Re: [gentoo-ppc-dev] Automated keyword generation

[Marc Ozon]

The auto-reporting of successful builds isn't a bad idea, but here's one
problem, which I think might be a big one:  just because something can
be built successfully doesn't mean it actually works as it should.  For
example, in the last couple of days, I've successfully built fresh
copies of mozilla and fvwm, but neither have worked properly at all
(long story, but both problems appear to be the result of a problem with
gtk2 on ppc, which I normally have in my USE flags).

So, if "~ppc" means "compiles, but we don't know if the binary works",
then your suggestion makes sense.  On the other hand, if "~ppc" means
"seems to work for me, let's have others try it before it goes 'ppc'",
then anything that reports build results wouldn't be a good idea, since
buildable != usable.  I know that "ppc" means "stable, should work", but
I don't know the exact criteria for something to achieve "~ppc".  (How
does this work for other architectures?  Does "~arch" depend only on
whether it works for an ebuild maintainer?)

Two other thoughts:

-- People's $CFLAGS can vary considerably; something that builds with
one set of $CFLAGS wouldn't necessarily build with another set.  Good
examples of this are OpenOffice (pretty fussy about aggressive compiler
flags) and gtk+ on ppc (currently fails for me with gcc-3.2.3-r3 and
-mpowerpc-gfxopt, as does mozilla; others have reported similar problems
with firebird in Gentoo bugzilla).  Chances are, this sort of thing
would have to be taken into account for "~ppc" or "ppc" designation.

-- Such automated reporting would *definitely* have to be optional; some
people just don't want anyone else to know what their computer is
running, a sentiment that would have to be respected.

As for how '~ppc' and 'ppc' get added to ebuilds currently, as far as I
know, posting successes to this list is the currently recommended way;
see http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=11654 for details.  Maybe
having a forum thread on which ppc successes could be posted would also
be a good idea -- somewhere ppc developers could lurk, and somewhere
people would, I think, more readily post than to this mailing list
(subscribing is a barrier to entry, though that might be desirable).
The thread could be cleaned out periodically, just like the thread where
duplicate threads can be reported.  Whether that's a better idea than
using this list might depend on the developers' preferences. 

In spite of what I've said here, it's good to see the suggestion!  Given
that "ppc" in keywords often does lag behind x86, we ought to be
thinking harder about how this might be addressed.

Cheers,
Marc

-- 
Marc Ozon      Toronto, Ontario, Canada



--- Wes Morgan <wesm@×××××××××.org> [2003-12-02, 17:04]:
>I'm kind of a Gentoo n00b, though not a Linux n00b, so pardon any stupidity
>contained herein... ;-)
>
>Has anyone ever considered/implemented an automated build success report
>system? So that if I, for instance, successfully merged an ebuild w/ no ppc
>or ~ppc keyword, this utility could phone home and record my success. Then
>maybe that could automatically mark that package with a ~ppc keyword, then if
>enough success reports came in while it was marked ~ppc (and maybe it could
>be balanced against failure reports), it could automatically get marked ppc
>one day.
>
>The reason I ask this is that it seems that there are an awful lot of packages
>that don't have a ppc or ~ppc keyword, making Gentoo/PPC a lot less useful
>for the faint of heart (or the faint of butt) than Gentoo/x86. I was able to
>successfully merge koffice-1.3_rc1 on my TiBook 500, and I imagine there are
>plenty of other packages out there that would build successfully too, and
>probably have been built successfully, but not reported. I reported my
>success to this list, but received (as of yet) no response. It's only been a
>couple days, so that's not a complaint from me; I'm just trying to point out
>that an automated system would have already put a ~ppc keyword on this
>ebuild. :)
>
>Regardless of whether I have a good idea here or a terribly stupid one, I'd be
>really interested to learn more about the process of getting ppc and ~ppc
>keywords added to packages, and how I can best help increase the number of
>them.
>
>Thanks for a really cool distro,
>Wes Morgan
>
>
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