[NuGet.org Bug]: many catalog package details leaves are redundant (duplicate) because of improper deprecation no-oping

[joelverhagen]

Impact

I'm unable to use NuGet.org

Describe the bug

As part of #8873, I was interested in implementing proper no-oping for deprecation. This is to ensure that redundant API calls do not easily cause many unnecessary V3 catalog leaves and therefore load on the DB.

I did a data investigation with NuGet.Insights to see how often duplicate catalog leaves occurred. It turns out... a lot!

Of catalog leaves with deprecation information, over 15% are duplicate, i.e. their mutable metadata (listed, vulnerabilities, and deprecation) are the same as the previous leaf for that same package.

let SameAsPreviousLeaves = NiCatalogLeafItems
| where isnotempty(Deprecation)
| order by Identity asc, CommitTimestamp asc
| project LowerId, Identity, CommitTimestamp, IsListed, Deprecation = tostring(Deprecation), Vulnerabilities = tostring(Vulnerabilities)
| extend SameAsPrevious = Identity == prev(Identity) and Deprecation == prev(Deprecation) and IsListed == prev(IsListed) and Vulnerabilities == prev(Vulnerabilities)
| project-reorder Identity, CommitTimestamp, SameAsPrevious, Deprecation, LowerId;
let LeafCount = toscalar(NiCatalogLeafItems | count);
SameAsPreviousLeaves
| summarize LeavesWithDeprecation = count(), DuplicateLeaves = countif(SameAsPrevious)
| extend TotalLeaves = LeafCount
| extend ['Duplicate % of total'] = round(100.0 * DuplicateLeaves / TotalLeaves, 2)
| extend ['Duplicate % of deprecated'] = round(100.0 * DuplicateLeaves / LeavesWithDeprecation, 2)

LeavesWithDeprecation	DuplicateLeaves	TotalLeaves	Duplicate % of total	Duplicate % of deprecated
684887	103619	12725635	0.81	15.13

I believe this is made even worse for users that have access to the deprecation API private preview. It's easy to re-request deprecation of a growing set of versions with the API and cause a growing wave of duplicate deprecations. azure-sdk is at the top of the deprecation list because it is enabled for the deprecation API.

let SameAsPreviousLeaves = NiCatalogLeafItems
| where isnotempty(Deprecation)
| order by Identity asc, CommitTimestamp asc
| project LowerId, Identity, CommitTimestamp, IsListed, Deprecation = tostring(Deprecation), Vulnerabilities = tostring(Vulnerabilities)
| extend SameAsPrevious = Identity == prev(Identity) and Deprecation == prev(Deprecation) and IsListed == prev(IsListed) and Vulnerabilities == prev(Vulnerabilities)
| project-reorder Identity, CommitTimestamp, SameAsPrevious, Deprecation, LowerId;
SameAsPreviousLeaves
| summarize DeprecationCount = count(), DuplicateCount = countif(SameAsPrevious) by Identity, LowerId
| join kind=inner NiPackageOwners on LowerId
| project LowerId, Identity, Owners, DeprecationCount, DuplicateCount
| mv-expand Owner = Owners to typeof(string)
| summarize DeprecationCount = sum(DeprecationCount), DuplicateCount = sum(DuplicateCount) by Owner
| order by DuplicateCount desc
| extend ['Duplicate %'] = round(100.0 * DuplicateCount / DeprecationCount, 2)
| take 10

Owner	DeprecationCount	DuplicateCount	Duplicate %
Microsoft	112632	55381	49.17
azure-sdk	74116	52725	71.14
monk.soul	73453	21262	28.95
chinadotnet	61946	17637	28.47
dotnetchina	61946	17637	28.47
Thinkka	3860	3497	90.6
nugetservicebus	4296	3030	70.53
AppInsightsSdk	4168	2770	66.46
RabbitFoot	15833	1990	12.57
furion.net	6501	1847	28.41

We should implement proper no-oping in PackageDeprecationService. Currently the code updates the LastEdited field on ALL packages in the deprecation batch if there is ANY change (rather than no-oping on a package-by-package basis).

NuGetGallery/src/NuGetGallery/Services/PackageDeprecationService.cs

Lines 103 to 110 in f58a360

	if (_entitiesContext.HasChanges)
	{
	using (var strategy = new SuspendDbExecutionStrategy())
	using (var transaction = _entitiesContext.GetDatabase().BeginTransaction())
	{
	await _entitiesContext.SaveChangesAsync();
	await _packageUpdateService.UpdatePackagesAsync(packages);

Repro Steps

1. Deprecate version X and Y of a package via the UI.
2. Deprecate version X, Y, and Z of a package via the UI, carefully selecting the same deprecation settings as the previous step.

Expected Behavior

Version Z should only have it's LastEdited value updated.

Actual: X, Y, and Z have their LastEdited value updated.

Screenshots

No response

Additional Context and logs

No response