v2 client sorts on name in wrong direction

[Stuart McLaren]

The v1 client sorts images by name alphabetically:

$ glance --os-image-api-version 1 image-list --sort-key name
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+-------------+------------------+-----------+----------------+
| ID | Name | Disk Format | Container Format | Size | Status |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+-------------+------------------+-----------+----------------+
| 7d1923d7-68e8-4a8e-b23e-a7c77f8117fd | | raw | bare | 1034 | active |
| 5e9dc64e-7c05-431c-b81f-ae6a212353e8 | | qcow2 | bare | | queued |
| 6802e222-6eac-45c6-8c9f-0d62aed26406 | | qcow2 | bare | 145 | active |
| 7af0d66b-5b48-48a6-a6d9-c2cd3eafa83e | | | | | queued |
| dde89c3c-c8af-46a4-87b0-f39ed6c61c42 | | raw | bare | 2 | active |
| 262ac5aa-e580-4bec-a3b2-580924425fd5 | | raw | bare | 2 | active |
| 4cc5b305-43a7-495e-8e67-16d95629621e | | raw | bare | 2 | active |

The v2 client sorts in reverse alphabetical:

$ glance --os-image-api-version 2 image-list --sort-key name
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+
| ID | Name |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+
| b16dbfb2-f435-40a8-aa08-2aadaee99cd1 | trusty2 |
| cc658de9-039a-46d7-829a-dc1f08cac153 | test1 |
| 2fa0f342-623e-423f-8faa-70f000b3e4cc | test1 |
| c95a4ee7-28d0-4fd5-86c6-fe9816fcef23 | test1 |
| d75354ed-ef63-4f41-9d53-a0d67394d1a3 | test1 |
| ecc24d0d-140c-484d-ae42-427e60be9270 | test1 |
| f3b996a9-469c-4882-864b-fef0cd24429d | test1 |

adding the sort dir gives the same result as v1:

$ glance --os-image-api-version 2 image-list --sort-key name --sort-dir asc
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+
| ID | Name |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+
| 7d1923d7-68e8-4a8e-b23e-a7c77f8117fd | |
| 5e9dc64e-7c05-431c-b81f-ae6a212353e8 | |
| 6802e222-6eac-45c6-8c9f-0d62aed26406 | |
| 7af0d66b-5b48-48a6-a6d9-c2cd3eafa83e | |
| dde89c3c-c8af-46a4-87b0-f39ed6c61c42 | |
| 262ac5aa-e580-4bec-a3b2-580924425fd5 | |
| 4cc5b305-43a7-495e-8e67-16d95629621e | |

[Stuart McLaren (stuart-mclaren)]

sorting is also reversed for:

status, id, size

(created_at, updated_at, container_format, disk_format are ok)

[OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack)]

Fix proposed to branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/219205

[Erno Kuvaja (jokke)]

This is not a client bug. The default sorting direction was set to desc in: https://review.openstack.org/#/c/148326
https://review.openstack.org/#/c/148326

We should not mask server default behavior in the client, but rather change it in server if needed.

[Stuart McLaren (stuart-mclaren)]

It is a bug.

A user, when they execute:

glance image-list --sort-key name

will reasonably expect that

1) the sort direction is the same as it always has been
2) the names are sorted in alphabetical order

[Ian Cordasco (icordasc)]

The behaviour of the client has always relied on that of the service. That means that it defaults to the server-side sort, which makes this not a client bug STuart.

[Stuart McLaren (stuart-mclaren)]

> The behaviour of the client has always relied on that of the service.

How do you mean in this particular case?

When we do a regular 'glance image-list' the client explicitly requests the sort order:

v1:

glance image-list results in:
GET /v1/images/detail?sort_key=name&sort_dir=asc&limit=20 HTTP/1.1.

v2:

glance image-list results in:
T 10.0.0.85:34641 -> 10.0.0.85:9292 [AP]
GET /v2/images?limit=20&sort=name:asc HTTP/1.1.

So, for example both v1 and v2 list alphabetically by default:

$ glance --os-image-api-version 1 image-list
+--------------------------------------+------+-------------+------------------+------+--------+
| ID | Name | Disk Format | Container Format | Size | Status |
+--------------------------------------+------+-------------+------------------+------+--------+
| 04b25ad3-20b4-461a-b36e-578bc8d64813 | abc | | | | queued |
| 94e8af26-06f4-4fa7-bbc3-1624b754038e | xyz | | | | queued |
+--------------------------------------+------+-------------+------------------+------+--------+

$ glance --os-image-api-version 2 image-list
+--------------------------------------+------+
| ID | Name |
+--------------------------------------+------+
| 04b25ad3-20b4-461a-b36e-578bc8d64813 | abc |
| 94e8af26-06f4-4fa7-bbc3-1624b754038e | xyz |
+--------------------------------------+------+

When we add the sort key for v1 this also explicitly sets the order:
GET /v1/images/detail?sort_key=name&sort_dir=asc&limit=20 HTTP/1.1.

$ glance --os-image-api-version 1 image-list --sort-key name
+--------------------------------------+------+-------------+------------------+------+--------+
| ID | Name | Disk Format | Container Format | Size | Status |
+--------------------------------------+------+-------------+------------------+------+--------+
| 04b25ad3-20b4-461a-b36e-578bc8d64813 | abc | | | | queued |
| 94e8af26-06f4-4fa7-bbc3-1624b754038e | xyz | | | | queued |
+--------------------------------------+------+-------------+------------------+------+--------+

But the v2 client doesn't explicity set the order when using '--sort-key':

GET /v2/images?limit=20&sort_key=name HTTP/1.1.

$ glance --os-image-api-version 2 image-list --sort-key name
+--------------------------------------+------+
| ID | Name |
+--------------------------------------+------+
| 94e8af26-06f4-4fa7-bbc3-1624b754038e | xyz |
| 04b25ad3-20b4-461a-b36e-578bc8d64813 | abc |
+--------------------------------------+------+

Doesn't it make sense to add 'sort_dir=asc' in all four cases rather than three out of four?
If we want to rely on the server behaviour should a basic 'image-list' return images in reverse order? (I don't think so)

[Stuart McLaren (stuart-mclaren)]

Also, as far as I can tell, there has been no server side change between v1 and v2 in terms of default sort ordering with respect to name:

$ curl -s -H 'x-auth-token: xxx' 'http://localhost:9292/v1/images?sort_key=name' | python -mjson.tool | grep name
            "name": "xyz",
            "name": "abc",

$ curl -s -H 'x-auth-token: xxx' 'http://localhost:9292/v2/images?sort_key=name' | python -mjson.tool | grep name
            "name": "xyz",
            "name": "abc",

[OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack)]

Change abandoned by Niall Bunting (<email address hidden>) on branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/219205
Reason: This will confuse users.

[Kairat Kushaev (kkushaev)]

If this will be accepted in glance then we need to remove default sorting from glanceclient because we don't need it anymore.

[OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack)]

Change abandoned by Brian Rosmaita (<email address hidden>) on branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/275120
Reason: The consensus was to do nothing, so let's officially abandon this change.

[Kairat Kushaev (kkushaev)]

Marked as Won't fix. See reason in comment #10. Also python-glanceclient is going to be deprecated in favor of openstackclient. So the bug marked as won't fix for glanceclient too.