[atlas-sw-probes] Instructions for updating software probe version

Hi Mark,

Thanks for reaching out. I realise that we adopted a new branching and merging strategy, but did not publicly document what release should be used.

You are right on the update process, once the package is built dpkg -i should be sufficient, after a compile of the sources.

For a long time, any release divisible by 10 was (at least internally) considered a production-ready release. Any other release is a development or testing release, that is still in active development.

Previously, there were no branches to indicate development and production code, which we changed a few months ago.

So here is a quick summary of the intention.
Anything in the master branch should be considered production-ready code
Any tag divisible by 10 is a production release (but may not be the latest one)
Any other tag is a development or testing release

We basically retain 2 repositories, an internal and a public (GitHub) repository.
Internally we keep a development branch where we commit active developments, and a testing branch for release candidates. Both are connected to a CI/CD pipeline which is used to build firmware automatically.

Any commit to the master branch causes the internal repository (including tags, but not all branches) to be mirrored to GitHub. The development and testing branches are excluded from this mirror to prevent clutter and bug reports on active developments, some of which may not even reach the production code.

With this information, I hope you should be able to select the appropriate version (the latest is 5080 by the way, 5090 will be available soon).

Cheers,

Michel

> On 3 Jan 2023, at 09:37, mivens <mark at clara.net> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm running a software probe on a Raspberry Pi running
> Raspian bullseye and from looking at 
> /usr/local/atlas/state/FIRMWARE_APPS_VERSION
> I appear to be running version 5020.
> 
> I note from 
> https://atlas.ripe.net/docs/howtos/software-probes.html
> that as a host, I am expected to "Keep the version of
> your software up-to-date by upgrading to newer versions
> as they become available" but I have not found any
> explicit instuctions on how to do this.
> 
> I would assume that it would be as simple as updating
> the local Github repo, and rebuilding the deb file from
> the main branch then doing a dpkg -i for the new Debian
> package to install the updated version.
> 
> Unfortunately, it is not clear to me from looking at the
> repo what version I am expected to upgrade to. 
> 
> The CHANGES.rst file in the Github repo at
> https://github.com/RIPE-NCC/ripe-atlas-software-probe/blob/master/CHANGES.rst
> only mentions up to release 5040 but there are tags
> currently up to 5083 in the software-probe repo at
> https://github.com/RIPE-NCC/ripe-atlas-software-probe/tags
> which do not appear to be in any particular order. There
> are no releases listed at at
> https://github.com/RIPE-NCC/ripe-atlas-software-probe/releases
> 
> The main probe release page at
> https://atlas.ripe.net/docs/releases/firmware.html
> mentions up to version 5080.
> 
> Questions:
> Am I correct that I am should keep the software up to date?
> Are there instuctions on how to do this that I have
> missed?
> If not could the documentation could be updated with
> this and shared with the mailing list in the meantime?
> 
> Many thanks
> 
> -- 
> atlas-sw-probes mailing list
> atlas-sw-probes at ripe.net
> https://mailman.ripe.net/

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