On Sat, Sep 16, 2000 at 02:53:50PM +1100, Ron Stodden wrote:
> Kadjo N'DOUA wrote:
> >
> > MandrakeSoft is happy to announce the second Beta of its next release
> > (Ulysses). Among many new features, you will discover KDE 2 (1.94),
> > MenuDrake, Kernel 2.2.17 & 2.4 ...
> >
> > Read the announcement:
> > http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en//72beta2.php3
> >
> > download it:
> > http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/72betaftp.php3
> > --
> >
> > Kadjo N'Doua
> > Web Content Editor
> > http://www.linux-mandrake.com
>
> Kadjo,
>
> Well, what a mess!
>
> These ISO images predate the 7.2beta tree by about two weeks. The
> 7.2beta tree is sill being updated with about 100 replacement files
> per day, with the update-in-progress flag still up. When that
> disappears, that defines the frozen beta 2, I would have thought. We
> are all patiently waiting.
>
> So, which is the definitive 7.2 beta 2?
Ron, what you are describing I would call a daily build, not a beta.
In companies that do a daily build of the product, someone is responsible
for building the product, and some preliminary acceptance testing. With a
software product like a word processor, this would involve compiling the
product. If the compile fails, report the failure as a bug, etc. Similarly
for the acceptance testing.
I would think a daily build process of a Linux disty would include:
building the binary RPMs from the source RPMs, and catching errors, then
simulating an installation CD. Next would be to install on several testbed
machines, which can be plain vanilla up to some fairly sophisticated
machines. Ideally, the install process would include automated
installation problem logging. This should be followed by some acceptance
testing using automated shell scripts and other tools.
Mandrake: I hope you are doing something like this, as I have found the
process to be very useful in finding bugs in software products. But if
you are, please label the daily builds as such, and don't call them
betas!
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