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authorZbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek <zbyszek@in.waw.pl>2021-05-20 20:37:55 +0200
committerZbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek <zbyszek@in.waw.pl>2021-05-21 17:06:28 +0200
commit8fd67ab5a38822475c79f3d2d7864585a7898f59 (patch)
tree429a619791fb785aa4b790a1588b29c210a640ed /man
parentman: add example os-release mangling in python (diff)
downloadsystemd-8fd67ab5a38822475c79f3d2d7864585a7898f59.tar.xz
systemd-8fd67ab5a38822475c79f3d2d7864585a7898f59.zip
man: reword description of BUILD_ID in os-release
Our description was pretty hard to parse. Let's replace it with a description loosely based on a fairly clear description written by a distro that actually uses BUILD_ID: https://developer.rigado.com/docsets/Working-with-the-Rigado-Vesta-Gateway/latest/production/versioning-images.html#the-rigos-scheme.
Diffstat (limited to 'man')
-rw-r--r--man/os-release.xml20
1 files changed, 14 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/man/os-release.xml b/man/os-release.xml
index a00b8a5264..52323df6c7 100644
--- a/man/os-release.xml
+++ b/man/os-release.xml
@@ -224,12 +224,13 @@
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>BUILD_ID=</varname></term>
- <listitem><para>A string uniquely identifying the system image used as the origin for a distribution
- (it is not updated with system updates). The field can be identical between different
- <varname>VERSION_ID</varname>s as <varname>BUILD_ID</varname> is an only a unique identifier to a
- specific version. Distributions that release each update as a new version would only need to use
- <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> as each build is already distinct based on the
- <varname>VERSION_ID</varname>. This field is optional.</para>
+ <listitem><para>A string uniquely identifying the system image originally used as the installation
+ base. In most cases, <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> or
+ <varname>IMAGE_ID</varname>+<varname>IMAGE_VERSION</varname> are updated when the entire system
+ image is replaced during an update. <varname>BUILD_ID</varname> may be used in distributions where
+ the original installation image version is important: <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> would change
+ during incremental system updates, but <varname>BUILD_ID</varname> would not. This field is
+ optional.</para>
<para>Examples: <literal>BUILD_ID="2013-03-20.3"</literal>, <literal>BUILD_ID=201303203</literal>.
</para></listitem>
@@ -261,6 +262,13 @@
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
+
+ <para>To summarize: if the image updates are built and shipped as comprehensive units,
+ <varname>IMAGE_ID</varname>+<varname>IMAGE_VERSION</varname> is the best fit. Otherwise, if updates
+ eventually completely replace previously installed contents, as in a typical binary distribution,
+ <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> should be used to identify major releases of the operating system.
+ <varname>BUILD_ID</varname> may be used instead or in addition to <varname>VERSION_ID</varname> when
+ the original system image version is important.</para>
</refsect2>
<refsect2>