Re: call for more ert tests

[David Engster]

Glenn Morris writes:
> David Engster wrote:
>> Glenn Morris writes:
>>> [2] I think it is a bit embarrassing that the limited test suite that we
>>> have has been broken for months, though. Bugs 13064, 13662.
>>
>> Couldn't we run the test suite automatically on the Hydra server, so
>> that this gets reported as a broken build?
>
> I guess so. But since we already know the testsuite is broken (and
> haven't done anything about fixing it), we would not immediately gain
> anything by this.

Not immediately, no. But at worst, you can still deactivate the broken
tests, so that you will at least notice new regressions quickly. It's
better than nothing.

> Also, hydra builds has been completely broken for weeks. I'm trying to
> get it fixed, but it's not clear what the problem is.
>
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/hydra-users/2013-06/msg00014.html
>
> And before it broke we had 4/7 failing builds for a long time, and
> no-one seemed very motivated to get them fixed. True, the only real
> Emacs issue is the x86_64-darwin one (the rest are hydra problems that
> it is hard for us to fix), but I think it reflects the fact that we
> don't really seem to care about unit tests that much.

Yes, if these things do not get fixed right away, they tend to stay
broken for a long time, especially when they affect other platforms like
Darwin. It's the same thing on the Gnus Buildbot, where the XEmacs
builds are often broken for weeks, because no one cares enough to fix
them.

However, the Gnus Buildbot does at least send a mail to the one who
committed the breakage. It'd be nice if Hydra could do that as well
(when it's working again, that is).

BTW, if the Hydra things turns out to be not fixable, my offer still
stands to set up a Buildbot for Emacs, like I did for CEDET and Gnus,
but someone would have to donate space on a server with the necessary
horsepower.

-David