Details
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Type:
Improvement
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Status: Open
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Priority:
Major
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Resolution: Unresolved
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Affects Version/s: CDH4.5.0, CDH4.6.0
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Fix Version/s: None
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Component/s: Packaging
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Labels:None
Description
Apt repositories allow for multiple versions of packages to be provided by a single repository simultaneously. As an example, you can see the following output for the linux package which provides multiple versions:
$ apt-cache madison linux
linux | 3.2.0.59.70 | http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
linux | 3.2.0.59.70 | http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main amd64 Packages
linux | 3.2.0.23.25 | http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
linux | 3.2.0-23.36 | http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main Sources
linux-meta | 3.2.0.23.25 | http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main Sources
linux | 3.2.0-59.90 | http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main Sources
linux-meta | 3.2.0.59.70 | http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main Sources
linux | 3.2.0-59.90 | http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main Sources
linux-meta | 3.2.0.59.70 | http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main Sources
For comparison, the hbase package only provides a single version:
$ apt-cache madison hbase
hbase | 0.94.15+86-1.cdh4.6.0.p0.14~precise-cdh4.6.0 | http://archive.cloudera.com/cdh4/ubuntu/precise/amd64/cdh/ precise-cdh4/contrib amd64 Packages
hbase | 0.94.15+86-1.cdh4.6.0.p0.14 | http://archive.cloudera.com/cdh4/ubuntu/precise/amd64/cdh/ precise-cdh4/contrib Sources
Unfortunately, the 4.6.0 release appears to have broken compatibility with Kiji, and means we are having to manually downgrade our servers back to 4.5.0, and normally this would be easy by pinning a specific version in apt using the following technique:
However, this is not possible because CDH does not actually specify all of the available versions in the APT metadata. Eventually, Kiji will fix its compatibility issue, but it seems like it would be nice going forward if CDH provided all of the available releases in the current apt metadata. The packages are still available on the download site, so it seems odd that the metadata doesn't contain all of the releases. I would expect in general that many production environments would occasionally need to pin their installation to a specific release.