[Bug 2084571] Re: needrestart: container restart is broken

[Simon Chopin]

** Also affects: needrestart (Ubuntu Noble)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** Also affects: needrestart (Ubuntu Oracular)
   Importance: Medium
     Assignee: Simon Chopin (schopin)
       Status: In Progress

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2084571

Title:
  needrestart: container restart is broken

Status in needrestart package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress
Status in needrestart source package in Noble:
  New
Status in needrestart source package in Oracular:
  In Progress

Bug description:
  [ Impact ]

  needrestart supports restarting containers with outdated binaries when
  running in the context of the hypervisor, however said support appears
  to be broken in Noble and Oracular.

  While we do not want to handle containers as part of the APT-triggered
  restarts, the user might rely on that particular feature in their own
  scripts.

  This will get fixed by backporting an upstream fix, as well as
  amending the Ubuntu-mode patch.

  [ Test plan ]

  ```
  apt install -t noble-proposed needrestart
  lxc launch ubuntu-daily:noble to-be-restarted
  lxc exec to-be-restarted touch /tmp/restart-marker
  lxc exec to-be-restarted apt remove needrestart # we don't want it to restart outdated services from within the container!
  lxc exec to-be-restarted apt reinstall libc6 # should make a whole lot of things outdated.
  apt reinstall libc-bin # the actual package doesn't matter, we just want the needrestart hook in an APT context
  sleep 3 # to be sure, wait a bit for any container restart to take effect
  lxc exec to-be-restarted stat /tmp/restart-marker # This is SUPPOSED TO WORK, we don't want the APT hook to touch containers
  needrestart -r a
  sleep 3 # to make sure any restart has time to take effect
  lxc exec to-be-restarted stat /tmp/restart-marker # This is SUPPOSED TO FAIL, the container should have restarted.
  ```

  [ Where problems could occur ]

  While the "Ubuntu mode" code is touched to avoid restarting containers, errors in that code could lead to
  us restarting user containers during unattended-upgrades, hence the relevant test in the test plan.

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