[ewg] OFED-4.8, rdma-core, and library paths

[Vladimir Sokolovsky]

On 02/07/2017 05:07 PM, Steve Wise wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I think we have an issue with the new rdma-core packaging and OFED-4.8.  I think
> OFED-4.8 installs provider libraries in a different location than previous
> releases of the provider libs.  The result of this, I think, is that OFED-4.8
> installed over a destro with its own provider libs installed will result in two
> versions of the libs installed, and further, the system might end up using the
> distro provider libs with newer OFED drivers, which could be problematic.  I
> believe the OFED installer uninstalls previous OFED rpms, but not distro rpms.
>  From what I can tell, it uses the ofed_info  command, if it exists, to determine
> which rpms to uninstall.  So if there is no previous OFED installed, then
> ofed_info will not exist so the distro rdma rpms will not be uninstalled.  Prior
> to OFED-4.8, I think this was somewhat benign, because OFED would install the
> provider libs over the currently installed distro libs, and thus nobody noticed.
> But now the rdma-core package puts the provider libs in a different location,
> thus exposing this issue.
>
> What do folks think about this?  Should OFED-4.8 try and uninstall rdma
> cmds/libs regardless of where they came from?  Perhaps optionally.  Or should
> this just be documented so the admin is required to deal with it?  I think if we
> leave OFED as-is, we'll end up with lots of support issues where old libs are
> being loaded causing problems.
>
> Thoughts?  Am I missing something in the OFED-4.8 installer that avoids this
> issue?
>
>
> Steve.

Hi Steve,
OFED's install script uninstalls previous OFED versions and 
corresponding in-box RPMs as well.
The list of in-box RPMs that should be uninstalled is maintained in the 
install.pl script itself. ofed_info is not used by the install.pl script.
So, there should be no issue here.

Regards,
Vladimir