Summary
The critical path defines a set of packages that require special care when updating in rawhide, branched and exiting Fedora releases.
Background
The critical path was proposed and defined as part of a FAD. For background information, see Critical_Path_Packages_Proposal.
Scope
Packages within the critical path are required to perform the most fundamental actions on a system. Those actions include:
- graphical network install
- post-install booting
- decrypt encrypted filesystems
- graphics
- login
- networking
- get updates
- minimal buildroot
- compose new trees
- compose live
Implementation
A set of groups are defined in the comps.xml
file to include packages required for the critical use cases listed above. Since package dependencies change regularly, the comps.xml
groups are then used to dynamically generate the list of packages.
The critical path package groups in comps.xml
are listed below:
@core @critical-path-base @critical-path-gnome @critical-path-apps @critical-path-kde @critical-path-lxde @critical-path-xfce
More information on comps.xml
is available at How_to_use_and_edit_comps.xml_for_package_groups.
Maintainer Responsibilities
If a package is added to the critical path list as a result of normal package dependency the package maintainer will be notified through direct email and the extra processes they have to go through. (IS THIS TRUE)
If they do not wish to maintain the packages with these extra processes then they have to orphan the package. A new maintainer will need to be found.
Tester Responsibilities
The proventester group is responsible for ensuring minimal disruption to the critical actions listed above. Information on testing critical path updates is available at User:Adamwill/Draft_proventesters_instructions.
Where can I find the critical path?
The critical path package list is generated daily during the mash process for both rawhide and branched.
The most recent list of critical path packages are available at:
- Branched (aka Fedora 41) - http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/mash/branched-20240815/logs/critpath.txt
- Rawhide - http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/mash/rawhide-20240815/logs/critpath.txt