November 2015 - YaST Development - openSUSE Mailing Lists

[yast-devel] Generic / Repo-specific READMEs at GitHub
by Lukas Ocilka 23 Feb '16

23 Feb '16

Hi, When Christopher was in Prague, a few of us had a brainstorming about the need of having devel-documentation placed directly in a Yast/libstorage/linuxrc repository. There are no doubts that it's one of the most important parts of projects hosted at GitHub. All their howtos mention "create README[.md]" as the very first step. In fact, we'll have new hires in the team and in such situations, good documentation is one of the most important parts. Good documentation goes from very high level to lower and lower level. We have already summarized that in Yast Team Challenges, but the summary doesn't belong to this document as it's too detailed. That's why I'm putting it here as a WIP item and deleting it from that document: --- cut --- The README should at least describe the steps needed for maintenance (for a person without expert knowledge in the area) including: * What is the project good for - what does it actually do (and how), what it cannot do (unsupported scenarios), limitations * Links to the documentation, high level and low level descriptions (e.g. RFC, wikipedia articles, man pages, project documentation, openSUSE wiki), terminology * How to fetch the source code (if something outside Git is needed it should be mentioned) * What prerequisites are needed to build the sources (external libraries, gems, scripts, …) * How to build the sources (make/rake commands…) * How to setup a testing environment (e.g. iSCSI target for iSCSI client) * How to run the code to test a change (esp. needed for non trivial projects like linuxrc) * How to run automated tests * How to build a package for submission * How to submit the package (if it needs some manual steps) * Troubleshooting (how to solve typical problems) The README should be reasonably short, if some section is too long it should be moved to a separate document (or to GitHub wiki) and linked. --- cut --- The project consists of - Taking a decision where to go - How to get there - Implementing this important documentation Those two who, according to my knowledge, were working on this were Ladislav and Christopher, but there were not the only ones and a pilot project for READMEs has been done a few months ago by Martin. It's still not finished, but moving forward. Thanks Lukas -- Lukas Ocilka, Systems Management (Yast) Team Leader SLE Department, SUSE Linux -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

4 3

[yast-devel] Ruby 'next' considered dangerous
by Stefan Hundhammer 03 Dec '15

03 Dec '15

We just had to deal with a P1 bug caused by a stray 'next' statement in the Ruby code that did not return a value: https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=955216#c11 We seem to have a large number of such 'next' statements in our code. Everybody please be aware that this can cause great trouble in certain iterator methods that expect a return value from their code block! In this case, it was Hash::reduce(). If you simply call 'next' in its loop, it will merrily clobber its accumulator with 'nil', very likely causing a crash in the next loop iteration. IMHO it's sad that we do have tools that enforce stuff like one newline too many between function definitions, but critical things like not returning a value from a block that is required to return one goes completely unnoticed. And we were even lucky that our QA caught this problem, not some unsuspecting customer in the field. What can we do to improve this? I suggest some Ruby experts to collect all such functions that are potentially in danger of this problem and then grep through the code where they are used, and if any similar 'next' without a required return value is used. But that's just a one-time effort. Maybe there is some tool out there that can automate that for us. Kind regard -- Stefan Hundhammer <shundhammer(a)suse.de> YaST Developer SUSE Linux GmbH GF: Felix Imendörffer, Jane Smithard, Graham Norton; HRB 21284 (AG Nürnberg) Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

5 11

[yast-devel] New libstorage: Returning NULL pointers vs. throwing exceptions
by Stefan Hundhammer 01 Dec '15

