Robie, I've just updated the description with more information on the
user impact (and why we should have this patch), and also the regression
potential.

I wasn't completely right in my last comment, sorry - for RAID0/Linear
arrays, the output of the array state in "mdadm --detail" may change
after the patch _even for healthy arrays_. One example is the "readonly"
state: we can write this state to the sysfs "array_state" file for a
raid0/linear array, and currently the "mdadm --detail" will keep showing
state "clean" (arguably an odd behavior, but it is how the state output
works right now). With this patch, the state will show as "readonly".

I think we have two options here:

(a) We can backport the patch as is, hence risking some users running
monitoring tools or any kind of scripts parsing "mdadm -detail" output
breaking for raid0/linear arrays.

(b) We can introduce a conditional check for Bionic/Disco/Eoan in the
"mdadm --detail" output to keep "clean" as the array state unless it's
"active" or "broken" (the new state for failed arrays). Then, Focal will
get a merge from a more recent version of mdadm with the original patch
and diverge from this behavior, being aligned with upstream/other
distros.

Basically, the discussion is to "when" introduce the user-visible
change, if during the current releases or between releases (Focal being
the first to change). There's an hypothetical 3rd alternative that I
personally dislike and would avoid, that is introduce such conditional
check for all Ubuntu releases from now on and diverge forever from
upstream/other distros - I don't see a point in doing this.

Let me know your considerations Robie, and thanks for pointing out valid 
concerns!
Cheers,


Guilherme

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1847924

Title:
  Introduce broken state parsing to mdadm

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mdadm/+bug/1847924/+subscriptions

-- 
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs

Reply via email to