Adolf=E2=80=99s emails from yesterday. =
It is generally not a supported operation. However, it can be helpful in very=
 few cases. But only very few.

I would also say that on the web UI, we should be very careful about giving p=
eople the option to =E2=80=9Cpress a magic button and everything is alright=
=E2=80=9D. We somehow introduced that with the fsck button which I do not thi=
nk helps anyone that much really, because a healthy filesystem does not manua=
l checking (it is not Windows 98 where you have to =E2=80=9Cdefragment=E2=80=
=9D things from time to time) and if it does, it is normally smart enough to =
figure that out by itself. If the user has any reason to believe that their f=
ilesystem might be corrupt, the filesystem should have noticed that earlier a=
nd try to fix itself, or you are in territory where you will have to replace =
your storage device and re-install the whole OS.

Right now, I do not mind having that button - it does not do much harm after =
all. But I thought it was a good example to illustrate that just because we c=
an very easily give people the option, we should ask ourselves why people wou=
ld need this in the first place.

Regarding re-installing an older Core Update I am thinking:

a) The user is testing something and things didn=E2=80=99t work out. Going ba=
ck isn=E2=80=99t always possible but it might work. In that case, those peopl=
e should know how to do this. Maybe a command line option is convenient. I wo=
uldn=E2=80=99t object that.

b) You have reason to believe that your system was compromised. Re-installing=
 the latest Core Update does not fix that. Here is where I consider a button =
on the web UI dangerous. Just pressing that does not fix anything.

Did I overlook any reasons why this option should be there?

-Michael

>=20
> Best regards
> Leo
>=20


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