01 Dec '15

When we put the new libstorage to the test in our tech previews, we had one typical situation occuring again and again: I get a pointer (or object reference in Ruby) to a base class object (typically BlkDevice), and I need to know what it actually is, or even just if it exists. Typical example: I need to check each filesystem on a disk for certain things. Since the disk might or might not have a partition table, first I need to check if it has one, and if it does, iterate over all partitions. If there is no partition table, there might be a filesystem directly on the disk (on, say, /dev/sdc rather than /dev/sdc1 - this might easily happen with USB sticks), so I need to check that, too. Now there are two approaches with an API like libstorage: (a) I query the disk for its partition table. If it doesn't have one, I get a NULL pointer (or nil object reference in Ruby). (b) I query the disk for its partition table. If it doesn't have one, an exception is thrown. At first thought, getting an exception for a quite common situation sounds like a bad idea. Worse, I might be tempted to introduce a new functionality: (c) Check if the disk has a partition table and only fetch that pointer/object reference if it does. If I fetch it when there is none, an exception is thrown. Basically, (c) is combining the worst of (a) and (b): I have to do a lot of checks and I might still get an exception. Worse, what happens behind the scenes when I call that has_partition_table() (C++) or partition_table? (Ruby) function is exactly the same as in (a): The lib fetches the pointer and checks if the object it points to has the desired type. In scenario (a), the corresponding Ruby code looks like this: # Check if a disk is our installation disk - the medium we just booted # and started the installation from. This will check all filesystems on # that disk. # def installation_disk?(disk) log.info("Checking if #{disk} is an installation disk") partition_table = disk.partition_table if partition_table partition_table.partitions.each do |partition| next if [::Storage::ID_SWAP, ::Storage::ID_EXTENDED].include?(partition.id) return true if installation_volume?(partition) end return false # No installation partition in the partition table end # Check if there is a filesystem directly on the disk # (without partition table). This is very common for installation # media such as USB sticks. installation_volume?(disk) end Here, just one check was necessary: 'if partition_table'. We got lucky here. If that expression was any longer, we might have to do a cascade of such tests: if disk && disk.partition_table && disk.partition_table.gpt? This gets annoying pretty quickly, and it doesn't exactly make the code better readable. Scenario (b) looks like this: # Check if a disk is our installation disk - the medium we just booted # and started the installation from. This will check all filesystems on # that disk. # def installation_disk?(disk) log.info("Checking if #{disk} is an installation disk") begin disk.partition_table.partitions.each do |partition| next if [::Storage::ID_SWAP, ::Storage::ID_EXTENDED].include?(partition.id) return true if installation_volume?(partition) end return false # if we get here, there is a partition table. rescue Exception => ex # No partition table on this disk log.info("CAUGHT exception: #{ex} for #{disk}") end # Check if there is a filesystem directly on the disk (without # partition table). This is very common for installation media such # as USB sticks. return installation_volume?(disk) end Notice that there is no check if the disk has a partition table - we just use it. Or, rather, we try to use it: That's why this is wrapped into that begin..rescue block. If there is no partition table, the lib will throw an exception, and code flow will continue in the 'rescue' clause. Coming from C++ and a world where exceptions are evil and should not occur within normal control flow, this sounds bad: We get an exception in a situation that might easily happen without anything being really broken. At least not broken in the sense that "uh-oh, we have a real problem here, we can't reasonable continue". OTOH if there would be more checks that might fail (such as the 'if disk && disk.partition_table && disk.partition_table.gpt?' check above), that one 'begin..rescue' block would handle them all, and the control flow remains clear and straightforward. And that's the beauty of it. Using exceptions and not checks all over the place can help to clarify the algorithm without clobbering the code with that checking code - code that is very rarely executed and thus mostly untested (try to create test cases for all those if/else branches!). So, even though right now libstorage writes each exception to the log and thus the log gets less pretty, we prefered to use the approach with exceptions rather than having to check each pointer/object reference. We also strongly believe in making life easier for the developers using the lib, even if that comes at the cost of making life harder for the lib developers. If we forced the lib users to check every piece of information they get from the lib because it might be NULL/nil, we'd bury land mines all over the place: Every pointer/object reference that might be NULL/nil is an accident waiting to happen. Even though uncaught exceptions are a similar class of errors, at least the exceptions carry enough information to track down the problem - and you get a backtrace that tells you what's going on at exactly the place where something goes wrong (unless a nil reference that might be used much later in the code). Kind regards -- Stefan Hundhammer <shundhammer(a)suse.de> YaST Developer SUSE Linux GmbH GF: Felix Imendörffer, Jane Smithard, Graham Norton; HRB 21284 (AG Nürnberg) Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

5 15

[yast-devel] Shared Bugzilla queries
by Ladislav Slezak 30 Nov '15

30 Nov '15

Hi all, I have shared some my Bugzilla queries at [1]. These queries are useful for the yast2-maintainer of the month, but they can used by anyone else. You can easily add those queries to your default Bugzilla footer, see the doc. If you have another useful queries which are worth sharing simply add them there. Thank you! [1] http://yastgithubio.readthedocs.org/en/latest/bug-tracking/#bugzilla-links-… -- Best Regards Ladislav Slezák Yast Developer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SUSE LINUX, s.r.o. e-mail: lslezak(a)suse.cz Lihovarská 1060/12 tel: +420 284 028 960 190 00 Prague 9 fax: +420 284 028 951 Czech Republic http://www.suse.cz/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

