DaemonForums  

Go Back   DaemonForums > OpenBSD > OpenBSD Packages and Ports

OpenBSD Packages and Ports Installation and upgrading of packages and ports on OpenBSD.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   (View Single Post)  
Old 20th June 2012
daemonfowl daemonfowl is offline
bsdstudent
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: DaemonLand
Posts: 834
Default how to become a tester?

+ How can a simple user be a good tester ?
Reply With Quote
  #2   (View Single Post)  
Old 20th June 2012
jggimi's Avatar
jggimi jggimi is offline
More noise than signal
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 7,975
Default

The only helpful OS tester is one who produces clear and complete problem reports for the developers. This is something you still struggle with, here on this forum.

Perhaps you should consider starting with port testing, rather than worrying about the base OS. The FAQ has a terrific guide, and there is a constant need for port testers.
Reply With Quote
  #3   (View Single Post)  
Old 20th June 2012
ocicat ocicat is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 3,318
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jggimi View Post
Perhaps you should consider starting with port testing,...
However, the earlier comment applies here too. Until one develops the ability to write clear & concise reports on the difficulties encountered, the port developers are not going to have patience in dealing with ambiguous & incomplete reports. They don't have the time to coddle.
Reply With Quote
  #4   (View Single Post)  
Old 20th June 2012
daemonfowl daemonfowl is offline
bsdstudent
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: DaemonLand
Posts: 834
Default

Thanks jgimmi. I had in mind ports testing.
Thanks ocicat. I'm fully aware of that and that's why I've never been honored to pay them a visit.Instead I come to this wonderful forum.

please merge the 2.

Last edited by daemonfowl; 20th June 2012 at 05:08 PM. Reason: please merge
Reply With Quote
  #5   (View Single Post)  
Old 20th June 2012
jggimi's Avatar
jggimi jggimi is offline
More noise than signal
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 7,975
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by daemonfowl View Post
...I've never been honored to pay them a visit.
You could start by browsing one of the ports@ mailing list archives, and then subscribing to the list. You will learn how communication between ports developers and testers takes place .... without having to commit to any direct participation; you can do this without ever posting.

Personally, my first experience as an OpenBSD tester was after posting an informal bug report to misc@. I ended up communicating with a developer directly, back and forth for several weeks. He worked up the patches for my hardware, I sent reports back, until the problem was resolved and his final patches were committed.
Reply With Quote
  #6   (View Single Post)  
Old 20th June 2012
ocicat ocicat is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 3,318
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jggimi View Post
You could start by browsing one of the ports@ mailing list archives, and then subscribing to the list.
I wholeheartedly agree that familiarizing yourself with the appropriate lists is one of the right steps to take if ports testing is a goal. http://marc.info/ is one such archive site. References to others can be found on the mailing list page:

http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html

It should be mentioned that the role of porting third-party software to OpenBSD is:
  • to ensure that the application's basic functionality is preserved. Finding bugs in the application is good, but it is not the responsibility of the porter to fix all bugs; bugs may be due to OpenBSD-specific reasons or introduced by the OpenBSD porter. These should be fixed. However, deeper bugs may exist in in the application which are exhibited on other operating systems as well. It is better to pass these bug reports back to the parent project/developer for them to fix in the original code base. The point here is that the ported application should generally work in the same fashion as it does on other operating systems.
  • If testing can be made on alternate platforms (ie. macppc, sparc64, etc.), this may reveal additional flaws in design and/or implementation. It would be good to report these to whoever created the port, however, note that the decision may be to simply mark the port as broken on non-i386 platforms if the code base was written too specifically for i386. These errors should also be passed back to the parent project, however it is their decision as to whether they want to support more exotic architectures.
Reply With Quote
  #7   (View Single Post)  
Old 22nd June 2012
daemonfowl daemonfowl is offline
bsdstudent
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: DaemonLand
Posts: 834
Default

Thank you very much!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 02:04 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Content copyright © 2007-2010, the authors
Daemon image copyright ©1988, Marshall Kirk McKusick