Re: glib2 on NetBSD/i386 3.0 using pkgsrc-2011Q1

[Matthias Rampke <matthias%rampke.de@localhost>]

On Freitag, 10. Juni 2011 at 19:26, Stefan Schaeckeler wrote:

> That makes me wonder how packages and patches are tested. Are committers only 
> testing them on their plattform and commit if they work there?
seems so
> 
> Wouldn't it make sense to ask (or force?) committers to test packages and 
> patches in VMs for operating systems that are easy to set up such as intel 
> linux and intel open solaris?
In theory – yes. In practice, I don't think so.

Which platforms should be the "core"? What about software that just doesn't 
work on all platforms, because it needs to be ported? But maybe just works on 
some platforms?

IMHO you can not require testing on all the pkgsrc platforms, nothing would 
ever get done. Porting something like Firefox is a hell of a lot of work, for 
every single platform.

I use pkgsrc on DragonFly, and I've come across a few places where programs 
don't work. I've generally found that any fixes I submitted through the PR 
system have been warmly welcomed, which is really encouraging.

On the other hand, in very many instances software that has probably not been 
tested on DFly by the maintainers worked out of the box.

So from this experience, I'd rather have packages in pkgsrc that may or may not 
work on non-NetBSD platforms than only packages guaranteed to work everywhere.


Of course, if it *is* possible to test on other platforms before committing 
that is very desirable, and everyone encountering portability problems is 
dearly encouraged to fix them and submit the fixes.

>  How about setting up a build farm of various plattforms
that would be cool!
>  and require commits to successfully build on these machines?
hmm, I'd say: no. maybe "successfully on those it built before, unless there is 
good reason"? 


-m.