Fedora testing repository - status of packages

[Adrin Jalali]

Dear Tom,
Thanks for your response, and actually I'm Adrin, not Adrian ;).
I conclude from your response that many packages have test suits. Many
libraries also have one, or someone can prepare one for them. And
applications having GUI can be tested just by running and working with them.
So I think that's good to place a link to test suit of packages (if
available) on the page of each package on the Fedora Updates website (
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F9/testing). Also I think that's
good for libraries to place names of some usually used applications which
depend on libraries and if possible, name facilities of those applications
which use that library. In this way I think testers can test libraries much
easier.

About enhancement updates, I think changes to last version can be placed on
the page. Again to test faster.

I think there can be a check-list for each package to check when reporting
the install experience. For example list of handled bugs is a part of that
list. Or list of new features is another part of that list. For enhancement
updates, or for packages like kernel, I think duration of testing (1 day, 1
week, 1 hour ,....) must be reported too.

Another point in my mind is that, many users use updates-testing repository,
but only a few of them report their experience on the site. Only if they are
a BZ user, they will report a bug if they find one. So maybe it's a good
idea that PackageKit collects information about updates-testing packages
installed on the user's computer and request user to allow it to send the
experience information for the Fedora Community. In this way information
needed for the decision of pushing packages to stable will be collected much
sooner.

Best,
Adrin.


On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:09 AM, Nifty Fedora Mitch <
niftyfedora at niftyegg.com> wrote:

>
> Excuse the top post... I do like to reply in kind.
>
> Adrian,
>
> Many packages do have test suites.  The largest I know
> of is under the GCC compiler suite.  When they exist the
> patched code is commonly tested against the suite.  Many
> applications and do not.
>
> If you reported the bug and it was fixed you did have
> enough info in your bug report to reproduce it perhaps simple
> data like: it happens once, all the time or randomly, used to work
> and so on.
>
> Many bug reports do have "test cases"... often, the bugs that are
> addresed quickly have precise tests cases to reproduce the problem.
>
> If there is no test suite write one. ;-) or part of one.
>
> To write a suite start with a list of functions in the library
> and craft one or more programs for each function call.
> Walk through the input data choices and match the output
> to the expected result.
>
> In practice this can be very hard.   Knuth once commented on his
> development of the
> TeX program that the test cases took ten times longer than the primary code
> base and his expectations.
>
> Full, random combinational testing can take more time than
> there is in the lifetime of a star for some programs.
>
> Bottom line -- test what is important to you in any way that you can
> and let others do the same.     Your comment on 'yum' is spot on.
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 12:21:40PM +0430, Adrin Jalali wrote:
> > Sender: fedora-test-list-bounces at redhat.com
> >
> >    Thanks.
> >    Another question in my mind is that, how can I test packages? I mean,
> I
> >    know how to test packages such as yum, I can just try use it and
> update
> >    it, and just see whether it works for me or not (having in mind that I
> >    would be unable to check the exact bug which is fixed in the release).
> >    But for some packages, specially lib* ones, how can they be checked?
> Is
> >    there a place to see the test instructions?
> >    Best,
> >    Adrin.
> >
> >    On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Rahul Sundaram
> >    <[1]sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> >
> >      Adrin Jalali wrote:
> >
> >      Hi there,
> >      I remember there was a page in which packages in updates-testing
> >      repo. were listed and testers could place comments on them and
> >      people who tested them successfully could confirm those updates, but
> >      I lost the link and can't find the link from the
> >      [2]fedoraproject.org <[3]http://fedoraproject.org> website. Would
> >      you mind sending me the link?
> >      Best,
> >      Adrin Jalali.
> >
> >      [4]https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F9/testing
> >      Rahul
> >      --
> >      fedora-test-list mailing list
> >      [5]fedora-test-list at redhat.com
> >      To unsubscribe:
> >      [6]https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list
> >
> > References
> >
> >    1. mailto:sundaram at fedoraproject.org
> >    2. http://fedoraproject.org/
> >    3. http://fedoraproject.org/
> >    4. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F9/testing
> >    5. mailto:fedora-test-list at redhat.com
> >    6. https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list
>
> > --
> > fedora-test-list mailing list
> > fedora-test-list at redhat.com
> > To unsubscribe:
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list
>
> --
>        T o m  M i t c h e l l
>        Looking for a place to hang my hat :-(
>
> --
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> fedora-test-list at redhat.com
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>
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