RPM Templates

[andrewdavidwong]

RPM templates are intended to be "system managed," but this is not obvious to most users. Consequently, users attempt to make changes to such templates and to back them up, which results in unexpected behavior and subsequent user pain.[1][2][3][#1385]

In the short term, we should attempt to better indicate the distinctive nature of these templates and more explicitly recommend that users make their changes in clones. In the long term, we should reconsider the way these templates are handled at a fundamental level.

[1] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/qubes-devel/rwc2_miCNNE/discussion
[2] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/qubes-users/uQEUpv4THsY/discussion
[3] https://groups.google.com/d/topic/qubes-users/KWFug5wMJ80/discussion

[mfc]

In the short term, we should attempt to better indicate the distinctive nature of these templates and more explicitly recommend that users make their changes in clones. In the long term, we should reconsider the way these templates are handled at a fundamental level.

by default they should probably be hidden from the user and a user copy of those templates created for their modification and backup purposes, which is what most folks end up doing, but only after they have learned the hard way.

[mfc]

In the short term, we should attempt to better indicate the distinctive nature of these templates and more explicitly recommend that users make their changes in clones. In the long term, we should reconsider the way these templates are handled at a fundamental level.

by default they should probably be hidden from the user and a user copy of those templates created for their modification and backup purposes, which is what most folks end up doing, but only after they have learned the hard way.

[andrewdavidwong]

Our documentation states that the default template cannot be backed up using qvm-backup, but that doesn't seem to be true. I've tried backing up the default template with qvm-backup, and it completes without error.

[andrewdavidwong]

Our documentation states that the default template cannot be backed up using qvm-backup, but that doesn't seem to be true. I've tried backing up the default template with qvm-backup, and it completes without error.

[mfc]

I think the issue is restoring them not backing them up?

[mfc]

I think the issue is restoring them not backing them up?

[marmarek]

On Thu, May 05, 2016 at 04:46:36AM -0700, Michael Carbone wrote:

I think the issue is restoring them not backing them up?

Yes, exactly. And since renaming rpm templates is disabled, it is quite
tricky. You can remove all of them, but since that, you can't use
sys-usb (or any other VM) to load backup from...

Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[marmarek]

On Thu, May 05, 2016 at 04:46:36AM -0700, Michael Carbone wrote:

I think the issue is restoring them not backing them up?

Yes, exactly. And since renaming rpm templates is disabled, it is quite
tricky. You can remove all of them, but since that, you can't use
sys-usb (or any other VM) to load backup from...

Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?