Copr - look back at 2022

Let me sum up what the Copr team did during 2022.

Mock:

• We did six releases of Mock Starting with a major upgrade to 3.x that dropped python2 support and EL7 as the host platform.
• We added --list-chroots option. Allow better customization of used tar binary and adapt to the new split of qemu-user-static package.
• We also added lots of new chroots: AlmaLinux, RockyLinux, EuroLinux, OpenEuler, and a few others…

Copr:

• We did nine releases of Copr and upgraded Copr servers to Fedora 37.
• We wrote two “4 cool new projects to try in Copr” articles for Fedora Magazine

• Beside previously built of all gems from Rubygems.org we built all modules from PyPI as RPM packages [Thousands of PyPI and RubyGems RPMs now available for RHEL 9

  Red Hat Developer](https://developers.redhat.com/articles/2022/06/07/thousands-pypi-and-rubygems-rpms-now-available-rhel-9) Big thanks to Karolina Surma from Python team on cooperation on this. As a side effect, we introduced pyp2spec as a second option to build directly from PyPI.

• We presented at Fedora Nest.
• We dropped APIv2. And provided guidance how to migrate your scripts https://fedora-copr.github.io/posts/api3-migration-helper
• We added Kerberos authentication to command line tools and API https://fedora-copr.github.io/posts/how-to-use-kerberos-in-copr
• We cooperated with Packit on building SRPM in Copr https://packit.dev/postcs/copr-srpms/
• We started using IBM Cloud for native s390x builders https://pavel.raiskup.cz/blog/fedora-copr-uses-ibm-cloud.html
  As a side effect we packaged python modules for managing resources in IBM Cloud.
• We spent lots of time optimizing the scheduler in Copr. E.g.
  • Builds from webhooks are now background jobs https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-02-03.html#webhook-rebuilds-are-background-jobs-now
  • We improved the throughput when the queue is bigger than 70k jobs https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-03-21.html#large-queue-improvements
  • And we were able to increase quota of parallel builds from one user from 35 to 45.
• We started using SHA256 for signing packages https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-03-21.html#signing-packages-with-sha256
• We started using OpenPGP v4 signatures and we were one of the first to discover issues with new Sequoia backend of RPM with older version of signatures.
• We created a webUI statistics page that shows the utilization of resalloc resources https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-06-22.html#resalloc-webui
• We (finally) were able to count download statistics from CDN https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-08-18.html#rpm-download-statistics
• You can submit more builds at once from command line https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-07-27.html#submitting-multiple-builds-at-once-via-copr-cli
• We upgraded aarch64 builders to stronger Graviton3 machines https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-11-28.html#updated-aarch64-builders-to-graviton3-processors
• We migrated our git project to GitHub https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/release-notes/2022-11-28.html#development-moved-to-github
• We migrated to new storage as we hit 16 TB hard limit for one volume in AWS. It took us few weeks of preparation to make just a few hour outage for building packages and almost no outage for yum repositories availability.
• Fedora Infrastructure helped us to provision a new Power9 box (for ppc64le builds) which hosts 25 builders (which complements the set of Power9 machines in OSUOSL). Note that Power9+ is needed for Enterprise Linux 9 builds.
• We created OpenShift and Kustomize deployment script.
• Statistics:
  • Copr run 1 251 633 builds (one package for different chroots is conted as one)
  • People created 23 053 new projects.

Fedora:

• We participated in SPDX License migration phase 1 https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/SPDX_Licenses_Phase_1
• We announced the initial release of Package Review service https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/E4TT2PEOSITJ4PJP44L2GQUU4CA6R6B3/
• We contributed to fedora-review to produce machine-readable output https://pagure.io/FedoraReview/pull-request/463
• One modulemd-tools release.
• FIXME another notable fedora-review contribution?

Others:

• We did three releases of Tito
• We did seven releases of Resalloc
• RPM Spec Wizard got a nice front page https://xsuchy.github.io/rpm-spec-wizard/
• Copr users are known to build the same NEVRAs multiple times in the same project, which confuses DNF and other tools. We contributed to createrepo_c https://github.com/rpm-software-management/createrepo_c/pull/325 which is the first step to deterministically resolve the problem.
• The “differential PyLint checker” we used for the last few years was separated from the Copr base code into https://github.com/fedora-copr/vcs-diff-lint and it can now be easily used by other projects. We also provide a “glue” GitHub Action wich makes it’s use trivial, see integration example https://github.com/rpm-software-management/mock/blob/main/.github/workflows/python-diff-lint.yml

Outlook for 2023

• Integration with Koshei - automatic rebuild of your package in your project when dependency changes (inherited from the previous year - not even started yet)
• Hopefully start using ImageBuilder.
• We are investigating the usage of Pulp as a backend for storing RPM packages.

Ideas we have for 2023 - some of them are inherited from the previous year:

• Enhance Mock --chain to try to set %bootstrap when the standard loop fails. When the set succeeds, rebuild the bootstrapped package again without the %bootstrap macro.
• Contribute to fedpkg/koji to have machine-readable output. FIXME
• Include packages from Copr in results of https://packages.fedoraproject.org/
• Allow running various tools right after the build - e.g., rpminspect, swidtags.
• Automatically verify if your package’s license can be used in Copr.

The Community Packaging Team consists of Pavel Raiskup, Jakub Kadlcik, Jiří Kyjovský (who replaced Silvie Chlupova), and me.