Description
If a package is removed from Fedora, for example because it was renamed, it needs to be blocked in Koji. This prevents creating new package builds and distribution of built RPMs. Packages are blocked in the listing of tags, due to inheritance it is enough to block packages at the oldest tag will make it unavailable also in upstream tags.
Action
Perform the blocking
Discover proper place to block
The ticket should tell you which Fedora releases to block the package in. Typically it'll say "Fedora 13", "F14" or rawhide. This means we need to block it at that Fedora level and all future tags. However we do not block packages in a Fedora release that has gone public unless.
The appropriate place to block a package is at the "f??" tag level (even for rawhide, then the tag for the next release needs to be used, not the rawhide tag). This way the setting of block or not is inherited into future tags.
Performing the package block
To block a package for a tag, use the block-pkg method of Koji.
$ koji block-pkg --help Usage: koji block-pkg [options] tag package [package2 ...] (Specify the --help global option for a list of other help options) Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit
For example, if we were asked to block python-psyco in Fedora 20 we would issue:
$ koji block-pkg f20 python-psyco
Now the ticket can be closed.
Tags for EPEL are named dist-5E-epel-build,
dist-6E-epel-build or epel7.
EPEL Packages moved to RHEL
If a package moved to RHEL, it needs to be unblocked in the related build tag to allow the RHEL package to be available in Koji:
$ koji unblock-pkg dist-6E-epel-build foo
In case the package is only available on some architectures and a EPEL package is still needed, the package must not be blocked but only all Fedora builds need to be removed:
$ koji untag-build --all dist-6E-epel foo
Verification
To verify that the package was successfully blocked use the list-pkgs koji command:
$ koji list-pkgs --show-blocked --package python-psyco
We should see the package listed as blocked:
Package Tag Extra Arches Owner ----------------------- ----------------------- ---------------- --------------- python-psyco f20 konradm [BLOCKED]
We should not see it listed in any later Fedora tags.
Also the latest-pkg command should not return anything:
$ koji latest-pkg dist-f8 hunspell-he Build Tag Built by ---------------------------------------- -------------------- ----------------
Consider Before Running
- Don't block packages in a released Fedora.
- Make sure that you're being asked to block at the srpm level. Blocking sub-packages cannot be done, but will happen naturally when the source package no longer builds the sub package.
- Watch the next day's rawhide/branched/whatever report for a slew of broken deps related to the package. We may have to unblock the package in order to fix the deps. Check this with repoquery:
$ repoquery -q --whatrequires --repoid <repo> <list of packages produced by this source rpm> --alldeps
to catch binary dependencies and:
repoquery -q --whatrequires --repoid <repo>-source --archlist src <list of packages produced by this source rpm> --alldeps
- Ensure that if the package is being renamed/replaced that proper Obsoletes/Provides are in place