On Fri, 2006-11-24 at 13:33 +0100, Jeroen Janssen wrote: > I've done the following in the past for testing: > * changes rpm and rpm-python were tested locally on my Fedora Core 6 > machine, when everything worked ok, I updated the packages in the > "installation repo" and generated a new iso file. Note that you should also be able to put new librpm* and python module in an updates.img. Although this will then imply either a network updates.img or using something like a usb key.[1] > * changes in rpmUtils and yum were tested locally, and during install > with an updates.img using the "updates" kernel option during boot from > CD. Yep, this should work > However, it seems that updates to anaconda itself (kickstart.py, > dispatch.py, etc) are not possible from the updates.img (at least from > looking at the anaconda script it only allows to update items for > "rhpl", "yum", "rpmUtils", "urlgrabber", "pykickstart", "rhpxl", > "pirut"). > > Is there an easy way to test changes to anaconda (without building a > new ISO) that I can use? You should be able to just put the updated anaconda files in the root dir of the updates.img. > I did some testing with xen in the past, but I haven't found out > if/how I can specify my own anaconda to be used. Is it possible to use > a custom anaconda for xen installs? Not really, although I've used xen with some of the above updates methods to make my testing a lot easier. > I noticed the anaconda --test option, but I can not find documentation > on exactly how/what it does (does it create partitions? install RPMs? > etc) --test (intends) to not touch the filesystem... there are cases where there are bugs, but we tend to fix them when we notice them (or take patches). There's also --rootpath which will install packages into a chroot. I tend to use --test to test UI features (and move steps around in dispatch.py to make it faster to test what I want) and use --rootpath only very rarely for debugging these days. For most testing, I use an updates.img[2] Jeremy [1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Updates has the full rundown of ways to use an updates.img [2] Well, or even more often, I use an nfs tree and plop things into RHupdates/ as opposed to an updates.img just because it's easier to scp than create an image file :-)
