Introducing Release Monitoring in OBS

Over the last few days, we’ve been focused on bringing release monitoring to OBS to help you keep track of the local and upstream releases.

These updates are part of the Foster Collaboration beta program. You can find more information about the beta program here.

Our efforts to foster collaboration started in August 2024, when we introduced labels and bug report links. Next, we improved labels to foster collaboration. Then, we focused on labeling projects. In our last iteration, we expanded functionality of the labels with API. Building on that, we introduced Assignments. Most recently, we’ve introduced Release Monitoring.

OBS:AnityaDistribution Attribute

To keep track of upstream releases, OBS uses a project attribute called OBS:AnityaDistribution. The value of this attribute can be the name of any distribution listed on release-monitoring.org.

Once the attribute is set, OBS will take care of the rest. After you assign the value, OBS will automatically search for your packages on release-monitoring.org and keep track of the latest version. This makes it much easier in OBS to stay up to date with the latest upstream releases of your packages.

Finding the Local and Upstream Version

OBS also allows you to compare your local package version (defined in the spec file) with the upstream version. Both versions are shown side by side: on the project page in the package list, and on the individual package page.

How To Give Us Feedback

There are two ways to reach us:

• On GitHub, by opening an issue and / or commenting on an already opened issue.
• On IRC, by talking directly to us. We are in the channel #opensuse-buildservice on Libera.Chat.

Please note that we favor GitHub to gather feedback as it allows us to easily keep track of the discussions.