Updating Opalstack installed Python packages

kierenp

When we set up a Python virtualenv and Django application through the Opalstack installer there are a couple of Python packages that are required for the Opalstack setup. For example, uWGI and asgiref. I'm not sure if the version of these installed is pegged by Opalstack or it's the latest version at the time the installer runs.

Either way, over time newer versions of these packages might be released and I was wondering if there's somewhere in the docs (apologies if I missed it) listing the latest versions that will work with the Opalstack setup. This would let us know what version of the packages we can update to; or should we assume that it's OK to go to the latest versions unless the changelogs for the packages list breaking changes?

Many thanks

Kieren

sean

kierenp Our Django and uwsgi installers always pull in the latest versions of Django and uwsgi.

We don't explicitly install asgiref, it is pulled in as a dependency.

Prior to upgrade any package you should always review release notes for breaking changes and test thoroughly before doing it on your live site.

kierenp

Many thanks @sean, it's really helpful to know that the installers use the latest versions. I do have a Django test suite for my application so that's always run before a deployment although that's not necessarily going to pick up everything related to the "live" setup so I have a test site on Opalstack as well and this runs the same setup as my production stuff.

I guess there's perhaps a wider question of how someone with an existing application tracks any config changes (e.g. uwsgi.ini) that are made via the Opalstack installer for new apps when compared to the version in older deployments. Perhaps deploying a "hello world" app every so often is the best plan.

sean

kierenp on our platform your Python packages for Django and uwsgi are installed into a virtual environment for each individual application. Installing a new application is not going to affect your existing applications.

If you plan to install a new app just to see what the generated uwsgi config looks like then use caution before applying that config to your older apps, there is no guarantee of compatibility.

Our installer repo is public, so if you are a Github user and want to keep up with installer changes you can follow https://github.com/opalstack/installers.

kierenp

@sean Cool, thanks for the info. Yep, I'm aware it's all in a venv so nice and isolated and a new app won't affect the existing (I already regularly update django and other packages my app uses). As you guessed, my suggestion was purely to do a comparison between old and new installations/configs of things that are more Opalstack-related rather than app specific. Thanks for the advice on using caution before applying changes, will do.

My thoughts were along the lines of wanting to keep the uwsgi package up-to-date as I do with the other packages that are used on my app. I don't really want to let it lag behind too much in case there's a security issue with the package in the future necessitating a big jump etc.

Thanks for the info on the github repo, I'll set myself as a watcher.