The experiment is now over and the conclusion is that there is no evidence that a service to help with upgrades is actually worth something to Gitea administrators.
The main takeaways are:
- It was possible to significantly help with all Gitea upgrade problems (about six)
- It is useful to have a guide dedicated to Gitea upgrades
- Updating this guide to cover all situations is a full time job. The current guide is focused on GNU/Linux and docker installations and required an average of one day a week to keep up with updates.
- Gitea admins are overwhelmed by the steps required to properly perform an upgrade and do not follow them (consistent backups, running the doctor, etc.)
- Due to the lack of consistency checks after an upgrade (either because they are not implemented in the doctor or because the doctor is not run), problems are often discovered long after