Thanks again for autopkgtest testing migration gating.
I just wanted to say thank you again for getting this working. I know
I have been sending a lot of messages about how things can be
improved. That doesn't really reflect how good a change this has
been.
Now, when I have a package with a good test suite, development speed
is very substantially increased. With the reduction in migration
delays, I feel closer to (at least some of) my users.
The migration delay effect is great in both directions: I feel less
need to run very formal (and therefore very time consuming) tests
manually on my laptop. (Although I do still find them useful, so
they're not out of my workflow completely, and I do do quite thorough
ad-hoc testing.) This is good redirection of my time, away from
setting up and babysitting tests.
And the rdependency testing has already meant that one obscure
potential data loss regression, due to complicated interactions
between different programs, was detected by my test suite, and fixed,
before the affected combinations of software reached testing.
With a program which makes heavy use of some of its dependencies, it
is good to feel confident that regressions will be detected, and
quickly reported to me.[1]
I would encourage everyone who can do so, to jump on this bandwagon.
Development is so much faster and easier when a solid set of tests
stand between you and releasing bugs.
Ian.
[1] I'm using grep-excuses --autopkgtests for this, which is in very
recent versions of devscripts.
--
Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> These opinions are my own.
If I emailed you from an address @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is
a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.
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