renovate downgrading some deps with old non-semver releases

[myphsto]

How are you running Renovate?

Self-hosted Renovate

If you're self-hosting Renovate, tell us which platform (GitHub, GitLab, etc) and which version of Renovate.

GitLab w/ renovate 38.142.7

Please tell us more about your question or problem

When updating a dep with old non-semver releases the older releases are pushed over the latest semver.

Logs (if relevant)

Logs

DEBUG: Combined config
       "config": {
         "hashedBranchLength": 15,
         "prConcurrentLimit": 1,
         "branchConcurrentLimit": 1,
         "forkProcessing": "disabled",
         "configMigration": true,
         "npmrcMerge": true,
         "assigneesFromCodeOwners": true,
         "presetCachePersistence": true,
         "detectHostRulesFromEnv": true,
         "gitIgnoredAuthors": [
           "Renovate Bot <redacted>",
           "Renovate Bot <redacted>"
         ],
         "gitLabIgnoreApprovals": true,
         "platformAutomerge": true,
         "npmrc": "***********",
         "exposeAllEnv": true,
         "extends": [
           "mergeConfidence:all-badges",
           ":preserveSemverRanges",
           ":semanticCommits",
           ":semanticCommitType(fix)",
           ":dependencyDashboard",
           ":ignoreModulesAndTests",
           "group:monorepos",
           "group:recommended",
           "replacements:all",
           "workarounds:all"
         ],
         "onboardingConfig": {
           "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
           "extends": [
             ":automergeMinor",
             ":automergeDigest",
             ":approveMajorUpdates",
             ":maintainLockFilesWeekly"
           ]
         },
         "packageRules": [
           {
             "description": ["Relaxed semver for gitlab includes"],
             "matchDatasources": ["gitlab-tags"],
             "versioning": "semver-coerced"
           }
         ],
         "hostRules": [
           {"hostType": "github", "matchHost": "github.com", "token": "***********"}
         ],
         "onboardingCommitMessage": "chore: Add .gitlab/renovate.json [ci skip]",
         "onboardingConfigFileName": ".gitlab/renovate.json",
         "repositoryCache": "enabled",
         "baseDir": "/builds/renovate-bot/renovate",
         "onboarding": true,
         "requireConfig": "required",
         "optimizeForDisabled": true,
         "platform": "gitlab",
         "endpoint": "https://gitlab.com/api/v4",
         "token": "***********",
         "autodiscover": false,
         "gitAuthor": "Renovate Bot <redacted>",
         "cacheHardTtlMinutes": 2880,
         "repositories": ["reno-mult-major"]
       }
DEBUG: Repository config (repository=reno-mult-major)
       "fileName": ".gitlab/renovate.json",
       "config": {
         "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
         "extends": [":separateMultipleMajorReleases"]
       }
-----
       "config": {
         "maven": [
           {
             "datasource": "maven",
             "packageFile": "pom.xml",
             "deps": [
               {
                 "datasource": "maven",
                 "depName": "com.graphql-java:graphql-java-extended-scalars",
                 "currentValue": "21.0",
                 "fileReplacePosition": 635,
                 "registryUrls": ["https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2"],
                 "depType": "compile",
                 "updates": [
                   {
                     "bucket": "v22",
                     "newVersion": "22.0",
                     "newValue": "22.0",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2024-04-16T05:49:04.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 203,
                     "newMajor": 22,
                     "newMinor": 0,
                     "newPatch": 0,
                     "updateType": "major",
                     "branchName": "renovate/6c5534"
                   },
                   {
                     "bucket": "v2018",
                     "newVersion": "2018-10-05T23-44-12-5312ccd",
                     "newValue": "2018-10-05T23-44-12-5312ccd",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2018-10-06T23:17:05.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 2221,
                     "newMajor": 2018,
                     "newMinor": 10,
                     "newPatch": 5,
                     "updateType": "major",
                     "branchName": "renovate/38d550"
                   },
                   {
                     "bucket": "v2019",
                     "newVersion": "2019-08-31T02-34-04-3decba9",
                     "newValue": "2019-08-31T02-34-04-3decba9",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2019-08-31T07:04:56.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 1893,
                     "newMajor": 2019,
                     "newMinor": 8,
                     "newPatch": 31,
                     "updateType": "major",
                     "branchName": "renovate/af44d6"
                   },
                   {
                     "bucket": "v2021",
                     "newVersion": "2021-10-11T21-35-35-[491](https://gitlab.com/---/renovate-bot/-/jobs/8278801152#L491)38ff",
                     "newValue": "2021-10-11T21-35-35-49138ff",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2021-10-11T21:35:50.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 1121,
                     "newMajor": 2021,
                     "newMinor": 10,
                     "newPatch": 11,
                     "updateType": "major",
                     "branchName": "renovate/3acc0f"
                   },
                   {
                     "bucket": "v2022",
                     "newVersion": "2022-12-18T02-09-15-8bb2279",
                     "newValue": "2022-12-18T02-09-15-8bb2279",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2022-12-18T02:09:28.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 688,
                     "newMajor": 2022,
                     "newMinor": 12,
                     "newPatch": 18,
                     "updateType": "major",
                     "branchName": "renovate/539d28"
                   },
                   {
                     "bucket": "v2023",
                     "newVersion": "2023-01-24T02-11-56-babda5f",
                     "newValue": "2023-01-24T02-11-56-babda5f",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2023-01-24T02:12:09.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 651,
                     "newMajor": 2023,
                     "newMinor": 1,
                     "newPatch": 24,
                     "updateType": "major",
                     "branchName": "renovate/141ac2"
                   }
                 ],
                 "packageName": "com.graphql-java:graphql-java-extended-scalars",
                 "versioning": "maven",
                 "warnings": [],
                 "sourceUrl": "https://github.com/graphql-java/graphql-java-extended-scalars",
                 "registryUrl": "https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2",
                 "packageScope": "com.graphql-java",
                 "currentVersion": "21.0",
                 "isSingleVersion": true,
                 "fixedVersion": "21.0"
               }
             ],
             "packageFileVersion": "1.2.3"
           }
         ]
       }
-----
DEBUG: Creating PR (repository=reno-mult-major, branch=renovate/38d550)
       "prTitle": "fix(deps): update dependency com.graphql-java:graphql-java-extended-scalars to v2018"
DEBUG: Creating Merge Request: fix(deps): update dependency com.graphql-java:graphql-java-extended-scalars to v2018 (repository=reno-mult-major, branch=renovate/38d550)
 INFO: PR created (repository=reno-mult-major, branch=renovate/38d550)

