Critical path package

For information on the proposal, see Critical Path Packages Proposal.

A critical path package is a specially managed package in Fedora that provides some essential or core functionality. Updates for critical path packages must undergo additional verification before they can be distributed to the community at large.

Background

The critical path was proposed and defined as part of a Fedora Activity Day.

Scope

Packages within the critical path are required to perform the most fundamental actions on a system. Those actions include:

• graphical network install
• post-install booting
• decrypt encrypted filesystems
• graphics
• login
• networking
• get updates
• minimal buildroot
• compose new trees
• compose live

Implementation

A set of groups are defined in the comps.xml file to include packages required for the critical use cases listed above. Since package dependencies change regularly, the comps.xml groups are then used to dynamically generate the list of packages.

The critical path package groups in comps.xml are listed below:

@core
@critical-path-base
@critical-path-gnome
@critical-path-apps
@critical-path-kde
@critical-path-lxde
@critical-path-xfce

For more information on comps.xml see how to use and edit comps.xml for package groups.

Maintainer Responsibilities

FIXME
This section needs to be updated.

If a package is added to the critical path list as a result of normal package dependency the package maintainer will be notified through direct email and the extra processes they have to go through. (IS THIS TRUE)

If they do not wish to maintain the packages with these extra processes then they have to orphan the package. A new maintainer will need to be found.

Tester Responsibilities

The proventesters FAS group is responsible for ensuring minimal disruption to the critical actions listed above. If you would like to join proventesters, check out QA/JoinProvenTesters. General test instructions for proventesters is available at User:Adamwill/Draft_proventesters_instructions.

Where can I find the critical path?

The critical path package list is generated daily during the mash process for both rawhide and branched.

Availability of Fedora Branched (aka Fedora 41)
Depending on the schedule, the critical path links for Fedora Branched (aka Fedora 41) may not be available. Generation of Fedora Branched (aka Fedora 41) content does not occur until the Branch Fedora 41 from Rawhide task noted in the schedule.

The most recent list of critical path packages are available at:

• Branched (aka Fedora 41) - today, yesterday, 2 days ago, 3 days ago, last week
• Rawhide (aka Fedora 42) - today, yesterday, 2 days ago, 3 days ago, last week

critpath.txt links return 404
Generation of Fedora Branched (aka Fedora 41), or Fedora Releases/Rawhide Rawhide, may fail due as a result of an unforeseen error during mash, pungi or composition. Links to previous critpath.txt are provided for convenience. Ticket rel-eng ticket#3802 has been filed to provide a stable URL to the latest critpath.txt information for both Rawhide and Branched.