1 0

[yast-devel] Pending Pull Requests
by yast-ci＠opensuse.org 30 Nov '15

30 Nov '15

This email is automatic generated from yast CI node. It lists of pull requests that have no activity more then three working days. If your module is listed, please check all pull request, why they are not merged yet. Pending requests in repository yast-country: - Some changes in the tumbleweed mappings (bsc#942899 and bsc#942896) (26 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/61 - Ensure ntp is installed (when Install Recommended Packages is off) (54 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/55 Pending requests in repository yast-inetd: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (9 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-inetd/pull/16 Pending requests in repository yast-installation: - Poc recover values (34 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-installation/pull/319 Pending requests in repository yast-mail: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (9 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-mail/pull/15 Pending requests in repository yast-registration: - Allow multiple occurences of 'addon' element in the schema (9 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-registration/pull/235 Pending requests in repository yast-storage: - Propose /boot for encrypted root on PowerPC (76 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/155 - don't create btrfs subvolumes outside the root fs (bsc#940797) (37 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/148 Pending requests in repository yast-auth-server: - Drop ca mgm (38 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-auth-server/pull/21 Pending requests in repository yast-journalctl-tutorial: - - fixed unknown variable error (10 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/3 - - fixed unknown variable error (10 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/2 Pending requests in repository autoyast-integration-test: - [do not merge] Check schema (6 days) https://github.com/yast/autoyast-integration-test/pull/62 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

1 0

[yast-devel] Pending Pull Requests
by yast-ci＠opensuse.org 27 Nov '15

27 Nov '15

This email is automatic generated from yast CI node. It lists of pull requests that have no activity more then three working days. If your module is listed, please check all pull request, why they are not merged yet. Pending requests in repository yast-country: - Some changes in the tumbleweed mappings (bsc#942899 and bsc#942896) (23 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/61 - Ensure ntp is installed (when Install Recommended Packages is off) (51 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/55 Pending requests in repository yast-inetd: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (6 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-inetd/pull/16 Pending requests in repository yast-installation: - Poc recover values (31 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-installation/pull/319 Pending requests in repository yast-mail: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (6 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-mail/pull/15 Pending requests in repository yast-registration: - Allow multiple occurences of 'addon' element in the schema (6 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-registration/pull/235 Pending requests in repository yast-storage: - Propose /boot for encrypted root on PowerPC (73 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/155 - don't create btrfs subvolumes outside the root fs (bsc#940797) (34 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/148 Pending requests in repository yast-auth-server: - Drop ca mgm (35 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-auth-server/pull/21 Pending requests in repository yast-journalctl-tutorial: - - fixed unknown variable error (7 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/3 - - fixed unknown variable error (7 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/2 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

1 0

[yast-devel] Pending Pull Requests
by yast-ci＠opensuse.org 26 Nov '15

26 Nov '15

This email is automatic generated from yast CI node. It lists of pull requests that have no activity more then three working days. If your module is listed, please check all pull request, why they are not merged yet. Pending requests in repository yast-bootloader: - [do not merge] partial usage of config files gem (7 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-bootloader/pull/280 Pending requests in repository yast-country: - Some changes in the tumbleweed mappings (bsc#942899 and bsc#942896) (22 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/61 - Ensure ntp is installed (when Install Recommended Packages is off) (50 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/55 Pending requests in repository yast-inetd: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-inetd/pull/16 Pending requests in repository yast-installation: - Don't let getty kill YaST on further serial consoles (bsc#935965) (6 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-installation/pull/323 - Poc recover values (30 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-installation/pull/319 Pending requests in repository yast-mail: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-mail/pull/15 Pending requests in repository yast-network: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-network/pull/365 Pending requests in repository yast-ntp-client: - Fix AutoYaST schema SLE12 SP1 (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-ntp-client/pull/43 Pending requests in repository yast-registration: - Allow multiple occurences of 'addon' element in the schema (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-registration/pull/235 Pending requests in repository yast-storage: - Propose /boot for encrypted root on PowerPC (72 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/155 - don't create btrfs subvolumes outside the root fs (bsc#940797) (33 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/148 Pending requests in repository yast-auth-server: - Drop ca mgm (34 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-auth-server/pull/21 Pending requests in repository yast-journalctl-tutorial: - - fixed unknown variable error (6 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/3 - - fixed unknown variable error (6 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/2 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

