Red Hat and SUSE Leftovers

There are debugging tools that can be used within containers but are not preinstalled in container base images. Tools such as strace or Valgrind must be included in a container during the container image build process.

In order to add a debugging tool to a container, the container image build process must be configured to perform additional package installation commands. Whether or not package installation is permitted during the image build process depends on the method being used to build the container image. OpenShift provides several methods of building container images. These methods are called build strategies. Currently, OpenShift supports the Dockerfile, Source-to-Image (S2I), Pipeline, and Custom build strategies. Not all build strategies allow package installation: Of the most commonly-used strategies, the Dockerfile strategy permits package installation but the S2I strategy does not, because an S2I build process builds the container image in an unprivileged environment. A build process within an unprivileged environment lacks the ability to invoke package installation commands.

Python 2.6 has been end-of-life all the way back to late 2013. However, Python 2.6 packaging for Fedora has kept upt in order to maintain some compatibility with RHEL/EPEL 6 having Python 2.6. But now with EPEL 6 reaching end-of-life as the extra packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 / CentOS 6, Fedora will gut its Python 2.6 support should anyone still be using it outside of the EPEL building/testing use-case. EPEL 6 is being retired in November 2020, similar to the expected release of Fedora 33.

SUSE® Manager 4 is a best-in-class open source infrastructure management solution that lowers costs, enhances availability and reduces complexity for lifecycle management of Linux systems in large, complex and dynamic IT landscapes. You can use SUSE Manager to configure, deploy and administer thousands of Linux systems running on hypervisors, as containers, on bare metal systems, IoT devices and third-party cloud platforms. SUSE Manager also allows you to manage virtual machines.

While a bit of a stretch, there is some similarity to the dilemma that many companies are facing in this rapidly changing business environment. In my last blog, I talked about how companies are looking at the digital transformation of their business in order to stay competitive in a rapidly changing world. In a 2019 report by 451 Research commissioned by SUSE, 89% of survey respondents are considering, evaluating or executing their digital transformation strategy.