On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:40:02 +0100, Gabriel Labelle <glabelle@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I would simply like to know if the Rawhide PPC packages were the "updates" > to FC4-test1 or if FC4-test1 must remain static (as it is) in order to get better > testing? in general... for fedora core test releases... rawhide is the source for updates. The test releases are simply snapshots from th rawhide tree at certain points in time. Whether or not you choose to remain static or not is up to you as a tester. Clearly if you find a specific bug, there is value in updating to a rawhide package that claims to fix the problem so that you can confirm the fix... or if its a critical fix that you need to get access to more of the system functionality. As a tester, I think this is the basic responsibility you implicitly agree to. If you file a bug for the test release, you need to try to confirm the fix at some point. How much rawhide you should consume is probably more related to your comfort and experience level with troubleshooting and system repair. Eating all possible rawhide updates every day will of course have value in making sure as packages come out they don't have serious regressions.. but doing this also comes with extra risks if there are regressions or new packaging problems associated with packages that you don't have a good feel for. Some testers can eat rawhide every day and are both emotional and mentally prepared for the potential breakage... some testers aren't so prepared and as a result the full rawhide updates can be a very frustrating experience. The key to using rawhide... even if you are doing full updates every day... is being aware of exactly what packages you are pulling so if there is a problem you can start trying to narrow it down. I would strongly suggest avoiding doing full rawhide updates in one pass as much as possible. Its much easier to narrow down problems if you do rawhide updates in small groups of packages. If something goes south you don't have a whole forest of packages to review as you try to narrow down whatever problem you end up seeing. There is a daily rawhide buildreport to the fedora-devel-list mailinglist which you should be at least skimming over. http://fedoraproject.org/infofeed/inputs/rawhide.xml is the rss feed for the rawhide reports i think. and http://fedoraproject.org/infofeed/ incorporates this feed. You will see problems with rawhide updates at some point... its pretty much a garuntee. Just make sure you are prepared. -jef