Some things to focus testing on for F9Beta

[John Summerfield]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> John Summerfield wrote:
>> Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>>> Richard Hally wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Many maintainers are busy and prioritizing things. The large majority 
>>> of them are volunteers. 
>>
>> Even volunteers should expect to do their best, and to commit to what 
>> they can do in the available time;
> 
> We haven't seen many indications they aren't.

Richard mentioned a specific example where the package didn't seem to 
have had even a rudimentary test, and I thought you were defending the 
packager.

> 
>> I _would_ expect the Fedora project to have some procedures in place 
>> to minimise the likelihood of software that plain doesn't work getting 
>> released.
> 
> Of course there are many. One example would be
> 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-March/msg00010.html 

That's _after_ it's released to users. Richard's example was one that 
should not have gone that far.


> 
> 
> In many instances, it would require more people participating and 
> providing feedback which is currently lacking.

Basic testing varies, but some examples:
anaconda should do a successful install or two

rpm should be able to install/remove packages and detect deps problems. 
It should also be able to build packages.

yum should be able to install/remove packages and deal with deps problems.

gcc test suite should run

postgresql test suite should run


I don't expect a lot of testing in Fedora, if a failure is anything more 
than a nuisance (as opposed to costing serious money) to people they 
shouldn't be using it, but there should be a fair bit of effort in 
avoiding silly mistakes that just waste everyone's time.

By Richard's account that didn't happen this time, and I think the 
proper response is to see what happened, how it happened and what needs 
to be done to prevent its recurrence.

We all make mistakes, and we're all careless sometimes. The real problem 
is not how to prevent mistakes and carelessness, but how to alleviate 
their consequences.

That means procedures and training.

I expect a lot of the volunteers are professions, and that some who 
aren't would like to be. Learning the value of proper procedures and 
training in their use will help in their careers, even outside of IT.

The question is not "Who spilled that pancake batter on the floor?"
but
"how do we make it safe?"
"How do we clean it up?"
"How do we prevent it from happening again?"





-- 

Cheers
John

-- spambait
1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu  Z1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu
-- Advice
http://webfoot.com/advice/email.top.php
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

You cannot reply off-list:-)