1 0

[yast-devel] Pending Pull Requests
by yast-ci＠opensuse.org 25 Nov '15

25 Nov '15

This email is automatic generated from yast CI node. It lists of pull requests that have no activity more then three working days. If your module is listed, please check all pull request, why they are not merged yet. Pending requests in repository yast-bootloader: - [do not merge] partial usage of config files gem (6 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-bootloader/pull/280 Pending requests in repository yast-country: - Some changes in the tumbleweed mappings (bsc#942899 and bsc#942896) (21 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/61 - Ensure ntp is installed (when Install Recommended Packages is off) (49 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/55 Pending requests in repository yast-inetd: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (4 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-inetd/pull/16 Pending requests in repository yast-installation: - Don't let getty kill YaST on further serial consoles (bsc#935965) (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-installation/pull/323 - Poc recover values (29 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-installation/pull/319 Pending requests in repository yast-mail: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (4 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-mail/pull/15 Pending requests in repository yast-network: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (4 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-network/pull/365 Pending requests in repository yast-ntp-client: - Fix AutoYaST schema SLE12 SP1 (4 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-ntp-client/pull/43 Pending requests in repository yast-registration: - Allow multiple occurences of 'addon' element in the schema (4 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-registration/pull/235 Pending requests in repository yast-samba-server: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (4 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-samba-server/pull/35 Pending requests in repository yast-storage: - Propose /boot for encrypted root on PowerPC (71 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/155 - don't create btrfs subvolumes outside the root fs (bsc#940797) (32 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/148 Pending requests in repository yast-users: - Fix AutoYaST schema in SLE 12 SP1 (4 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-users/pull/78 Pending requests in repository yast-auth-server: - Drop ca mgm (33 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-auth-server/pull/21 Pending requests in repository yast-journalctl-tutorial: - - fixed unknown variable error (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/3 - - fixed unknown variable error (5 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-journalctl-tutorial/pull/2 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

1 0

[yast-devel] YaST got its own tessuite in openQA
by Christopher Hofmann 24 Nov '15

24 Nov '15

Hey all, YaST got its own test suite[1] called "yast2_ui_gnome"[2] in openQA. That means that we can put our YaST-related tests into this own test suite. It is based on an already installed Gnome HDD-image. That means the test run is much faster, since we skip installation here. Currently there are all the yast_UI tests and the CLI tests, some of the zypper tests and one of the ncurses tests. They were not put in the standard 'kde' or 'gnome' test suite to not make them bigger and longer-running than they are now. Those two suites are also run as the staging tests ans therefor run very often. Some of the yast tests should of course remain in the standard testsuite - but I think I will at least copy some tests to the new yast2_ui_gnome to have them all together. I suggest to put most of our new yast thest to the new suite. Only tests of some core functionality (like package installation or so) shout get or remain in the standard testsuite. Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Christopher Hofmann [1] A test suite is a collection of single tests. Find them listed here https://openqa.opensuse.org/tests/overview?groupid=1&version=Tumbleweed&dis… [2] Have a look here https://openqa.opensuse.org/tests/101451/modules/zypper_lr/steps/1 -- SUSE Linux GmbH, GF: Felix Imendörffer, Jane Smithard, Graham Norton, HRB 21284 (AG Nürnberg) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

1 0

[yast-devel] Pending Pull Requests
by yast-ci＠opensuse.org 24 Nov '15

24 Nov '15

This email is automatic generated from yast CI node. It lists of pull requests that have no activity more then three working days. If your module is listed, please check all pull request, why they are not merged yet. Pending requests in repository yast-country: - Some changes in the tumbleweed mappings (bsc#942899 and bsc#942896) (20 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/61 - Ensure ntp is installed (when Install Recommended Packages is off) (48 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-country/pull/55 Pending requests in repository yast-installation: - Poc recover values (28 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-installation/pull/319 Pending requests in repository yast-storage: - Propose /boot for encrypted root on PowerPC (70 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/155 - don't create btrfs subvolumes outside the root fs (bsc#940797) (31 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-storage/pull/148 Pending requests in repository yast-auth-server: - Drop ca mgm (32 days) https://github.com/yast/yast-auth-server/pull/21 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: yast-devel+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: yast-devel+owner(a)opensuse.org

1 0