From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 8 06:38:59 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8F96916A4CE for ; Tue, 8 Feb 2005 06:38:59 +0000 (GMT) Received: from critter.freebsd.dk (f170.freebsd.dk [212.242.86.170]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D748243D46 for ; Tue, 8 Feb 2005 06:38:58 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from phk@critter.freebsd.dk) Received: from critter.freebsd.dk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by critter.freebsd.dk (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j186ctcO041057; Tue, 8 Feb 2005 07:38:55 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from phk@critter.freebsd.dk) To: njc From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:05:35 PST." <4207F43F.3040300@fightevil.net> Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 07:38:55 +0100 Message-ID: <41056.1107844735@critter.freebsd.dk> Sender: phk@critter.freebsd.dk cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The case for FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 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: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 06:38:59 -0000 In message <4207F43F.3040300@fightevil.net>, njc writes: >Scott Long wrote: >> We need more people >> who will write articles and papers and do benchmarks and regression >> testing. That's not to say that we don't already have people filling >> these roles, it's to say that we need more. > >Scott - > > Do you, or possibly other developers, have any suggestions on the best way to organize >a community-driven testbed and quality assurance effort? Specifically - what would be the most >convenient form and method for a BSD developer to receive feedback for patch testing, are there >any recommended testing procedures (methods && tools), etc? Here's what I'm looking for in a good bug report (in no particular order): Stack backtrace if the kernel croaks. Ktrace if the kernel does something wrong. Elimination of unrelated factors. If you see the error compiling ports/x11/xorg, try to find out how little of it you can get away with doing to provoke the error ? If you are using complex disk geometries, try if you can reproduce on a plain single disk system ? Does it happen on other computers as well ? Does it happen only under SMP or also UP ? Does it happen also in single user mode ? Does enabling WITNESS/DIAGNOSTICS in the kernel catch something ? Can you write a shell script which fails every time ? Can you find another way to provoke it ? A patch. It is really very very simple, the easier you make it for me to reproduce the error here, the faster I can find out what's wrong and fix it. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.