F11: things to check in a release tree before a release

[Michael Schwendt]

On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:51:43 -0500 (EST), Seth Vidal wrote:

> > If you really want to check all sorts of multiple Provides, that'll be
> > a long list with a lot that must be white-listed.
> 
> I was thinking along the lines of we generate the list, manually check.
> 
> Then we work on generating diffs vs past lists for the future.
> 
> so we aren't constantly seeing the same stream of data.

Which is roughly what I've done: using "diff against previous" and a
whitelist of package names for "valid virtual provides".

That worked fine till bug-triagers threatened to close bugzilla tickets
because of dist EOL and then mass-closed them later. Too much extra burden
-- having to revisit tickets and verify the issues and likely doing it
again next EOL is reached.

What was missing is a script to maintain the bugzilla ticket numbers,
to detect fixed packages (which no longer appear on the list), to help with
closing tickets, and to add reminders to the tickets automatically.

And, of course, official backup from FESCo would be nice and helpful,
too. Else it's not worthwhile to file such tickets. Because packagers may
decide for themselves whether they consider an issue important enough
(even if it causes real problems, which are reproducible in Yum
installation scenarios).