How to monitor if new XO release is available

AKorezin

Hello. I maintain my own XO container images.
To do that I host repository at gitlab.com.
I'm using renovate bot to monitor for new releases.
It supports many data sources like npm, repology or github-tags.
Full list of them available here https://docs.renovatebot.com/modules/datasource/.

As for XO I periodically check CHANGELOG.md and build new images from commit.
For example I tag commit d9ea8d2c9cf86c83ec5b4c4e44ade17521b05053 as release 5.56.1.
I do know that github-tags are not updated on new release.
I don't know if there any packages that represent each release.
Also I haven't found any packages that can be used as release source in repology.

Please, can you recommend me a better way to monitor your releases?

If there's no better way I have a feature request for you.
To tag every release in github repository.
So there will be tags

5.56.1
5.56.0
5.55.1
5.55.0

I can create feature request in github repo if I have to.

olivierlambert

Hi!

There's no "releases" from the sources. It's the point. Please stick on master, which already is merged only after a feature branch is tested.

If you want stable and tested releases, that's the point of XOA

AKorezin

I've already tried XOA a few years ago.
After some updates the app broken. So to fix it I have to login in via ssh and fix it by hand.

Since that I create my very own builds from source. First I've used ansible. It was a mess.
After that I'm maintaining my own container images. Because I can maintain it.

As I already mentioned I check repository CHANGELOG.md to determine if there is are new digits. I assumed that commits with digits are releases. So I tag them by hand.

As a conclusion you wouldn't create any tags in repo?

olivierlambert

XOA is tested before doing release, so no, it shouldn't break as you explained. Also, since 2y we are including Node/NPM with the updates (through the updater), so there's no risk to break on that side of things (unlike from the sources, you need to follow also if the requirements changed).

Again, that's the point of XOA (Xen Orchestra virtual Appliance): a tested/verified appliance with a fully controlled environment, our updater and support.

If you want to use it from the sources, that's fine, but there's no releases per se

AKorezin

It was more than 3 years ago.

My question was if you can create a tag in git repo every time you do a technical release.
Anyway if you can't do that please mark the question as resolved.

Thanks for your help.

Danp

@akorezin They used to tag each release, but stopped a few years back.

AKorezin

@danp for each release of each npm package.
But I'm asking about tags for each technical release.

olivierlambert

The whole point to have users from the sources on master is to help us to find issues we might missed during the development (because it's a branch that's made to run, we only merge into it when we are OK with the new code to add after multiple code review).

That's a kind of a moral contract if you are using it from the sources: you don't pay for anything despite having all XO features for free. In exchange, you can report issue or ask for new features while being able to see a fix fast because immediately after a fix is merged, it's available on master.

If you want stability and no surprises at all (let's say to run XO in… production ) then XOA is the way to go