Re: Automatic testing of Debian packages

[Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>]

Mads Lindstrøm <mads_lindstroem@yahoo.dk> writes:

>...
> Do there exist, any other kind of automatic tests that I have not
> mentioned here?
>
> Anything else I have missed?
>
> Which errors are typical for Debian packages? This is important as
> certain kinds of error will properly newer be caught automatically.

Here are some ideas from my sourcerer-buildd package:

Before build:
- build source package and compare contents against original

After build:
- build source package and compare again
- installing package from scratch
- remove and reinstall package
- purge package
- install stable/testing version and update package
- install stable/testing version, remove it and install package
- install/update/remove/purge package and then abort action
- unpack package before all its Depends
- configure package first in a Depends cycle

Some extra tests:
- build against stable/testing versions if Build-Depends allow
- build binary package twice (if this fails the clean test should fail
    already)
- build binary package with itself installed
    (cyclic Build-Depends like gcc, ghc, ...)
- build some reverse Build-Depends with this package installed

MfG
        Goswin