Backported patch updates not rolled on newer releases?

[blackluck]

What would you like to be added

Maybe if component patches backported to older versions then create for new releases too.
Or create policy to not release new kubespray patch in older versions until newer kubespray minor releases also updated with it.
Or something to not forget patches from other version missed in newer minor versions.

Why is this needed

Kubespray release 2.24 got lot of new component patch version updates to a newer version in 2.24.3 (released 2 days ago) #11516 :
Default to kubernetes v1.28.14
Default to etcd v3.5.16
Default to containerd v1.7.22
Default to cri-o v1.28.10
Default to nerdctl 1.7.7
Default to runc v1.1.14

It's one thing could not see why these patch updates needed for 2.24, but why there is no 2.25.1, 2.26.1 releases with at least these component versions?

2.25 still only hase 2.25.0 version (released may 21) and also 2.26 only initial 2.26.0 patch version (released 2 weeks ago). Both of them have OLDER version in some of those components (etcd, containerd, nerdctl, runc).
Which means after I updated with 2.24 release and going to update to 2.25, those components will be DOWNGRADED and even after updating to 2.26 those components will be older then installed with 2.24.
I know downgrade only in patch versions but for pretty important components like etcd, containerd, runc.
And if those don't have problems with older patch version why needed to update them in 2.24?

[tico88612]

@VannTen Maybe we need to check before the next release to see if there's a possibility of the kit version being downgraded?

[VannTen]

This bogs down to the fact that the checksum update process is still manual, as are releases. So yes, versions get bumped depending on priorities. (For instance, I raised the PR on 2.24 because we're about to update our clusters to k8s 1.28) I plan to address this by finishing download_hash.py enhancements and adding a GitHub workflow or similar, but in the meantime, PR are welcome :).

[janosbabik]

Hi @VannTen, are there any plans to bump the versions of these components (etcd, runc, containerd...) in the 2.25 and 2.26 branches as well?
I would like to update from 2.24.3 -> 2.25.0 -> 2.26.0, and I'm curious whether downgrading these apps could cause any problems.

[VannTen]

They are plans, it's not my top priority at the moment. The scripts are easy enough to run though, and anyone can propose a PR 😉