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- Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!caen!hellgate.utah.edu!fcom.cc.utah.edu!cs.weber.edu!terry
- From: terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C)
- Subject: Re: Bug Report and Patchkit status
- Message-ID: <1992Dec11.224735.23342@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
- Keywords: time,school,need a life!
- Sender: news@fcom.cc.utah.edu
- Organization: Weber State University (Ogden, UT)
- References: <1992Dec10.173351.11083@coe.montana.edu>
- Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 22:47:35 GMT
- Lines: 254
-
- In article <1992Dec10.173351.11083@coe.montana.edu> osynw@gemini.oscs.montana.edu (Nate Williams) writes:
- >Here's the situation.
- >
- >I don't feel that I have done a very good job of keeping up the Bug
- >Report and the Patchkit lately. Next semester is going to be worse, and
- >I'm losing my network access on my 386BSD machine.
- >
- >Soooo,
- > Does anyone in 386BSD land want to take over the Bug List
- >co-ordination? I have been trying to put out another version of the
- >patchkit, but because of lack of time and trying to re-format the old
- >patchkit, I haven't added many patches. (I have LOTS of them, and more
- >are coming every day) Someone who has more time than me needs to take
- >over the co-ordination if this is going to be kept up to date. I don't
- >mind doing it, but there is no way that I can stay afloat next year and
- >still get the extra work done keeping everything up to date.
- >
- >Next, now that the patchkit fixes most bugs that everyone has, should
- >the Bug Report be discontinued? Are the explanation's in the seperate
- >patches good enough for people to know what has/hasn't been fixed? When
- >I give this thing up, should the next person only have to work on the
- >Patchkit, instead of doing both? The reason I am asking is because both
- >of these projects are pretty intertwined, so having two people working
- >on them would require alot of co-ordination, since they are both looking
- >at bugs/fixes to 386BSD. (One is the fix, the other is the explanation)
-
-
- Nate:
-
- You've done a wonderful job with the bug report, and the work
- you've done recently on updating the patchkit is something that probably
- would not have been done otherwise. You deserve public thanks. Thanks.
-
-
- ----------------------------------------
-
- I think a lot of us are feeling time pressure on what's supposedly a
- volunteer effort to get items we see as necessary out the door before
- we are ready.
-
- This "rush" is due, I think, in large part to the amazing amount of new
- work that has been released lately, but also to the fact that there are
- enough people threatening to CDROM the code that we want "our best foot
- forward", as it were.
-
- It is probably a mistake to CDROM at this point (not that I wouldn't buy
- one myself) because of this, and because many of us are close enough to
- finishing significant work that we feel the crunch more than we would
- have three months ago or probably will three months from now.
-
- I am also wary of the USL reaction to large scale distribution of 386BSD
- (or for that matter, Linux) prior to the suit being resolved one way or
- the other.
-
- One thing that would help alleviate the pressure would be an agreement
- by the CDROM proponents to a "code freeze" at some recent "current level"
- (preferrably prior to the Joerg shared libraries). This would, of course,
- reduce the "competitiveness" of distributions from "nice guys" if the
- CDROM were to be treated as a commercial product (I believe it will). I
- consel waiting until at least the upcoming 0.2 release for which there is
- no public commitment as yet. This again puts the "nice guys" at a
- disadvantage.
-
- I ask that the FAQ not be put on CDROM until I have a chance to update
- it (which I have desperately been trying to do lately), and if I can't
- update it before press date, it should probably be left off.
-
-
- ----------------------------------------
-
- As to the bug list, I think it needs to continue. It provides not only
- work arounds prior to an actual fix being available, but also fixes which
- are mutually exclsive with correct operation on some systems, as well as
- a comprehensive errata sheet.
-
- I can't take over the bug report; it needs someone whose sole contribution
- to 386BSD is its maintenance, or who has a lot more free time than Nate or
- I do.
-
- I can't deal with the patchkit that I released (and then basically dumped
- on Nate by mutual consent) until I deal with the FAQ.
-
-
- What I can do is make some "division of labor" suggestions for anyone
- taking Nate up on his offer, and potentially for Nate and myself as well,
- depending on whatever future involvement our schedules allow. Some of
- this depends on automation, and some on single individuals willing to
- accept management rather than active participatory roles.
-
- From personal experience in the software industry, I think the following
- may be as close to a workable ideal as we can expect:
-
- ----------------------------------------
-
- The bug list manager:
-
- 1) PATCHES SHOULD NOT BE SENT TO THE BUG LIST MANAGER; see below.
- 2) A central bug reporting mechanism is required.
- 3) Assignments (automaton based "checkout" of bug reports by bug
- list team?) of bugs for repeat and write-up are made. An
- "official" bug number is assigned at this time.
- 4) Editing of bug list write-ups for consistancy. An editorial
- policy need to be applied *and published to team members*.
- 5) Versioning of the buglist for distribution.
- 6) Distribution of buglist in comp.unix.bsd (or replacement) and
- key FTP archives.
- 7) The bug list manager may be a bug list team member (if he/she
- has the time -- management comes first).
- 8) The bug list manager can "fire" a team member after a [TBD]
- number of failures to meet "editorial policy". This should
- not be wanton (ie: manager must allow opportunity for rewrite
- by a team member); however, it's possible that a single team
- member could monopolize the manager with editorial problems,
- and this can not be allowed.
