Please approve backport of galera-4 26.4.3-4 (universe) from focal

[Otto Kekäläinen]

Please approve backport of galera-4 26.4.3-4 (universe) from focal to bionic and xenial.

Reason for the backport:
========================

Ubuntu Bionic has currently only galera-3 available. The new version galera-4 is required to run MariaDB 10.4 or newer. Galera is not part of MariaDB itself. Using the Ubuntu backported Galera 4 package would assure a good quality of packaging instead of using any alternative option.

I am the maintainer of both galera-3 and galera-4 and are committed to take care of this once approved.

Testing:
========

One unofficial backport is already published at https://launchpad.net/~maria-captains/+archive/ubuntu/travis-ci-helper-repo/

Backport to bionic requires no changes.

* bionic:
[x] Package builds without modification
[x] galera-4 installs cleanly and runs
[x] galera-4-dbgsym installs cleanly and runs
[x] galera-arbitrator-4-dbgsym installs cleanly and runs
[x] galera-arbitrator-4 installs cleanly and runs

Backport to xenial requires dropping debhelper level to 10 and one build flag change in debian/rules.

* xenial:
[x] Package builds without modification
[x] galera-4 installs cleanly and runs
[x] galera-4-dbgsym installs cleanly and runs
[x] galera-arbitrator-4-dbgsym installs cleanly and runs
[x] galera-arbitrator-4 installs cleanly and runs

No reverse dependencies.

Related, the backport I am preparing for Debian Buster passed CI at
https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/galera-4/pipelines/127287

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

Uploads ready at
https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/galera-4/-/commit/e7a3ab1fa3cbe3f692b9978722b6f9c1561a2a05
and
https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/galera-4/-/commit/513bc6ddcded3d2bb1ed1b16b1f622bfc9c734aa

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

Sorry, second link was accidentally to buster. The correct bionic one is https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/galera-4/-/commit/28b8a95000c17c171b616185ea5b42efaccb1f26

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

To upload:

gbp clone https://salsa.debian.org/mariadb-team/galera-4.git
git checkout bionic-backports
gbp buildpackage -S -d
dput ...changes

git checkout xenial-backports
gbp buildpackage -S -d
dput ...changes

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

I've followed the process documented at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports yet this bug is uncommented/unapproved for a couple of months. What should I do now?

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

I've had galera-4 in Debian 9 and 10 backports for over a month now, and no regressions have been reported: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/galera-4

Please advice me on how to proceed with Ubuntu backports.

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

From #ubutu-devel:
23:02 < teward> and unless people are using MariaDB 10.4+ on Xenial i'm *real* hesitant to do the second part of the backport which is a Xenial request

I am fine if this gets accepted only for Bionic.

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

From #ubuntu-devel
> 23:00 < teward> what's your justification for needing it backported?

Currently when people install MariaDB 10.4 or 10.5 on Ubuntu Focal/Bionic/Xenial they do it by applying some external MariaDB repo or PPA since those versions are not in Ubuntu. In addition they need to get Galera 4 somewhere and end up with various solutions and an unmanaged mess.

Using the Ubuntu backported Galera 4 package would assure a good quality of packaging instead of using any alternative option, since the backported version is the same as the best one in Debian/Ubuntu at any given time.

Backposts of Galera 4 would be no-changes backports, low-risk and medium gain.

[Thomas Ward (teward)]

REJECT for Xenial.

RE: Using the Ubuntu backported Galera 4 package would assure a good quality of packaging instead of using any alternative option, since the backported version is the same as the best one in Debian/Ubuntu at any given time.

This is true if and only if you are also backporting MariaDB in -backports as well. Any third party repository will by its nature not necessarily have a good quality MariaDB package, galera-4 aside.

So, curiosity begs the question: is there any intention here to also backport MariaDB?

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

Reject for Xenial is OK, the LTS will be out of support next year anyway.

I hope for galera-4 approval for Bionic.

The upstream maintenance policy (https://mariadb.org/about/#maintenance-policy) means that 10.3 (currently in Bionic) will be out of support in 2023 (same time as Bionic). However also Focal has 10.3 and Focal will be supported to 2025, beyond MariaDB 10.3 lifetime, so for Focal the MariaDB 10.5 backport might be relevant.

There is a possibility that I would backport MariaDB 10.5 to official Debian and Ubuntu backports if the process with backporting Galera 4 goes well and with reasonable amount of work, but I don't promise that yet.

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

From #debian-devel:
00:30 < teward> ottok: i assume galera-3 and galera-4 are coinstallable then?

Yes, galera-3 and galera-4 are co-installable and that is how they are currently in Debian unstable and Ubuntu Focal and onwards:
https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/galera-3
https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/galera-4

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

I am still available to upload this backport. The galera-4 backports in Debian Buster and Stretch have been working fine for almost a year.

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

For the record, seems that Ubuntu backports process is dead and somebody needs to bring it back to life again:
- https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2019-January/040575.html
- https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2019-February/040587.html

[Dan Streetman (ddstreet)]

Hello,

the backports process has recently been updated, please see the new documentation:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports

I'm closing this bug, but please feel free to open a new bug (or reopen this bug) using the new process, if appropriate.