[Bug] latest upstream version is wrongly detected

[christian-heusel]

Is this a support request?

• This is not a support request

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

2024-05-02T11:56:17Z WRN An updated version of Headscale has been found (0.23.0-alpha9 vs. your current v0.23.0-alpha11). Check it out https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/releases

Expected Behavior

No log message when on the latest version

Steps To Reproduce

1. start up any headscale version later than 9
2. observe the above warning

Environment

- OS: Debian trixie/sid with Headscale running in Docker
- Headscale version: v0.23.0-alpha11
- Tailscale version: -

Runtime environment

• Headscale is behind a (reverse) proxy
• Headscale runs in a container

Anything else?

With the relevant code inside of this project that is causing this behaviour being:

headscale/cmd/headscale/cli/root.go

Lines 72 to 88 in a9c568c

	if (runtime.GOOS == "linux" || runtime.GOOS == "darwin") &&
	Version != "dev" {
	githubTag := &latest.GithubTag{
	Owner: "juanfont",
	Repository: "headscale",
	}
	res, err := latest.Check(githubTag, Version)
	if err == nil && res.Outdated {
	//nolint
	log.Warn().Msgf(
	"An updated version of Headscale has been found (%s vs. your current %s). Check it out https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/releases\n",
	res.Current,
	Version,
	)
	}
	}
	}

I have dug into the issue/code a little and found that the error seems to propagate from github.com/hashicorp/go-version or alteast the version that the tcnksm/go-latest dependency is using. I have come to this conclusion with this little test program:

package main

import (
	"fmt"

	"github.com/hashicorp/go-version"
	"github.com/rs/zerolog/log"
	"github.com/tcnksm/go-latest"
)

func main() {
	Version := "v0.23.0-alpha10"
	githubTag := &latest.GithubTag{
		Owner:      "juanfont",
		Repository: "headscale",
	}

	fetch, err := githubTag.Fetch()
	fmt.Println("Valid")
	for _, v := range fetch.Versions {
		fmt.Printf("%s\n", v)
	}

	fmt.Println("Malformed")
	for _, v := range fetch.Malformeds {
		fmt.Printf("%s\n", v)
	}

	fmt.Println("Versioncmp")
	ourV, err := version.NewVersion(Version)
	theirV, err := version.NewVersion("0.23.0-alpha9")

	fmt.Printf("versioncompare %s < %s == %t\n", ourV, theirV, ourV.LessThan(theirV))

	// Original code
	res, err := latest.Check(githubTag, Version)
	if err == nil && res.Outdated {
		log.Warn().Msgf(
			"An updated version of Headscale has been found (%s vs. your current %s). Check it out https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/releases\n",
			res.Current,
			Version,
		)
	}
}

Gives the following:

$ go run test.go
Valid
0.23.0-alpha-docker-release-test
0.23.0-alpha11
0.23.0-alpha10
0.23.0-alpha9
0.23.0-alpha8
0.23.0-alpha7
0.23.0-alpha6
0.23.0-alpha5
0.23.0-alpha4
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test9
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test8
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test7
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test6
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test5
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test4
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test3
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test2
0.23.0-alpha4-docker-ko-test
0.23.0-alpha3
0.23.0-alpha2
0.23.0-alpha1
0.22.3
0.22.2
0.22.1
0.22.0
0.22.0-nfpmtest
0.22.0-alpha3
0.22.0-alpha2
0.22.0-alpha1
0.21.0
Malformed
Versioncmp
versioncompare 0.23.0-alpha10 < 0.23.0-alpha9 == true
{"level":"warn","time":"2024-05-02T14:30:27+02:00","message":"An updated version of Headscale has been found (0.23.0-alpha9 vs. your current v0.23.0-alpha10). Check it out https://github.com/juanfont/headscale/releases\n"}

This shows a few things:

1. The versions greater than 9 are detected by latest
2. They are parsed valid and not sorted out because they are malformed
3. For some reason 0.23.0-alpha10 < 0.23.0-alpha9 is true

[runejuhl]

Looks like it's a known issue, here are some issues in the https://github.com/hashicorp/go-version/ tracker that look like they're related. Unfortunately one of them is almost 5 years old.

• [question] which is bigger according the constraint? hashicorp/go-version#92
• [question] Why constraint without a pre-release can only match a version without a pre-release? hashicorp/go-version#59

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open for 90 days with no activity.

[christian-heusel]

This issue is stale, but only because there has been no fix so far, the issue itself still persists 😊

[kradalby]

Thanks for the investigation, it looks like the easier proper way is to correct our incorrect use of semver.

we smash alpha and beta with the numbers, where it would be appropriate to have a . in between.

So we should do beta.4 for the next release and make sure we do alpha.1 and beta.1 for the next release.

I'm gonna close it as "this will be the solution". If that doesnt solve it we can reopen.

[kradalby]

Well this is fun:

#2058 (comment)

I think that we are kind of in a catch22, and I think that just getting to the next version will actually solve this better than attempting to rename tags.

From reading semver, we are now using the right approach, but the library likely does not parse things after the . when the number is in the same as the beta.

Hopefully this should be solved by doing a RC in a couple of days.

[kradalby]

I think this should be resolved now with the release of 0.23.0, and I'll try to remember to do it properly from here on.