From Fedora Project Wiki

Upgradepath is a constraint that is not formally described anywhere but it is generally understood as the ability to upgrade from Fedora release N to Fedora release N+1.

In other words no package dependencies may break when the user want to upgrade his/her Fedora. That is achieved by requiring the higher Fedora release to contain at least the same or higher package build versions (in N-V-R sense) than the lower Fedora release.

Note.png
Does not apply for updates-testing
Upgradepath constraint is currently checked for main and stable updates repositories. It is not checked for updates-testing repository.

Understanding failures

This is a sample output of the upgradepath test, where selinux-policy-3.9.16-21.fc15 was requested to be pushed to f15-updates repository:

========================================
selinux-policy-3.9.16-21.fc15 into dist-f15-updates
========================================
[ OK ] dist-f13
	Latest package: selinux-policy-3.7.19-10.fc13
[ OK ] dist-f13-updates
	Latest package: selinux-policy-3.7.19-101.fc13
[ OK ] dist-f14
	Latest package: selinux-policy-3.9.7-3.fc14
[ OK ] dist-f14-updates
	Latest package: selinux-policy-3.9.7-40.fc14
[ OK ] dist-f15
	Latest package: selinux-policy-3.9.16-18.fc15
[FAIL] dist-f16
	Latest package: selinux-policy-3.9.16-15.fc16
	Error: Proposed package must be less than or equal to the latest package
RESULT: FAILED

If you look closely at the FAIL section, you'll see, that dist-f16 (current Rawhide) contains only selinux-policy-3.9.16-15.fc16, which is lower version than currently proposed selinux-policy-3.9.16-21.fc15 for f15-updates. It fails because you wouldn't be able upgrade from F15 to F16 correctly if the proposed update had been pushed.

Upgradepath test algorithm

The formal description of the algorithm AutoQA uses for checking upgradepath constraint is here:

== Pushing to main repository ==
Pushing PKG to F(N)-main means:
  1. PKG in F(lower)-main <= PKG to push
  2. PKG in F(higher)-main >= PKG to push

== Pushing to updates repository ==
Pushing PKG to F(N)-updates means:
  1. PKG in F(lower)-main <= PKG to push
  2. PKG in F(lower)-updates <= PKG to push
  3. PKG in F(higher)-main union F(higher)-updates => PKG to push

Note: If PKG doesn't exist in REPO, it also satisfies any condition

Fixing the failures

The general guidelines are these:

  • Push first to the highest Fedora release and only then to a lower one.
    You can of course propose your update for all supported Fedora releases at once, but upgradepath test will not pass for any Fedora release until it has been pushed to all higher Fedora releases.
  • Consult packaging guidelines when in doubt how package build versions are compared.
    See especially the Naming guidelines.
  • If you want to push fix for older Fedora but not for a new one, do a proper minor release bump.
    Read Minor release bumps for old branches to learn more.

Further help

If you still don't understand why your update failed the test, or if you think there's something wrong in our test or its documentation, or if you have any other suggestions, please contact us.