A page with announced dates for the next version/update release?
Updates from cPanel commonly absolutely destroy my schedule.
How can I determine when the next release of cPanel will be?
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Hey hey! We don't have anything like this. Most minor updates, such as going from 120.0.15 to 120.0.16, are for bug fixes and are typically small releases. It we were to make an announcement about every minor release, and then allow admins to prepare for it, it was add significant delays to the release cycle, so that likely isn't something we'll want to do.
I can see making an announcement for major changes, such as going from 118 to 120.
Is there something we can help with to destroy your schedule less? What specific problems do you run into with updates?
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Rex, that was a fast response!
So earlier this year I disabled updates because they can kill days at a time. Then I had to do a server migration which I expected to take maybe two days - it took a month! The absolute most infuriating issue was when PHP couldn't see anything! I have to know versions of things like MariaDB, PHP, etc so in my web platform's control panel I can keep tabs on updates, you know, being responsible. I lost nearly an entire week to chroot! I only became aware of it from a random question. A tons of "developers" were like, "just copy the file"...right, so when things get updated I wouldn't know (because it's a copy and the copy doesn't get updated). I get the idea of things like chroot but it was devastatingly broken and very poorly supported. The chroot was implemented via CageFS.
I don't have the time to iterate over a month of my life just gone. My internal server migration documentation went from three printed pages to six (I don't print but need a way to share an idea of how much I have to do).
I think the absolute simplest thing possible would be to have an email notification option in WHM for administrators such as myself that will notify me at least a week in advance that an update (e.g. 120 to 121) is coming up. That would grant me the awareness I need to choose whether to disable updates because I'm too busy being a productive member of society to tangle with societal damage from chroot-tards and set a calendar reminder to manually update say a week or month later or if I'm not working on anything mission critical to ensure that I'm on top of it.
Additionally having updates and changes at least linked (you guys have a change log I think) in the email would give me some helpful hints at what I might need to give a good smacking. After this past server migration my first notion is to go directly to the WHM plugins and see what changed, added, removed, etc.
I'm not a server administrator though cPanel has forced me to learn (when I could be earning money to pay you know, rent). So when I deal with super-obstinate issues (not always cPanel though definitely a large percentage) I detail the issue, use keywords and ensure I document what solved the problem. I intend to not repeat dealing with other people's messes.
I definitely do high levels of custom settings. But I do not have the resources to setup and maintain a fully custom server, host it myself, etc. So until I can I really need a realistic way to ensure that cPanel updates don't murdercide my business and my life. Email notifications with links for the upcoming version's change log would go a very long way to at least letting me choose when I'll have to deal with nonsense and hopefully make it much easier to know where to look for changes that suddenly destroyed something that was previously still working.
By the way I just remembered an older issue: LiteSpeed server. I eventually discovered that it absolutely destroys Apache rewrites! Half my stuff was broken for a year before I finally figured it out. Worse, it's very tightly integrated and impossible to run cPanel without removing support. Removing the files in EasyApache makes WHM remove that PHP version outright!
...which reminds me: cPanel updates have changed the PHP handler! The existing settings should NEVER be changed unless they're outright removed and no, my software, for whatever reason, won't work with any of the other handlers except cgi. I don't have an auxiliary server to test things out on first which means all my websites go down when I have to figure this stuff out.
So yeah, that is a few highlights of the hell I've had to deal with. It's already bad enough I have to deal with browser bugs and people doing really truly dumb things like implementing CSS scrollbar-width with wildly subjective definitions completely negating things and forcibly changing the styling of forms or hiding scrollbars or screwing up view-ports on iPhones. I have to fix all of that stuff because clients don't know better and think it's my fault because apparently I am the only developer on Earth responsible for literally everything that goes wrong with software. So yeah, can I get a heads up please?
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If you want less updates, switch to LTS next time you can. Then you'll only get one major update a year vs. the typical 4.
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@Unnamed User Thank you, I appreciate the suggestion. There are pros and cons for LTS and stable releases. If I use LTS then I could lose substantial amounts of time all in a single go, like two months ago when I was unable to earn any money for a month! The stable releases once every three months chops that in to smaller pieces of lost time. I think the one week notice email idea is best idea because I can plan for the potential interruptions.
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I don't think a notification from the server itself is something that will happen. That would mean we'd have to push an update ahead of the actual update :D
What we COULD do is post to the https://news.cpanel.com/ site before any major releases - would that help?
