Hi I am writing this email as I think there could be done more to automatically test Debian packages. This would improve quality, as discovering errors is the first step in correcting them. I am not a Debian maintainer, but have been using Debian for 4+ years. As I am not an insider, I am likely to overlook some relevant information and I would be happy if people will correct me.
I have looked at the Debian homepage to investigate what kind of auto-testing are performed. I found the auto-builder network (http://www.nl.debian.org/devel/buildd/), Lintian (http://packages.debian.org/unstable/devel/lintian) and Pbuilder (http://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/pbuilder-doc/pbuilder-doc.html). The above mentioned software seems to test whether packages will compile or not. Furthermore, the software testes if packages comply by Debian policy. However, I would think that more could be done. It would be nice if packages were automatically tested under different setups, like language settings or other things that may affect a package. Also each package maintainer could supply a script which should test if the package ran properly. This script could then be run automatically on different architectures and setups (langauge settings and different settings for packages which the tested package depends upon). Do there exist, any other kind of automatic tests that I have not mentioned here? Anything else I have missed? Which errors are typical for Debian packages? This is important as certain kinds of error will properly newer be caught automatically. Any other comments would also be appreciated. Mads Lindstrm __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
