Universe QA for Hardy

[Luk Claes]

Emmet Hikory wrote:
> MOTUs, Contributors, and other interested parties,

Hi

> Packages should install and purge cleanly:
> 
>     Every package shipped should minimally support installation,
> removal, and purging.  Having it run and do something is nice and all,
> but without this level of functionality, users have difficulty
> investigating the software available in the archive.

>     To catch problems that are not solely a result of package
> relationships, it would be additionally nice to schedule piuparts (7)
> runs during the development cycle.  If resources are available, I
> would think that runs at DebianImportFreeze, FeatureFreeze, and
> BetaFreeze would be ideal.  When run during the feisty cycle, it took
> about a week to process the entire archive, so a similar duration
> should be expected for Hardy runs.

lucas might be able to run these on the grid?

> Integration of Debian improvements:
> 
>     Debian does lots of great work, which isn't always well matched to
> our release schedule.  This work often includes fixes for all sorts of
> annoying bugs: we should do our best to integrate the results of this
> effort into Ubuntu.
> 
>     Firstly, Debian has a concept of "Release Critical" bugs: whenever
> possible, we should not ship any package that contains a "Release
> Critical" bug when there is a known solution.  Please review the RC
> Bugs list (8) periodically, and sync / merge / backport as
> appropriate.  This page should contain no entries on release day.  For
> those interested in further cleanliness, people are welcome to review
> the full list of open Debian "Release Critical" bugs (9), and provide
> fixes.

Note that in Debian we focus on http://bts.turmzimmer.net/details.php as
that only includes RC bugs which are relevant for the next release (of
packages which are in testing).

> 7: http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/devel/piuparts
> 8: http://django.ajmitch.net.nz/rcbugs/ (Thank you Andrew Mitchell)
> 9: http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/debian/all.html

I hope there can be a better coordination between Ubuntu QA and Debian
QA established. As discussed on IRC the following steps might be a good
start:

One of the first steps could be identifying what tools are used in
Ubuntu and what tools are used in Debian. This would make sure both
teams at least know of the tools the other team uses. I guess persia
will coordinate the work for the Ubuntu list and I'll coordinate the
work for the Debian list.

An overview page of packages with their issues in Debian and Ubuntu
would be a great thing to have, so people can see what problems are
distribution specific and which ones are not. This would of course
involve tracking version information and differences. If someone would
volunteer to write a spec for such a page that would be great.

Cheers

Luk