Build failure tooling improvements

[Jonathan Perkin <jperkin%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

It's been encouraging to see some of the proposals recently to improve 
quality.  Something I've obviously been very passionate about for a long 
time.

In the past I've done a lot of work, whether that's daily bulk builds 
across multiple operating systems, the CI system, scan failure mails, 
custom bulk builds, lots of additional checks, etc, but they haven't 
always been well received or used as I'd hoped, which has obviously led 
to some frustration on both sides.

So, how about a different approach.  What would you like me to work on?  
What features would you like to see, and would actively use?  What is 
your ideal workflow?  What would it take for your workflow to include 
cross-platform checks prior to commit?  What resources do you need to 
help ensure each individual commit is as high-quality as possible?

I want to build systems and tooling that will help improve pkgsrc 
quality, but they have to actually be used, with a reasonable 
expectation that failures will be acted upon.  If we can agree on it, 
I'll build it.

I'm in the very fortunate position where I'm employed to work pretty 
much full-time on pkgsrc, and I'd much rather that time was spent on 
tooling that will be used by everyone and improves pkgsrc for all.

It's likely that there will be too many differing opinions to come up 
with a golden path that suits everyone for every commit, but I wonder if 
we might get to the point where we at least have a pmc-enforced path for 
the more critical parts of the tree.

Thanks,

--
Jonathan Perkin                    pkgsrc.smartos.org
Open Source Complete Cloud   www.tritondatacenter.com