Autobuild time-saving proposal
I have an idea and wonder if:
1. it's not a stupid idea,
2. the framework to implement it is already there.
After an upload, I check the buildd logs to see if everything is going
well on others architectures. Then sometimes a log seems fine (and is
noted as 'maybe-successful' on buildd.debian.org) but the resulting
package is broken.
I believe it is possible to implement small tests to check if a package
is working mostly correctly.
My idea would be to add this testing step to the buildd process. A
simple file in the debian/directory could do it
(debian/package.buildd?). When present, buildd would install the freshly
built packages and execute the testing script. This process would be
logged with the building process log and when tested the label could be
changed from maybe-successful, maybe-failed to certainly-successful and
certainly-failed.
For example for gphoto2 I could run gphoto2 --list-cameras and gphoto2
--list-ports which load all the libgphoto2 libraries and use them.
If both commands succeed, the package is certainly use-able.
Of course this is a simple situation, for example it could be necessary
to provide testing dependencies (a Testing-Depends: line in debian/control?).
I believe this could save some times to the buildd maintainers.
Would it be difficult to implement that?
Christophe
Note on missing build deps: One of the obvious useful part of the auto
build logs is the missing build-depends detection based on the uploaded
binary dependencies. I would love to see this test added to lintian.
--
Christophe Barbé <christophe.barbe@ufies.org>
GnuPG FingerPrint: E0F6 FADF 2A5C F072 6AF8 F67A 8F45 2F1E D72C B41E
There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're
talking about. -- John von Neumann
Reply to: