Consider moving to semver update

[nickboldt]

Is your task related to a problem? Please describe.

Community operators now support 3 ways to provide an update graph for operators:

https://github.com/operator-framework/community-operators/blob/master/docs/contributing.md#updating-your-existing-operator

• semver-mode
• semver-skippatch-mode
• replaces-mode (current mechanism in Che 7.22.x)

For now, when creating Community operator PRs we'll have to generate a new ci.yaml file with these contents:

updateGraph: replaces-mode

Describe the solution you'd like

But in future, we might want to drop .spec.replaces and simply use the skip patch mode so users can update from 7.y.0 to 7.y.2 without needing to update to 7.y.1, for a faster rollout.

Or from 7.y.0 to 7.y+1.0, if there are no z-stream updates.

updateGraph: semver-skippatch-mode

Moving to this mode would require that we remove the .spec.replaces annotation in the CSVs for both Che (and CRW?)

Describe alternatives you've considered

Keep using replaces-mode; no downstream impact.

updateGraph: replaces-mode

Additional context

Existing PRs for eclipse-che operator 7.22.0 is blocked because of this new, missing ci.yaml requirement. See:

• Update eclipse-che operator for kubernetes to release 7.22.0 operator-framework/community-operators#2751
• Update eclipse-che operator for openshift to release 7.22.0 operator-framework/community-operators#2752

[nickboldt]

Asking followup questions re: CRW implementation in

• https://chat.google.com/u/1/room/AAAAZrx3KlI
• https://chat.google.com/u/1/room/AAAAShH7Khk

[che-bot]

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