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diff --git a/doc/development/emails.md b/doc/development/emails.md index f99b914e2de..811619bb0ff 100644 --- a/doc/development/emails.md +++ b/doc/development/emails.md @@ -139,6 +139,44 @@ These are the only valid legacy formats for an email handler: In GitLab, the handler for the Service Desk feature is `path/to/project`. +### MailRoom Gem updates + +We use [`gitlab-mail_room`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-mail_room), a +fork of [`MailRoom`](https://github.com/tpitale/mail_room/), to ensure +that we can make updates quickly to the gem if necessary. We try to upstream +changes as soon as possible and keep the two projects in sync. + +Updating the `gitlab-mail_room` dependency in `Gemfile` is deprecated at +the moment in favor of updating the version in +[Omnibus](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/blob/master/config/software/mail_room.rb) +(see [example merge request](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/-/merge_requests/5816)) +and Helm Chart configuration (see [example merge request](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/build/CNG/-/merge_requests/854)). + +#### Rationale + +This was done because to avoid [thread deadlocks](https://github.com/ruby/net-imap/issues/14), `MailRoom` needs +an updated version of the `net-imap` gem. However, this [version of the net-imap cannot be installed by an unprivileged +user](https://github.com/ruby/net-imap/issues/14) due to [an error installing the digest +gem](https://github.com/ruby/digest/issues/14). [This bug in the Ruby interpreter](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17761) was fixed in Ruby +3.0.2. + +Updating the gem directly in the GitLab Rails `Gemfile` caused a [production incident](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/production/-/issues/4053) +since Kubernetes pods do not run as privileged users. + +Note that Omnibus GitLab runs `/opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/mail_room` +instead of `bundle exec rake` to avoid loading the older version. With a +Kubernetes install, the MailRoom version has always been explicitly set +in the Helm Chart configuration rather than the `Gemfile`. + +#### Preserving backwards compatibility + +Removing the `Gemfile` would break incoming e-mail processing for source +installs. For now, source installs are advised to upgrade manually to +the version specified in Omnibus and run `bin/mail_room` directly as +done with Omnibus. + +We can reconsider this deprecation once we upgrade to Ruby 3.0. + --- [Return to Development documentation](index.md) |