On 2006-03-22 msporleder@gmail.com wrote:

> As I started to think about it more, however, I wondered what testing
> could actually be performed on an operating system.  It's such a
> complex mix of features.  Testing all of the binaries/libraries should
> be pretty easy (ls works, compress works, libxyz works, etc), but
> testing kernel features and network stuff seemed like it could be very
> difficult.

  With unit tests, serial consoles, xen, and hardware emulators it is
*possible* to automate testing of anything.  Of course, then you need to
write and fix bugs in the tests too :).  See also "fuzzing" for a test
method that is often very successful with little effort.  pkgsrc is good
for this too... general use, the test target, bulk builds, bulk builds
over a network...

Matthew Orgass
darkstar@city-net.com