crash SRU exception feedback for kernel flavors

[Roxana Nicolescu]

On 26/09/2024 15:32, Heitor Alves de Siqueira wrote:
> Hello kernel-team,
>
> I'm currently working on drafting an SRU exception for the crash tool 
> [0]. Considering crash keeps backwards compatibility with older 
> versions, the intent would be to ship the latest stable upstream 
> version in all Ubuntu releases. This would allow one to work with 
> kernel dumps from newer releases, without necessarily upgrading to 
> them (e.g. open up kernel dumps from 6.8 in Ubuntu Focal).
>
> My initial intention is to test crash against GA/HWE kernels for all 
> stable releases, for x86_64 and arm64 arches. This would come down to 
> making sure crash is able to open and parse kernel dumps from these 
> versions. I'm now questioning if it'd be necessary to spend additional 
> time testing different flavors, like -aws, -azure et al. Considering 
> these are essentially derivatives of their "regular" kernel 
> counterparts, I wouldn't expect there to be significant differences 
> that'd warrant additional testing.
>
> To summarize, my question would be something along the lines of "if we 
> ensure crash works against linux-6.8, is there a need to also test 
> linux-aws-6.8?". My impression is that given those are the same major 
> kernel versions we'd have sufficient coverage with just the regular 
> GA/HWE kernels, but I'd like to hear your opinion as well. While there 
> are plans to automate these tests eventually and include derivative 
> kernels, I'd like to avoid over-committing to a broader scope than 
> necessary for now.
>
> Please let me know what you think! I'm also open to any feedback on 
> the SRU exception itself, if you have any.
>
> Thanks,
> Heitor
>
> [0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CrashUpdates
>
Hi Hector,

I do not think it's necessary to include all derivatives. GA and HWE 
kernels should suffice.

Roxana