IndependentPlugin is not working

[Eric Desrochers]

[IMPACT]
Regression found while doing the verification testing of (LP: #1913284)

As described by my colleague Ponnuvel:

"
The problem is that IndependentPlugin is not working in Focal's sosreport. The bcache plugin uses IndependentPlugin (as in, it's not tied to any specific Distro).

IndependentPlugin was broken at some point since Bionic and has been fixed upstream. (It's working on Bionic in 3.X series).

 sosreport | 3.9.1-1ubuntu0.18.04.3 | bionic-updates
 sosreport | 4.0-1~ubuntu0.20.04.4 | focal-proposed
 sosreport | 4.0-1ubuntu2.2 | groovy-proposed
 sosreport | 4.0-1ubuntu9 | hirsute

However, the sos report package on Focal, Groovy, and Hirsute all have the broken code.
"

It currently impacts plugins relying on "IndependentPlugin" to run such as the bcache plugin.

"IndependentPlugin" is a class for plugins that can run on any platform.

[TEST PLAN]
The patch includes a fix for the IndependentPlugin. Currently, bcache plugin uses the IndependentPlugin. So sosreport collection has to be tested on a machine with bcache deployment. The cherry-picked commit includes a number of other changes, so --all-logs and -a options would need to be used to ensure there's no other breakages.

[WHERE PROBLEM COULD OCCUR]

The IndependentPlugin may still not work - in that case, it'd only affect bcache plugin. Worse, the changes could affect other Plugin types and cause more regressions - affecting data collection for multiple plugins.

[OTHER INFORMATION]

Upstream bug:
https://github.com/sosreport/sos/pull/2018

Upstream commit:
https://github.com/sosreport/sos/commit/a36e1b83040f3f2c63912d4601f4b33821cd4afb

[Ponnuvel Palaniyappan (pponnuvel)]

Attaching debdiff for focal.

[Ponnuvel Palaniyappan (pponnuvel)]

Attached debdiff for groovy.

[Eric Desrochers (slashd)]

Thanks Ponnuvel.

May I ask two more things:

* Debdiff for the active devel release (hirsute).
* Fill the SRU tmpl above that I already started.

- Eric

[Ponnuvel Palaniyappan (pponnuvel)]

Attached debdiff for hirsute.

[Ponnuvel Palaniyappan (pponnuvel)]

Done both - thanks, Eric!

[Eric Desrochers (slashd)]

I just noticed upstream released v4.1 which contains the fix for the broken IndependentPlugin.

I'll start working to push this new release in Debian/Unstable and then sync with Hirsute.

[Eric Desrochers (slashd)]

So the plan for now is to sync Hirsute with Debian/unstable once Debian approves it.

Then I'll SRU the fix in stable release with the debdiff you have provided, and then plan an upgrade to 4.0 to 4.1 on stable release later on.

- Eric

[Eric Desrochers (slashd)]

Fixed in 4.1 version of sos now found in in H/G/F/B.