Re: [boost] Cygwin tests (Was: [1.61] Two weeks remaining for new libraries and breaking changes)

Subject: Re: [boost] Cygwin tests (Was: [1.61] Two weeks remaining for new libraries and breaking changes)
From: Vladimir Prus (vladimir.prus_at_[hidden])
Date: 2016-02-18 02:47:37

On 17-Feb-16 8:02 PM, Robert Ramey wrote:
> On 2/17/16 1:25 AM, Vladimir Prus wrote:
>
>> - It seems you have some issues on Cygwin
>> - Steven has provided a patch
>> - You haven't had the time to look into it yet
>>
>> So, it seems that on the issue of cygwin testing, you are the person who
>> has to make the next step. Is that
>> correct?
>
> LOL - I'm a volunteer, I don't HAVE to do anything.

Is anybody on this list directly paid for his work on Boost? ;-)

> But I do have to make a choice.  My options are
>
> a) spend time with b2 development along the lines that Stephen has suggested.

Steven has provided a patch, you only need to apply it and try again. Do you
think you can allocate 5 minutes for this some time soon?

> b) presume that testing on my os shows that the serialization library
> is indeed correct and ignore the testing failures on cygwin and maybe?
> mingw.

> c) ignore the failures on the develop test matrix due to changes
> in develop of other libraries and just merge from develop into release.

As a release manager, I would advise against this approach - because if things break in master,
all options at our disposal will be bad.

> d) do nothing and wait for other stuff to get fixed.  The serialization
> library won't get the latest improvements, but it won't break anything either.  That's the option I chose for 1.59.  I
> can do it again.
>
> I fix bugs and check enhancements to the library on my local system.
> At this point I presume they are correct and that I haven't introduced
> new bugs.  I look to the test system to prove me wrong.  But right
> now for the reasons I've cited, it can't do that.  I need the
> help it's supposed to provide but it's providing it.  I'm not so
> concerned about the next release as I am about this process working
> smoothly.  I've made several suggestions about how we can make
> this simpler - which amount to making the test system development
> look more like the rest of boost.

Could we adopt a more iterative approach? As you point out, we're volunteers,
so a large and vague task like 'write a test suite for regression report generator' is both
hard to schedule, and is high-risk, given that such a test suite might not fix your
actual problems. It would be more convenient to fix immediate issues, adding tests
as we go - after all, that's how Boost.Build got to hundreds of testcases, and I see
no reason why we should do differently for regression report generator.

If I understand correctly, the current issues for you are:

- Shared library testing on OS El Capitan. I will take a look.
- Testing on cygwin. Patch was provided, it seems that your testing of said patch is still
the best approach.
- Some unspecified issues with function visibility. If you need help with this, could you
   post a separate email.
- Issues where Spirit either affects Serialization, or produces too many warnings causing
   everything else in the log to be truncated. If this still an issue, could you post a
   separate email detailing the problem?

Thanks,

-- 
Vladimir Prus
http://vladimirprus.com