Bug 237523

Summary:	freebsd-update erroneously reports EOL for FreeBSD 11.2
Product:	Base System	Reporter:	Matthew Horan <matt>
Component:	bin	Assignee:	freebsd-bugs (Nobody) <bugs>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Some People	CC:	cperciva, emaste
Priority:	---	Keywords:	needs-qa
Version:	11.2-STABLE	Flags:	koobs: maintainer-feedback? (cperciva)
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Matthew Horan 2019-04-24 11:50:38 UTC

I run freebsd-update cron on a nightly basis. A couple of times this month I have gotten the following notice by email:

WARNING: FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p9 is approaching its End-of-Life date.

However, so far as I can tell, 11.2 is not EOL. A subsequent manual run of freebsd-update fetch will not report that 11.2 is reaching its EOL date.

The date and time on the machine seem to be set correctly. They are the same as on other machines that do not display the message.

Comment 1 Kubilay Kocak freebsd_committer

2019-04-24 12:03:19 UTC

I believe the key is "approaching" end-of-life, is displayed within a certain window approaching the End-of-Life date, and is intended behaviour. The system has not reached the EoL date yet.

The 11.3-RELEASE schedule has been published here:

https://www.freebsd.org/releases/11.3R/schedule.html

If there are suggestions for improving the messaging so that is it clearer that the warning is *not* that the system has *reached* End-of-Life yet, we're happy to consider those changes.

Comment 2 Matthew Horan 2019-04-24 12:07:19 UTC

(In reply to Kubilay Kocak from comment #1)

That was my initial thought as well (the first time I saw the message, I noticed that 11.3 was imminent.) However, the behavior is not consistent. I just ran freebsd-update fetch, and it did not say anything about EOL approaching. I also run the same command via cron every night, and it only periodically (maybe every few weeks) says that EOL is approaching.

If that's the intent then no problem -- I am just more concerned about the inconsistency.

Comment 3 Matthew Horan 2019-04-24 13:23:40 UTC

(In reply to Matthew Horan from comment #2)

Okay, it seems that the inconsistency is purposeful, as per [1].

Regardless, it's a bit surprising to be warned of an approaching EOL when 11.3 has not yet been released. According to [2], FreeBSD 11.2 will be supported until the release of 11.3 + 3 months. According to [3] I shouldn't be warned outside of 3 months of EOL, so there seems to be a bug in the data source that freebsd-update is using for this warning.

[1] https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/stable/11/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh?view=markup#l2063
[2] https://www.freebsd.org/security/#sup
[3] https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/stable/11/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh?view=markup#l2058

Comment 4 Glen Barber freebsd_committer

2019-06-06 19:05:38 UTC

This should now be corrected.