[rarkins]

Not a bug. Not caused by separateMultipleMajor, and not a valid reproduction repo.

[myphsto]

Thanks for the reply. So without separateMultipleMajor only com.graphql-java:graphql-java-extended-scalars 22 is offered. With separateMultipleMajor the existing 21 version is downgraded with "fix(deps): update dependency com.graphql-java:graphql-java-extended-scalars to v2018" and every 'v20xx' version instead of offering 22.

Is there a way to prevent this behavior? This downgrade behavior only happened after adding separateMultipleMajor to the default config for all repos and was observed in several.

[rarkins]

Thanks for the reply. So without separateMultipleMajor only com.graphql-java:graphql-java-extended-scalars 22 is offered.

I don't believe that to be true: renovate-reproductions/32353#1

[myphsto]

myphsto/reno-mult-major#2 ?

[myphsto]

to your point it also looks like v2023 is being picked as the latest instead of 22 even though the release date is old

                     "bucket": "v2023",
                     "newVersion": "2023-01-24T02-11-56-babda5f",
                     "newValue": "2023-01-24T02-11-56-babda5f",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2023-01-24T02:12:09.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 651,

vs

                     "bucket": "v22",
                     "newVersion": "22.0",
                     "newValue": "22.0",
                     "releaseTimestamp": "2024-04-16T05:49:04.000Z",
                     "newVersionAgeInDays": 203,

[rarkins]

Title and description of this discussion are wrong. This behavior is not caused by separateMultipleMajor as shown by my own reproduction.

[myphsto]

fixed

[rarkins]

Renovate's versioning sorting is based on the version string, and not the date.

The best solution for this is this existing feature request to limit the max major increment: #20772

[myphsto]

Thanks, I didn't find that in my search for this issue. The feature request seems to be describing the same issue. I think ideally if the age of the dep is known the version sorter could be smarter and it would be a more general fix. If the age is unknown the proposed feature would be a great backstop.

[rarkins]

Yes, I also created #22151 for that. Not all datasources return timestamps, so a solution to prevent massive jumps in major version likely solves things more widely

[myphsto]

Thanks for the help on this one very appreciated. non-semver strikes again 🫠