Re: [gentoo-dev] Updated handbooks for autobuilds

[Joshua Saddler]

On Sun, 4 Oct 2009 11:42:13 -0700
Joshua Saddler <nightmorph@g.o> wrote:

> There. I did the x86 and amd64 handbooks (networked, anyway; who cares about
> networkless). They're now ready for the 10th anniversary. I'm pretty sure.
>
> I also did the x86 quickinstall handbooks.

It's been several months, so it's time for a status update:

This week I finally completed the alpha, arm, hppa, ia64, and sparc handbooks. Still have to do PPC/PPC64. There are just a few open tracker bugs; once these are fixed, that will free up all the ebuild and non-doc bugs that depend on our handbook bugs.

While doing the handbooks, I discovered that some of our arches have been neglected, so this next part is a call for help with the weekly/monthly autobuilds.

* * *

What's up with the arches:

x86 and AMD64 have not had new stages or LiveCDs in months. jmbsvicetto just started working on 'em, but we need LOTS of eyes and fixers for our two biggest arches. Right now there's no one else. Most of the breakages seem to come from toolchain and Python 3.x build failures (because *someone* wanted it stable), but it needs troubleshooting.

HPPA could use some assistance in generating autobuilt LiveCDs: the most recent CDs are from the 2008.0 release. If you've got the hardware, please contact the HPPA team.

IA64 hasn't had new media in a month, but I understand that armin76 is workin' on it. If you've got Itanium hardware, contact the ia64 team.

PPC64 hasn't produced much in the way of stages or CDs since October 2009.
PPC32 and PPC64 (32-bit userland) has stages from May, but no CDs since 10/2009. PowerPC is one of our bigger secondary platforms, right? We need folks with the hardware to diagnose the problems and come up with some build fixes, so that we can adjust the autobuild scripts.

Based on the number of releases, ARM, Sparc, and Alpha seem to be doing okay. More folks willing to watch for build failures and help out are, of course always welcome.

MIPS is is its own special arch; last releases are from 2007.0. However, r0bertz and redhatter are working on getting stuff to first compile before putting together autobuild releases. If you've got any kind of MIPS machine, especially something fairly recent, please get in touch with the MIPS folks to see about getting stuff to build. MIPS could use more recent stages. The installation instructions for MIPS are so different they have their own entirely nonconformant handbook. With working autobuilds, even on a monthly (or longer) basis, I could fix up the handbooks to make them much easier for folks to maintain. Nonstandard documentation is always extremely difficult to work with.

Bottom line: the autobuilds idea is a sound one. However, it needs more maintenance than you might think. We need more people to watch it and help out.

Thanks for your time,

Josh