Stripped kernel version information in FOG reporting

[Sebastian-Roth]

Some systems seem to report shorter kernel version strings than others, e.g.

5.15.68 (buildkite-agent@Tollana) #1 SMP Sun Oct 9 06:54:22 CDT 2022

vs.

5.15.68 (buildkite-agent@Tollana) #1 SMP Sun Oct 9 06:54:22 CD

Although those are the exact same kernel binaries those are reported as being two different ones.

[Sebastian-Roth]

Taking a closer look at the database data I found that CentOS 7 as well as Ubuntu 16.04 systems return a stripped version string.

These are the options we have:

• Use different command to get the version information like strings filename | grep ... (1)
• Compile our own tool to get the version (2) - FOG installs gcc compiler to build udpcast anyway.
• Strip down the version info even more - only use 5.15.68 or maybe 5.15.68 (buildkite-agent@Tollana).

At first I thought we would loose information if we toss out the exact build date. But the more I think about it I find it's probably a good idea to do. Why should we distinguish between same kernel versions build on different dates?

I know we discussed what to use from the kernel version when we started this. But seeing the results now I tend to only use less information.

[wayneworkman]

I think the simplest would be the 3rd option, to strip down the information even more. Every single one is returning a # immediately after the information we want, so that can be a delimiter.

[Sebastian-Roth]

@wayneworkman's PRs merged, thanks.

[Sebastian-Roth]

@wayneworkman I am now wondering if we should even leave out the prepended filename of the binary. Essentially we want the kernel version and it doesn't matter if it's a 32 or 64 bit kernel I think. What's your opinion on this?

[wayneworkman]

Originally we included the filenames so we could distinguish 32 from 64. We can take out the filename too, if that is your preference. I'll submit PRs.

[Sebastian-Roth]

@wayneworkman I have thought about it for a bit more and still can't see why we should need to know if it's a 32 vs. 64 bit kernel. We always release both at the same time and so there should never be a difference in how those are configured.

Thanks for the new PRs!