Checklist request

[bhmit1@mail.wm.edu]

Hello everyone,

------------------------------
BACKGROUND AND CURRENT STATUS:
------------------------------

Ok, I'm finally ready to start doing this.  For those that are reading
this for the first time, the checklist will be used by the testers to
verify a package is working correctly.

Scripts welcome (I finally gave in) in /usr/doc/<pkgname>/testme.sh .
Non-maintainers can send scripts to me (cc the maintainer), and I'll put
them on the web page when it's put together.

The Debian Testing Group encouraged to modify any scripts and save
them for package testing in the future.  When submitting a list, please
try to include things any user can do, e.g. don't require the package 
source or an external program that is difficult to obtain.

My personal intention is to make a testing directory containing a
sub-directory for each package, and use a shell script with diff to run
and verify the testing scripts in each directory.  Hopefully this just
means a huge one time setup cost for me.

Here's the list after my first small request:

---------
EXAMPLES:
---------

Package: diff
- cmp works on identical and different binary or text files
- diff works on files, directories, normal or 2 column
- sdiff correctly merges two files
- diff3 correctly compares 3 files

Package: grep
- Maintainer uses khadaffy test-set.
- Try a bunch of greps using different search patterns
- Also try -v switch.

Package: gzip
- These will be tested by dpkg itself
- verify compression works
- verify uncompression works

Package: tar
- These will be tested by dpkg itself
- create a compressed tarball and verify contents

-------------
YOUR MISSION:
-------------

What I'm asking for new is checklist for any package in main, however, try
to focus on required or at least standard packages in the beginning.  I'm
also opening this up to non-maintainer submissions, but cc the maintainer
if you do this.  Additions to the current list are welcome.  As these come
in, I'll post a change log to the testing and devel list, and point
interested readers to the online location (which isn't quite ready yet).

Please use the above subject line and send them directly to me so we don't
accidentally flood the mailing list (and cc the maintainer if
appropriate).

Thanks to all the supporters, this is going to be a big job, and I'll
need all the help I can get.

Happy New Year!
Brandon

-----
Brandon Mitchell <bhmit1@mail.wm.edu>   "We all know linux is great... it
PGP: finger -l bhmit1@cs.wm.edu          does infinite loops in 5 seconds"
Phone: (757) 221-4847                      --Linus Torvalds


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