Re: Packages for Current ( 10.0 )

On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 12:04:45AM -0500, Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:
> I would be very happy I can contribute anything to development of FreeBSD .

We are always happy to have help :-)

> If there appears an agenda of testing problems and explicit instructions
> how to apply tests , me and other persons may apply them and report the
> results .

Well, there really isn't.  There are some regression tests for src, but
we have never established a framework to run them all automatically.
Perhaps this is something you might be interested in?

> In a message ( I do not remember its author's name  ) it is said that there
> is no a farm of FreeBSD testing machines .

I presume that's "now" for "no"?

There are several sets.  Here's how they are set up.

 - there is a "src tinderbox" which continually rebuilds the FreeBSD
   src tree, for various combinations of architectures and osreleases.
   (For src, the architectures can be cross-built.)  These are intended
   to sanity-test that src is still buildable; in general the resulting
   binaries are not made available.

 - there is a "clang buildbot" whose purpose is to build FreeBSD src
   under clang continuously.

 - various people maintain "ports tinderboxes".  These are optimized
   for test-builds of one or at least a subset of the ports tree.  In
   general the resulting binaries are not made available.

 - there is a new effort, Redports, to assemble a collection of ports
   tinderbox machines and make them available to interested people.
   We are actively working on this.

 - portmgr maintains the "pointyhat cluster" that do the package builds
   which are uploaded.  These are optimized for building the entire
   ports tree in a secure fashion; the resulting binaries are made
   available.  We are in the process of getting more machines online.

 - the pointyhat cluster is also used for "-exp runs" where portmgr
   regression-tests proposed changes to the overall ports tree to
   try to ensure as few regressions for large changes as possible.

> If we can generate such a testing ecological system , I think , FreeBSD
> development will benefit from it very much .

I agree.  But, for src, it's not something that I know much about,
and will have to defer to others to comment.

mcl