From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 21 13:04:15 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7994AA5A for ; Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:04:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.e.sanliturk@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vb0-f51.google.com (mail-vb0-f51.google.com [209.85.212.51]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3F2FAFE6 for ; Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:04:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-vb0-f51.google.com with SMTP id fq11so5763107vbb.10 for ; Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:04:14 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:x-received:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; bh=5kN1pK+dFhfjm0FOJR6mfiEhtT4P0RY7++5Yh+Xz3ro=; b=ii+GqWKOlDY0JxjY1nNw7L6QNnQRzWBIZ7N/RueLX2tb9WfnC+O7wzSLfBkGG94vs9 VXuG7stVnqoqLBbLIOUkVdJJ2TXXKQdow/4+LQLV8c1IRePgXCnk8oNAxb8yh4snCDlv GocmdYWmGGlfcIUvvvCLWT9LDFylNyk7Q9x7IKg5aQiHrmWinBRPsFIsAeSF/Jd1Wrt5 p6TuLdILmfEjmQ9EL23p7eVC1CEFYWxzVzS1Ydd8Pj3wFdd5SXI9Zdvr0f4v5BMUJmW6 hSbc1p+z9XS0GZwkhoDwOC7meqejKL1Xh5EHXTgReKhqHhDzJX0GuTnDLqLb0ebJ3qzc 6FxQ== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.220.40.9 with SMTP id i9mr31096148vce.23.1361451848961; Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:04:08 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.58.170.36 with HTTP; Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:04:08 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:04:08 -0800 Message-ID: Subject: FreeBSD Testing Facility From: Mehmet Erol Sanliturk To: freebsd-current Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.14 X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:04:15 -0000 Dear All , During development of FreeBSD , testing is very vital . To my knowledge ( which may not be correct ) , at present , Tinderbox is used to only compilation correctness , means "Syntax" is tested . I have downloaded ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/10.0/FreeBSD-10.0-CURRENT-amd64-20130216-r246877-release.iso and tried to install it on an Intel DG965WH main board . During the first booting , it generated a panic message and entered into debug mode . For me it has crashed , because I do not know what to do in debug mode . On this main board , it is possible to completely install and successfully run Windows 7 , Fedora 15 , 17 , 18 , Mageia OpenSuSE and some others , all of them being 64 bits . The above failure shows that "Semantics" of FreeBSD is NOT tested well . My suggestion is as follows : Establish a mailing list only devoted to FreeBSD testing activities . To the subscribers , present a form to get information which parts of the FreeBSD he/she can test by selecting from supplied parts list . Establish a testing ftp site and introduce into it testing scripts and their parts , or iso files , etc. , directed toward testing a whole or a part . In that site , classify tests in directories such as FATAL ( requires a new , complete install , or can not be applied in a production system ) DANGEROUS ( can not be applied in a production system ) HARMLESS With respect to forms filled by the testing list subscribers , send a mail to inform that a testing step is available with related links . The subscriber , may download the testing parts and apply them . If it is planned and implemented to return a mail showing test results on behalf of user approval , it may be very good . In that way , automated analysis of returned mails will be possible . If this is not easy , the user may send a message about result . Due to irregular message structure , automatic processing of such messages will be difficult . With the above structure , it will be possible to test the FreeBSD as much as possible . The subscribers may maintain a USB hard disk or stick or memory card to be used only for testing purposes . Some subscribers may have free computers to apply tests . Some subscribers may disconnect power of a production hard disk and apply tests on a spare disk , etc. , if they can find time . Any testing step in any way conceived by the subscribers will be useful . There are such community testing programs , for example , using BOINC . There is a port about this already . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOINC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOINC_client%E2%80%93server_technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ http://www.freshports.org/net/boinc-client/ http://www.freshports.org/net/boinc_curses/ http://www.freshports.org/astro/boinc-astropulse/ http://www.freshports.org/astro/boinc-setiathome-enhanced/ http://www.freshports.org/biology/boinc-simap/ Thank you very much . Mehmet Erol Sanliturk