Linux package deprecation policy

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The Linux packages come with number of different libraries and services which offers users plethora of configuration options.

As libraries and services get updated, their configuration options change and become obsolete. To increase maintainability and preserve a working setup, various configuration requires removal.

Configuration deprecation

Policy

The Linux package retains configuration for at least one major version. We can't guarantee that deprecated configuration is available in the next major release. See example for more details.

Notice

If the configuration becomes obsolete, we announce the deprecation:

• via release blog post on https://about.gitlab.com/blog/. The blog post item contains the deprecation notice together with the target removal date.
• via installation/reconfigure output (if applicable).
• via official documentation on https://docs.gitlab.com/. The documentation update contains the corrected syntax (if applicable) or a date of configuration removal.

Procedure

This section lists steps necessary for deprecating and removing configuration.

We can differentiate two different types of configuration:

• Sensitive: Configuration that can cause major service outage (like data integrity, installation integrity, or preventing users from reaching the installation)
• Regular: Configuration that can make a feature unavailable but still makes the installation usable (like a change in default project/group settings, or miscommunication with other components)

We must also differentiate deprecation and removal procedure.

Deprecating configuration

Deprecation procedure is similar for both sensitive and regular configuration. The only difference is in the removal target date.

Common steps:

1. Create an issue at the omnibus-gitlab issue tracker with details on deprecation type and other necessary information. Apply the label deprecation.
2. Decide on the removal target for the deprecated configuration
3. Formulate deprecation notice for each item as noted in Notice section

Removal target:

For regular configuration, removal target should always be the date of the next major release. If the date is not known, you can reference the next major version.

For sensitive configuration things are a bit more complicated. We should aim to not remove sensitive configuration in the next major release if the next major release is 2 minor releases away (This number is chosen to match our security backport release policy).

See the table below for some examples:

Configuration type	Deprecation announced	Final minor release	Remove
Sensitive	10.1.0	10.9.0	11.0.0
Sensitive	10.7.0	10.9.0	12.0.0
Regular	10.1.0	10.9.0	11.0.0
Regular	10.8.0	10.9.0	11.0.0

Removing configuration

When deprecation is announced and removal target set, the milestone for the issue should be changed to match the removal target version.

The final comment in the issue must have:

• A text snippet for the release blog post section.
• A link to a documentation merge request (or documentation snippet) that introduces the change.
• Either:
  • A link to a draft merge request that removes the configuration.
  • Details on what must be done.

Example

User configuration available in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb was introduced in GitLab version 10.0, gitlab_rails['configuration'] = true. In GitLab version 10.4.0, a new change was introduced that requires rename of this configuration option. New configuration option is gitlab_rails['better_configuration'] = true. Development team translates the old configuration into a new one and triggers a deprecation procedure.

This means that these two configuration options are valid through GitLab version 10. In other words, if you still have gitlab_rails['configuration'] = true set in GitLab 10.8.0 the feature continues working the same way as if you had gitlab_rails['better_configuration'] = true set. However, setting the old version of the configuration prints out a deprecation notice at the end of installation/upgrade/reconfigure run.

In GitLab 11, gitlab_rails['configuration'] = true no longer works and you must manually change the configuration in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb to the new valid configuration. Note If this configuration option is sensitive and can put integrity of the installation or data in danger,the installation or upgrade is aborted.