.NET 7 Images are not all tagged as Preview

[busches]

Describe the Bug

Currently the .NET 7 docker images are not all labeled as previews, causing tools like Renovate, etc. to suggest upgrading from .NET 6 to 7, even though it's not yet released.

Sample tags from: https://mcr.microsoft.com/v2/dotnet/sdk/tags/list

    "7.0",
    "7.0-alpine",
    "7.0-alpine-amd64",
    "7.0-alpine-arm32v7",
    "7.0-alpine-arm64v8",
    "7.0-alpine3.15",
    "7.0-alpine3.15-amd64",
    "7.0-alpine3.15-arm32v7",
    "7.0-alpine3.15-arm64v8",
    "7.0-bullseye-slim",
    "7.0-bullseye-slim-amd64",
    "7.0-bullseye-slim-arm32v7",
    "7.0-bullseye-slim-arm64v8",
    "7.0-cbl-mariner1.0",
    "7.0-cbl-mariner1.0-amd64",
    "7.0-focal",
    "7.0-focal-amd64",
    "7.0-focal-arm32v7",
    "7.0-focal-arm64v8",
    "7.0-nanoserver-1809",
    "7.0-nanoserver-ltsc2022",
    "7.0-windowsservercore-ltsc2019",
    "7.0-windowsservercore-ltsc2022",
    "7.0.100-preview.1",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-alpine3.15",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-alpine3.15-amd64",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-alpine3.15-arm32v7",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-alpine3.15-arm64v8",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-bullseye-slim",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-bullseye-slim-amd64",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-bullseye-slim-arm32v7",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-bullseye-slim-arm64v8",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-cbl-mariner1.0",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-cbl-mariner1.0-amd64",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-focal",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-focal-amd64",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-focal-arm32v7",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-focal-arm64v8",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-nanoserver-1809",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-nanoserver-ltsc2022",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-windowsservercore-ltsc2019",
    "7.0.100-preview.1-windowsservercore-ltsc2022",

Only the 7.0.100 specific tags are marked as -preview instead of all the 7.0 tags. The suggestion is that all preview docker images, contain the preview tag or alternatively do not exist until ready. We noticed the same issue when .NET 6 went into preview as well.

[mthalman]

[Triage] We'll take this under consideration.

The current tagging scheme was seen as a feature allowing people to move to preview versions when they're ready and remain using that tag once the version is released.

[mthalman]

[Triage]
We'd like to get community feedback on this issue. If this is something that you'd like to address, please post a comment stating your scenario. We'll gather that feedback and make a determination on how to proceed. We'll leave this open for 1 month to gather feedback.

[JamieMagee]

Is there expected to be manual work required from developers in moving from one preview release to another? If so, a mutable tag 7.0 would silently break builds.

[busches]

@JamieMagee Not sure I understand what you're asking. Are you saying right now 7.0 points to 7.0.100-preview.1 and when 7.0.200-preview.1 comes out, you'd want 7.0 to point to that too? I don't want that to change, I'd simply want the 7.0 tag to change to 7.0-preview until it's stable and the 7.0 that points to preview images, would be removed. The 7.0-preview tag would continue to point to images that match.

The fact that 7.0 points only to -preview releases is what's confusing.

Using Go as an example, 1.18 is in RC right now, they don't have a plain 1.18 tag yet, they only have 1.18-rc. Once it's released, then we'll have 1.18 created. https://hub.docker.com/_/golang?tab=tags&page=1&name=1.18

[JamieMagee]

@busches I think we're talking about the same thing, but I want to clarify just to be clear.

Currently 7.0 points to 7.0.100-preview.1. Later it will point to 7.0.100-preview.2. Is there expected to be manual upgrade steps required (AKA code changes) in moving from preview.1 to preview.2 (or to any later preview).

I am in agreement that the 7.0 tags that don't contain preview.1 are confusing, for both automation and end users, and I think the Go images support that.

[busches]

@JamieMagee I would expect a replacement of 7.0-preview to point to all future preview images of the 7.0 line. To answer question, no, staying on 7.0-preview means you'd auto move to the next preview, assuming it was still for 7.0.

[busches]

@mthalman there doesn't seem to be a lot of input here, what do you guys plan to do?

[mthalman]

@mthalman there doesn't seem to be a lot of input here, what do you guys plan to do?

Undetermined at this point. We'll discuss at our next review meeting.