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News item about interoperability restrictions of >=net-p2p/syncthing-1.2.0
Hello,

Please find attached a news item warning the users of net-p2p/syncthing
that version 1.2.0 and newer do not interoperate with version 0.14.45
and older. I have included the same warning in the 1.2.0 ebuild, that
said I believe this deserves a news item because a) it could affect
mission-critical file-replication set-ups, and b) old versions panic and
shut down when fed incompatible data.

Thank you in advance for any and all feedback!


--
MS
Re: News item about interoperability restrictions of >=net-p2p/syncthing-1.2.0 [ In reply to ]
On 7/15/19 1:39 PM, Marek Szuba wrote:

> 2019-07-18-syncthing-update-incompatibility.en.txt
>
> Title: Syncthing 1.2.0 and newer do not interoperate with 0.14.45 and older
> Author: Marek Szuba <marecki@gentoo.org>
> Posted: 2019-07-18
> Revision: 1
> News-Item-Format: 2.0
> Display-If-Installed: net-p2p/syncthing
>
> Starting with version 1.2.0, Syncthing always uses large, variable-sized,
> blocks to index and transfer files larger than 256 MiB [1]. Syncthing
> version 0.14.45 and older will initially appear to accept files scanned
> with large blocks, but will later panic during some internal file
> operations. Do NOT enable large blocks in clusters with devices still
> on v0.14.45 or older,

Should we be more specific as to how not to enable it here? is it a
USE-flag? does it require a package mask for newer versions if it is
always used for the newer ones?

Also cluster immediately made me think of server<>client relationship
and this only affecting server side, which probably doesn't fit well
with syncthing, but admittedly I don't use it so not familiar with the
nomenclature.

> e.g. Debian Stretch servers using official packages.
>
> [1] https://docs.syncthing.net/advanced/folder-uselargeblocks.html


--
Kristian Fiskerstrand
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Re: News item about interoperability restrictions of >=net-p2p/syncthing-1.2.0 [ In reply to ]
On 2019-07-18 11:12, Kristian Fiskerstrand wrote:

> Should we be more specific as to how not to enable it here? is it a
> USE-flag? does it require a package mask for newer versions if it is
> always used for the newer ones?

Good point, this should explicitly say "do not emerge new versions". My
own thoughts on the matter have been that since we are now in the
process of stabilising syncthing-1.1.4 (i.e. the latest version which
does not force the use of large blocks) and that I do not intend to push
the 1.2.0 ebuild until stabilisation has been concluded, it would be up
to individual users to mask newer versions should they insist on using
~arch ebuilds.

> Also cluster immediately made me think of server<>client relationship
> and this only affecting server side, which probably doesn't fit well
> with syncthing, but admittedly I don't use it so not familiar with the
> nomenclature.

I guess it is a bit subjective and/or based on one's experience, in my
case "cluster" brings to mind a cluster of peers. Anyway, this is the
wording from the official upstream statement so I would rather not
change it unless there is a good reason for it - like the
Gentoo-specific clarification you have suggested above.

PS. For the record, I have already published this news item (a couple of
hours ahead of schedule I am afraid, I didn't remember the exact time I
submitted the RFC) so I'll include your comments in the second revision.

--
MS