- 9) Netnews access to pull bugs not reported through email from
- news postings. Many international sites have posting access
- but not email access. NOTE: BUGS WHICH ARE POSTED WITH
- PATCHES SHOULD NOT BE PULLED BY THE BUG LIST MANAGER! ONE OF
- THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PATCHKIT MANAGER IS TO SUBMIT
- BUG REPORTS FOR THESE BUGS. This was seen as an equitable
- division of responsibility, and makes more sense than requiring
- the bug list and patchkit managers to seperate out "their" parts
- of a netnews posting.
- 10) FTP archival of "validation test cases" for patchkit manager.
- 11) Coordinates list releases with the patchkit manager.
-
-
- The bug list team member:
-
- 1) Rewrites submitted bugs for clarity (ie: the description "floppy
- hangs mysteriously" is inadequate) and insures they are in "bug
- report format" (per editorial policy).
- 2) Writes a validation test case (or cases). The source/executable/
- shell script name is based on the "official" bug number with
- a possibility of a single character suffix. For example, the
- file "bug00035a.sh" would be a shell script testing for one
- part of the bug in bug report 35. Note that this may have to be
- done by the original submitter if it is peculiar to a hardware
- configuration.
- 3) Mails the "processed" bug back to the manager. Packaging software
- would help automate this process.
- 4) Email access is required to be a "bug list team member".
-
-
- The patchkit manager:
-
- 1) Has email and netnews access for incoming patches.
- 2) Has FTP access for distribution of patchkit (distribution
- potentially includes posting to netnews after news group
- split).
- 3) Gets bug reports from bug list manager.
- 4) Runs buglist validation on each patch to determine which (if
- any) bugs are fixed by a patch. PATCHES ARE NOT RELEASED
- WITHOUT A BUG REPORT DESCRIBING THE NEED FOR THE PATCH.
- 5) Submits bug reports to bug list manager for patches without
- bug reports.
- 6) Informs bug list manager of patches, and which bugs are
- corrected by a given patch for update of bug list.
- 7) Keeps the "magic cookie" (or "token") to insure patches are
- installed sequentially.
- 8) Decides which patches are "mandatory", "recommended", or
- "configurable". The two other grades of patches "questionable"
- and "not recommended" DO NOT GO IN THE PATCH KIT. Instead,
- they are kept in "raw" form for archival, but not distributed.
- 9) Manages "processing" of patches by patchkit team members.
- 10) Maintains archive of:
- i) Patchkit releases
- ii) Raw patches
- iii) dist.fs/fixit.fs disks with fully patched kernels
- (patches may be updated more frequently than the
- bootable disks, since a "release" is constituted
- by a full patchkit, as opposed to "drop in" patches,
- plus patched bootables.
- 11) The patchkit manager can "fire" a team member after [TBD]
- number of failures to correctly integrate a patch or long term
- holding of the "magic cookie"; this insures timely and accurate
- releases, as well as preventing one patchkit team member from
- monopolizing the "magic cookie" to the exclusion of work by
- other team members.
- 12) Publishes a list of patches for distribution with the patchkit
- release for each new release.
- 13) Coordinates kit releases with the bug list manager.
- 14) The patchkit manager may be a patchkit team member.
- 15) The patchkit manager is responsible for updating all team members
- with the most recent validation tests from the bug list manager
- and all patches to the current level before handing over the token
- to a team member.
-
-
- The patchkit team member:
-
- 1) Keeps a fully patched source tree (at the current patch level).
- 2) Gets a patch from the patchkit manager for integration; at the
- same time, they acquire all existing patches up to that point
- (including unreleased patches), as well as the "magic cookie"
- to insure them there are no simultaneous patches to the same
- files.
- 3) Integrates the patch; generally, this entails adding commented
- header information for the patch program, and manually applying
- the patch(es). This is because very few people generating
- patches on the net are doing their diffs from fully patched
- source trees (and you wondered why the long delay!).
- 4) Runs the validation programs against the patched programs; if
- the patch does not fix anything, and is not a performance patch,
- this information is related to the patchkit manager.
- 5) If the patch fixes anything or is a performance patch, a patchkit
- format patch is generated and submitted to the patchkit manager.
- 6) Email access is require to be a "patchkit team member".
- 7) At the patchkit managers discretion, FTP access may also be
- required.
-
- ------------------------------------------------
-
- Of course, all this would be greatly improved by mailing lists, automated
- checkout and checking procedures, a "token server" for automatic update
- of fully patched trees, etc.
-
- I would also suggest that while it is required that the buglist manager
- update the patchkit manager of new bugs as soon as a validation
- mechanism is available, courtesy dictates that the bug list manager and
- team members be granted "early access" to all patches prior to them
- being "bundled up" for release.
-
- I would also suggest that the bug list and patchkit managers notify the
- Jolitz's of information under conditions where they notify each other.
-
- It should be possible to arrive at a "validation suite" to insure bugs
- are fixed through revisions almostt as a side effect of the bug reporting
- mechanism.
-
- Another class of individual, the "bug fix programmer", should be able to
- get access to the bug list and submit patches to the patchkit without
- requiring that their activities be "managed" -- ie: your average 386BSD
- person/comp.unix.bsd person. Early availability of patches and bug list
- information should not be necessary, since both should be made public
- in a timely manner.
-
-
- -------------------------------------------------
-
- Well, what does everyone think? Is it a plan? Volunteers? 8-).
-
-
- Terry Lambert
- terry@icarus.weber.edu
- terry_lambert@novell.com
- ---
- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
- or previous employers.
- --
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- "I have an 8 user poetic license" - me
- Get the 386bsd FAQ from agate.berkeley.edu:/pub/386BSD/386bsd-0.1/unofficial
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-