Dash to remove package after installation is not working when provisioning SLES compute node

[gurevichmark]

Works on RHEL 8.2 but not on SLES.

xCAT documentation (https://xcat-docs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/guides/admin-guides/manage_clusters/common/deployment/additionalpkg/nonubuntu_os_pkg.html) talks about prefixing package in the package list file with - in order to remove it after the installation.

It does not appear to do that when provisioning the node with rinstall, the package remains installed.

f6u13k13:~ # cat /opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/sle/compute.sle15.pkglist
iputils
vim
openssl
rsync
insserv-compat
net-tools-deprecated
rsyslog
nfs-client
-ruby
f6u13k13:~ #

f6u13k13:~ # rinstall f6u13k15 osimage=sle15-ppc64le-install-compute
Provision node(s): f6u13k15
f6u13k13:~ #

f6u13k13:~ # xdsh f6u13k15 zypper info ruby
f6u13k15: Loading repository data...
f6u13k15: Reading installed packages...
f6u13k15:
f6u13k15:
f6u13k15: Information for package ruby:
f6u13k15: -----------------------------
f6u13k15: Repository     : Basesystem-Module 15-0
f6u13k15: Name           : ruby
f6u13k15: Version        : 2.5-1.21
f6u13k15: Arch           : ppc64le
f6u13k15: Vendor         : SUSE LLC <https://www.suse.com/>
f6u13k15: Support Level  : Level 3
f6u13k15: Installed Size : 84 B
f6u13k15: Installed      : Yes (automatically)
f6u13k15: Status         : up-to-date
f6u13k15: Source package : ruby-2.5-1.21.src
f6u13k15: Summary        : An Interpreted Object-Oriented Scripting Language
f6u13k15: Description    :

However, when using updatenode <node> -P ospkgs, the package with - prefix is properly removed.

f6u13k13:~ # cat /opt/xcat/share/xcat/install/sle/compute.sle15.pkglist
iputils
vim
openssl
rsync
insserv-compat
net-tools-deprecated
rsyslog
nfs-client
-ruby
f6u13k13:~ #

f6u13k13:~ # xdsh f6u13k15 zypper info ruby
f6u13k15: Loading repository data...
f6u13k15: Reading installed packages...
f6u13k15:
f6u13k15:
f6u13k15: Information for package ruby:
f6u13k15: -----------------------------
f6u13k15: Repository     : Basesystem-Module 15-0
f6u13k15: Name           : ruby
f6u13k15: Version        : 2.5-1.21
f6u13k15: Arch           : ppc64le
f6u13k15: Vendor         : SUSE LLC <https://www.suse.com/>
f6u13k15: Support Level  : Level 3
f6u13k15: Installed Size : 84 B
f6u13k15: Installed      : Yes (automatically)
f6u13k15: Status         : up-to-date
f6u13k15: Source package : ruby-2.5-1.21.src
f6u13k15: Summary        : An Interpreted Object-Oriented Scripting Language
f6u13k15: Description    :

f6u13k13:~ # updatenode f6u13k15 -P ospkgs
f6u13k15: =============updatenode starting====================
f6u13k15: trying to download postscripts...
f6u13k15: postscripts downloaded successfully
f6u13k15: trying to get mypostscript from 10.6.13.13...
f6u13k15: postscript start..: ospkgs
f6u13k15: postscript end....: ospkgs exited with code 0
f6u13k15: Running of postscripts has completed.
f6u13k15: =============updatenode ending====================

f6u13k13:~ # xdsh f6u13k15 zypper info ruby
f6u13k15: Loading repository data...
f6u13k15: Reading installed packages...
f6u13k15:
f6u13k15:
f6u13k15: Information for package ruby:
f6u13k15: -----------------------------
f6u13k15: Repository     : Basesystem-Module 15-0
f6u13k15: Name           : ruby
f6u13k15: Version        : 2.5-1.21
f6u13k15: Arch           : ppc64le
f6u13k15: Vendor         : SUSE LLC <https://www.suse.com/>
f6u13k15: Support Level  : Level 3
f6u13k15: Installed Size : 84 B
f6u13k15: Installed      : No
f6u13k15: Status         : not installed
f6u13k15: Source package : ruby-2.5-1.21.src
f6u13k15: Summary        : An Interpreted Object-Oriented Scripting Language
f6u13k15: Description    :

[gurevichmark]

The problem appears to be in kickstart file generation.

• On RHEL nodeset generates the kickstart file in /install/autoinst and inserts the package name from packagelist file with a - prefix into the %packages section of the kickstart file.
• On SLES nodeset generates the kickstart file in /install/autoinst and seems to ignore the package name with a - prefix from packagelist file. For SLES the kickstart file is in XML format and contains <packages> and <remove-packages> sections. The package name with a - prefix from packagelist file does not cause the <remove-packages> section to be added to the kickstart file.
• On Ubuntu nodeset generates the kickstart file in /install/autoinst and inserts the package name with a - prefix (-man-db) into the command line d-i pkgsel/include string bash ifupdown nfs-common openssl isc-dhcp-client libc-bin openssh-server openssh-client wget vim -man-db rsync busybox-static gawk dnsutils chrony. Eventually the node fails to provision with the following error:

[gurevichmark]

Summary:

OS	Type	Action	Result	Comment
RH	Diskfull	rinstall	OK	Package with - is not installed
RH	Diskfull	updatenode	OK	Package with - is removed
RH	Diskless	genimage	Failed	Package with - is part of generated image
RH	Diskless	updatenode	OK	Package with - is removed
SLES	Diskfull	rinstall	Failed	Package with - is installed
SLES	Diskfull	updatenode	OK	Package with - is removed
SLES	Diskless	genimage	Failed	Package with - is part of generated image
SLES	Diskless	updatenode	Failed/OK	Package with - failed to be removed, because we do not include zypper by default in diskless image. If zypper is added to the package list, then package with - is removed
Ubuntu	Diskfull	rinstall	Failed	Node fails to provision, which seems to be caused by a command in kickstart file containing a package name with - prefix
Ubuntu	Diskfull	updatenode	OK	Package with - is removed
Ubuntu	Diskless	genimage	Failed	Package with - is part of generated image
Ubuntu	Diskless	updatenode	OK	Package with - is removed