{"id":8151,"date":"2024-11-24T18:45:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T17:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.credativ.de\/?p=8151"},"modified":"2025-11-24T18:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:46:09","slug":"open-build-service-utility-to-build-and-publish-updated-packages-of-an-eol-distribution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.credativ.de\/en\/blog\/credativ-inside\/open-build-service-utility-to-build-and-publish-updated-packages-of-an-eol-distribution\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Build Service – Utility to build and publish updated packages of an EOL distribution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When it comes to providing extended support for end-of-life (EOL) Linux distributions, the traditional method of building packages from sources may present certain challenges. One of the biggest challenges is the need for individual developers to install build dependencies on their own build environments. This often leads to different build dependencies being installed, resulting in issues related to binary compatibility. Additionally, there are other challenges to consider, such as establishing an isolated and clean build environment for different package builds in parallel, implementing an effective package validation strategy, and managing repository publishing, etc.<\/p>\n

To overcome these challenges, it is highly recommended to have a dedicated build infrastructure that enables the building of packages in a consistent and reproducible way. With such an infrastructure, teams can address these issues effectively, and ensures that the necessary packages and dependencies are available, eliminating the need for individual developers to manage their own build environments.<\/p>\n

OpenSUSE’s Open Build Service (OBS)<\/a> provides a widely recognized public build infrastructure<\/a> that supports RPM-based, Debian-based, and Arch-based package builds. This infrastructure is well-regarded among users who require customized package builds on major Linux distributions. Additionally, OBS can be deployed as a private instance<\/a>, offering a robust solution for organizations engaged in private software package builds. With its extensive feature set, OBS serves as a comprehensive build infrastructure that meets the requirements of teams to build security-patched package on top of already existing packages in order to extend the support of end-of-life (EOL) Linux distributions, for example.<\/p>\n

Facts<\/h2>\n

On June 30, 2024, two major Linux distributions, Debian<\/a> 10 “Buster”<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and CentOS<\/a> 7<\/a>, have reached their End-of-Life (EOL) status. These distributions gained widespread adoption in numerous large enterprise environments. However, due to various factors, organizations may face challenges in completing migration processes in a timely manner, requiring temporary extended support for these distributions.<\/p>\n

When a distribution reaches its End-of-Life (EOL) support from upstream, mirrors and corresponding infrastructure are typically removed<\/a>. This creates a significant challenge for organizations still using those distributions and seeking extended support, as they not only require access to a local offline mirror but also need the infrastructure to rebuild packages in such a way that is consistent with their former original upstream builds whenever there is a need to rebuild packages for security reasons.<\/p>\n

Goal<\/h2>\n

To provide utilities that support teams building packages, OBS is able to help them. Thereby, it also helps them to have a build infrastructure that builds all existing source and binary packages along with their security patches in a semi-original build environment, further extending their support of EOL Linux distributions. This is achieved by keeping package builds at a similar level of quality and compatibility to their former original upstream builds.<\/p>\n

Requirements<\/h2>\n

To achieve the goal mentioned above, two essential components are required:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Local mirror of the EOL Linux distribution<\/li>\n
  2. Private OBS instance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In order to set up a private OBS instance<\/a>, you can fetch OBS from the upstream GitHub repository<\/a> and install as well as build it on your local machine, or alternatively, you can simply download the OBS Appliance Installer<\/a> to integrate a private OBS instance as a new build infrastructure.<\/p>\n

    Keep in mind that the local mirror typically doesn’t contain the security patches to properly extend the support of the EOL distribution. Just rebuilding the existing packages won’t automatically extend the support of such distributions. Either those security patches must be maintained by the teams themselves and added to the package update by hand, or they are obtained from an upstream project that provides those patches already.<\/p>\n

    Nevertheless, once the private OBS instance is successfully installed, it can then be linked with the local offline mirror that the team wants to extend the support for, and be configured as a semi-original build environment. By doing so, the build environment can be configured as close as possible to the original upstream build environment to keep a similar level of quality and compatibility although packages might get built for security update with new patches.<\/p>\n

    This way, the already ended support of a Linux distribution can be extended because a designated team can not only build packages on their own but also provide patches for packages that are affected by bugs or security vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

    Achievement<\/h2>\n

    The OBS build infrastructure provides a semi-original build environment to simplify the package building process, reduce inconsistencies, and achieve reproducibility. By adopting this approach, teams can simplify their development and testing workflows and enhance the overall quality and reliability of the generated packages.<\/p>\n

    Demonstrates<\/h2>\n

    Allow us to demonstrate how OBS can be utilized as a build infrastructure for teams in order to provide the build and publish infrastructure needed for extending the support of End-of-Life (EOL) Linux distributions. However, please note that the following examples are purely for demonstration purposes and may not precisely reflect the specific approach.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Config OBS<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Once your private OBS instance is set up, you can log in to OBS by using its WebUI. You must use the ‘Admin<\/strong>‘ account with its default password ‘opensuse<\/em>‘. After that, you can create a new project for the EOL Linux distribution as well as add users and groups for teams that are going to work on this project. In addition, you must link your project with a local mirror of the EOL Linux distribution and customize your OBS project to replicate the former upstream build environment.<\/p>\n

    OBS supports the Download on Demand (DoD)<\/strong> feature that can establish a connection with a local mirror on the OBS instance with the designated project within OBS to fetch build dependencies on-demand during the build process. This simplifies the build workflow and reduces the need for manual intervention.<\/p>\n

    Note: some configurations are only available with the Admin account, including Manage Users,<\/strong> Groups <\/strong>and Add Download on Demand (DoD) Repository<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Now, let’s dive into the OBS configuration of such a project.<\/p>\n

    Where to Add DoD Repository<\/h4>\n

    After you created a new project in OBS, you may find the “Add DoD Repository”<\/strong> option in the Repositories tab under the ‘Admin’ account.<\/p>\n

    There, you must click the Add DoD Repository button as shown below:<\/p>\n

    \"Add<\/p>\n

    Link your local mirror via DoD<\/h4>\n

    Next, you can provide a URL to link your local mirror via “Add DoD Repository<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

    By doing so, you are going to configure the DoD repository. For this, you have to:<\/p>\n