[Buildroot] Call for autobuild fixing for 2014.02

[Thomas De Schampheleire]

Hi,

On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 9:02 AM, Thomas De Schampheleire
<patrickdepinguin at gmail.com> wrote:
> All,
>
> At the end of this month, buildroot-2014.02 will be released. In accordance
> with our standard 3-month release cycle, this last month is all about
> stabilization: bug fixing, autobuild fixing, etc.
>
> Last release cycle (2013.11) several developers put an increased effort in the
> last month for this stabilization, and it has definitely made a great impact.
> The number of autobuild failures significantly decreased during this time. This
> release, we can even do better!
> Looking at the current statistics, we are having 50-60% succeeding autobuilds,
> which we should certainly increase towards 70-80%!
>
> Therefore, I would like to request all developers to temporarily stop creating
> new features, adding new packages, etc. during the rest of this month, and
> focus entirely on fixing autobuild problems (or other problems) instead.
>
> There are several ways in which you can help: - Send brief analysis mails based
> on the autobuild results (sent daily by Thomas Petazzoni). This analysis mails
> typically contain for each reported failure: a copy/paste of the relevant part
> of the build log, and optionally a suggested resolution. These mails help other
> developers in selecting a problem they will fix, and avoids duplicate effort.
>
> - Fixing actual autobuild problems. To fix a problem, you would start by
> downloading the defconfig from the autobuild site, apply it in a fresh
> repository, probably set a good value for BR2_DL_DIR, and run 'make' to see if
> you can reproduce the problem. Once you can reproduce it, you can analyze in
> more detail and create a fix.  Depending on the problem, you can attempt some
> shortcuts. For example instead of building everything, you can request to build
> one particular package (foo) by running 'make toolchain foo'. If the problem is
> caused only by the overall configuration and foo itself (not by a missing
> dependency) this faster build would also show the problem. Remember: it's
> crucial that you can first reproduce the problem (with or without shortcut).
> Otherwise you may 'fix' something that is not broken.  If you want to fix a
> particular problem but get stuck, don't hesitate in sending your findings to
> the list. Other developers can try to help you.
>
> - Testing fixes sent by other developers. This involves similar steps as fixing
> the problem itself: first verify that you can reproduce the problem, then apply
> the fix and verify that the problem is gone. If all this is successful, then
> please respond on the fix with a Tested-by: tag.  This will help the maintainer
> in knowing which patches to apply.
>
> - Analyzing and if needed fixing bug reports. Open buildroot bugs are at:
> https://bugs.busybox.net/buglist.cgi?bug_status=__open__&content=&product=buildroot&query_format=specific&order=bug_id%20DESC&query_based_on=
>

Since the beginning of this month, the success rate of the autobuilds
have steadily increased, currently around 75-85%.
See statistics at http://autobuild.buildroot.org/stats.php
Thanks to all who have been submitting autobuild fixes, and made
analyses of the results!

But, let's not stop here, let's go for 90%! I really think this is
possible, we have more than a week to go...

Best regards,
Thomas