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I'm having a critical support issue with SLES that doesn't make any measurable progress (for months now). So I wanted to have a look at the source code myself; maybe I can spot the issue.

(It seems a fatal bug was added between SLES15 SP2 and SP3 in the Xen Hypervisor that causes frequent server crashes due to RAM corruption)

As I see it you can download DVD images that should contain the source code, but those are as old as the media are. Meaning: You don't have the source for the current patches.

Isn't there a public Git repository where I could inspect the changes being made from release to release or from patch to patch? I don't want to download ISO images, unpack them, download more RPM source packages and unpack them, etc. just to see the changes.

I see that the business model is somewhat against that, but from a support perspective that is vital.

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All the GPL requires is that they make the source code available. (And not everything Linux is GPL.) They don't have to make it available in any convenient format. I'm guessing their internal revision control servers are private for reasons of their business model. Downloading SRPMs is likely your best bet.

Try something like zypper si foo or dnf download --source foo to get the source packages for the component(s) you are interested in.

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    It also also possible to request source code by mail. Commented May 4, 2022 at 16:05
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    @StephenKitt: Given that Questioner reports that SuSE is being unresponsive to his requests for paid support, I was assuming they'd be unresponsive to that, too. But worth mentioning, true, yes, good point. Commented May 4, 2022 at 16:12
  • I wasn't officially asking (SUSE support) for the source code; instead it was a kind of personal initiative as the official support failed to bring forward any solution. And as said in the question: SUSE makes the source code available as demanded per GPL, but there could be a way much more convenient. I see that a convenient real-time access to sources might create unofficial SLES forks, but since Leap 15.3 the differences between SLES and Leap are rather small (as in fact many packages are just the same; the difference is support and the path to getting updates). Commented May 5, 2022 at 6:13
  • I also think SRPMs (source packages) are not very convenient for comparing changes between releases; how would one install the source package of the previous release (SP) in the current release (SP)? I think a true open source approach these days would be a public git repository that is really up-to-date (and not some clone refreshed now and then). Commented May 5, 2022 at 6:19
  • @U.Windl: As has been noted, SuSE Enterprise is not being run as a true open source effort. This is StackExchange. The answers are intended to be based on reality, not wants. :-) Commented May 6, 2022 at 18:40

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