submitters +1ing their own packages

[Nils Philippsen]

On Wed, 2011-09-07 at 18:02 -0700, Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-09-07 at 18:47 -0600, Kevin Fenzi wrote:
> > * As a maintainer it's easy to have a env that gets out of sync with
> >   what a QA or end user would use. Ie, you make 20 iterations of a
> >   package to test something, tweak configs to check something, and get
> >   it all working, but perhaps your machine is no longer setup the way a
> >   fresh install or upgrade of your package would be. Or you tested a
> >   version and then changed just 'one little thing' and pushed that and
> >   it turned out to break it. 
> 
> Both hughsie and myself, and I think everyone else in favour of
> maintainer +1s, suggested maintainers should test *in a vanilla
> environment*, with the actual package they were submitting, before
> +1ing. +1ing on the basis of a test build or in a dirty environment
> would be a no-no and could lead to the removal of +1 privileges if
> repeated.

I think we should define what a "vanilla environment" is then. One could
argue that either of the following could be described as "vanilla":

- A fresh system without any modifications or unstable updates other
than that being tested. Pro: makes testing comparable. Contra: You
essentially need a special VM for testing which needs to be installed
freshly for each tested update. Makes tests comparable ;-), i.e. reduces
the amount of different environments in which an update is tested. I do
actually want testing to be done on systems that aren't just "minimal
install plus updates plus a user beside root".

- A system in good condition (packages verify well, no dupes) that's
used normally, i.e. what you would see being used by normal persons
without any fancy hacks in configuration, or worse, non-config files
owned by packages. Pro: Easy to test as you don't need to do anything
fancy, just yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update <pkg>; <use pkg>

I'm also guilty of +1ing my updates, but only for Fedora releases where
I actually tested the updated package(s). And my system is "in good
condition" as per what I described above, I keep code to be tested in
separate hierarchies, usually in subdirectories in my home.

Nils
-- 
Nils Philippsen      "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase 
Red Hat               a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty
nils at redhat.com       nor Safety."  --  Benjamin Franklin, 1759
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