Hello all, in Ubuntu we have started adding some autopkgtests to packages, using the DEP-8 debian/tests/control standard [1]. We now also have a test execution environment [2] which automatically triggers autopkgtest runs for a package and all its reverse dependencies on each upload. So far this is rather experimental.
The main problem that we are facing with this is that it is not easily discoverable which source packages actually ship tests. Right now this is a hardcoded list, which does not scale at all. Thus I would like to propose to add a source package header, so that test execution environments can find out packages with tests by merely scanning Sources.gz (or iterating over the package dict with python-apt and the like). What do you think about something like this? (Diff against [3]) --- dep8.mdwn.orig 2012-06-13 09:22:06.156404163 +0200 +++ dep8.mdwn 2012-06-13 09:36:34.564446191 +0200 @@ -30,6 +30,14 @@ currently implemented by the [autopkgtest](http://packages.debian.org/sid/autopkgtest) package. +# Source package header + +To allow test execution environments to discover packages which provide tests, +their source packages should have a "Has-Autotests: true" header. This can +be set manually in debian/control with adding "XS-Has-Autotests: true" in the +"Source:" paragraph. Future versions of dpkg-source might add this +automatically when a debian/tests/control file is present. + ---- I don't particularly care about the name or value of the header, but it's important to agree on one so that we can avoid having to change lots of packages later on. Once this is in the standard and proven to work, I'm happy to send a patch against dpkg-source to add that header automatically. Thank you, Martin [1] http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep8/ [2] https://jenkins.qa.ubuntu.com/view/Precise/view/AutoPkg%20Test/ [3] http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/dep/web/deps/dep8.mdwn?view=markup -- Martin Pitt | http://www.piware.de Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com) | Debian Developer (www.debian.org)
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