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Rex, I appreciate the suggestion however the problem there is two fold.
1. I'd have to follow the cPanel news page which I don't; I'm already tracking a lot of information and automation is a huge part of how we go from peasant life to helping tons of people.
2. I need the information to come to me and I need it to come before the update goes through.
So I'm looking at that (blinding all-white background) page and I see almost only posts about EasyApache going back to January 10th of this year. Okay, so there are no cPanel release updates? Or are some of the things that I've dealt with and mentioned here because of EasyApache? However I imagine some issues like with CageFS being added and dumping chroot on to the PHP user are cPanel exclusive and has nothing to do with the fourth (fifth?) party EasyApache. ... Okay, looks like EasyApache is directly part of cPanel and not a third party.
So I need some sort of reliable method to know about updates before they drop. If the news page isn't going to cut it then is there at least some arbitrary release schedule that cPanel follows? Because if there is nothing I can follow and hone in on in advance then I'll be forced to manually disable updates and manually check for updates. That is the exact opposite scenario that everyone here involved in should absolutely be working against, not blindly/passively for. Oh, and I am 99.999% certain you're not the one calling the shots so I'm not upset with you just so we're clear. I appreciate you coming on the forums and helping us out.
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Right now there isn't anything on the news page like this - I was just saying adding something there could be a possibility.
*Generally* we do a major release (such as going from 118 to 120) quarterly, although it can be anytime within the quarter, really.
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Rex, thank you for the clarification. cPanel does do a lot of good with the automation though it is not business friendly from my point of view. No, I am far from a typical web developer building my own platform. But there really needs to be communication, not do-whatever "policy".
I don't suppose I can come on here occasionally and inquire as to how close the next release will be? Because everything that you're telling me is screaming for me to disable updates and manually check every few weeks.
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Let me poke some people and I'll see if we can make a better plan!
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Rex, I would be very grateful for that! Why not announce releases?! Hell, it's effectively marketing and showing off the work that people have been doing.
I've gotten to the point where I do two things: I have my well-structured change log and I write a blog thread for every release highlighting the improvements. The change log and blog threads link to each other. If you want you can check out the change log index here:
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I just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten this - I'm just exploring our options internally to see what the best method is to do this.
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Rex, no worries! 🙂︀ Everything is currently quite and stable at my end (for once). I know things take time and I consider myself very reasonable even though what I often go through is not. I mean, I build software so I definitely know things take time and sometimes some of the people you want to chat with aren't around, on vacation, picking their nose in the bathroom, fighting off alien invasions, whatever. I get email notifications of replies and am working on a project that needs to be done by Thursday morning. So I'm busy and can wait. I really do appreciate you going out of your way to try to make things better! 👍🏻
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Who told you it was alien invasions today??? That wasn't supposed to be public info!
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Alright - here's the plan I came up with.
I've spoken with our release manager and he's going work with our email team to add a notification to the emails that get sent from our mailing list. You can sign up for that list here:
https://cpanel.net/mailing-list/
122 is already out, and I'm not sure if this will get implemented by 124, but for sure by version 126 we should be sending notices out through the mailing list when major releases will be going live!
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Rex, I'm grateful for the efforts you've made.
Question 1:
Will the emails be on-release or before release? Again, this main point of this for me is to ensure if I can't put time aside to do an update that I need to disable updates manually until I do have the time to handle the update without being irresponsible to my client obligations.
Question 2:
There are two options that I selected because I'm not sure:
- News & Updates
- Product Updates
Which one is the one I want to know when a release will be happening? No matter how enthusiastic I may be about something I still have to keep my inbox under control.
I have zero qualms about it taking some time to be implemented and again I'm grateful that you folks are taking action. Presuming the emails will announce releases at least a few days ahead of time this should help me dramatically, thank you!
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I'm honestly not sure - I don't think that's been decided but they did tell me there aren't too many "product update" emails that go out.
I did stress that these need to happen *before* the release.
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Rex, okay thank you. I've found that the best way to get confirmation of communication is when someone is able to comprehend it in their own way. I will often respond with my own example in the context of the request made to me. That way it builds up confidence in the other person that I'm listening, I'm comprehending and I'm taking it all in to account. Successful communication can make or break a business! Thank you again!
Also I updated the authentication thread we were working on earlier this year here:
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Sure thing - I've got that thread open in another tab so I'll get to it soon.
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