On 09/19/2012 12:42 AM, Per Jessen wrote:
Bryen M Yunashko wrote:
Besides, isn't there a testing/freeze process that ensures the reputation of openSUSE as stable?
There is? We have alphas and beats and RCs but I don't think there's any actual "process" wrt testing. I mean, there is always plenty of stuff that is never tested.
We do have a testing "process". In 2009, a group known as the openSUSE Testing Core Team was organized by Holger Sickenberg with an initial membership of 25. For details, see http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Testing_Core_team. Predictably, a large number of those with membership have never contributed, or contributed very little, even though only one of that group has formally resigned. In fact, only a handful of the members are regular contributors. An offshoot of the TCT has been the openQA system (http://openqa.opensuse.org/) that was started by Bernhard M. Wiedemann, who chairs our on-line meetings. Nearly all builds of the installation media are run through the automated tests, which catch many of the most glaring problems that affect the installation process. I cannot speak for the rest of the members, but I test every MS, Beta, and RC release, as well as many of the intermediate builds. Until MS4, or so, all tests are done in virtual machines. Testing on real machines starts with a box that is used strictly for this purpose. Once that is working, then that release gets installed on my main work machine, and I use the new release routinely until the next cycle. My main emphasis is on finding those problems that prevent installation, i.e. those bugs that cannot be repaired by updating a package in the repos. Next I make certain that the tools that I use regularly work; however, my work load uses a limited portion of the overall system. Besides the standard utilities, the major tested packages include the KDE desktop, Firefox, Thunderbird, Konversation, and K3b. Clearly, the thoroughness of the testing is hurt by the limited number of testers and the small number of hardware configurations that they possess. Yes, plenty of stuff never gets tested by other than the package maintainers, and there are critical sections of systemd (as an example) that never get tested on our systems. Despite this, we do have a testing "process". Larry -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org