Consider the following scenario:
- I'm using SNAKE templates as part of my installation testing work;
- SNAKE has a dependency on pykickstart;
- To test the latest and greatest kickstart features in Fedora we need the latest version of pykickstart;
- Latest pykickstart needs Python 2.7
- Python 2.7 is not available on RHEL 6 which is used to host the test infrastructure.
Just yesterday I hit an issue with the above setup and figured Fedora QA is in a kind of strange situation - we always need the latest but need it conservative enough to run on RHEL 6. See the original thread at kickstart-list.
In this particular case the solution will be to remove the offending code and implement the same functionality in backward-compatible manner. Also add more tests. I will be working on this tomorrow (there's an older patch already).
The BIG question remains though - how do you manage software evolution and still keep it compatible with older execution stacks? Please share your experience in the comments section.
PP: Spoiler - this is part of an ongoing effort to bring open source installation testing expertise (my domain) into Fedora world, plus establish a community supported test infrastructure. More info TBA soon.
Comments !