Mercurial > emacs
annotate admin/emacs-pretesters @ 76151:96f6ff98e5ac
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author | Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> |
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date | Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:43:01 +0000 |
parents | d153e68474d4 |
children | dd7c098af727 ddedcecb18ef |
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New file with information for Emacs pretesters.
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1 Here are the guidelines for being an Emacs pretester. |
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2 If you would like to do this, say so, and I'll add you to |
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3 the pretest list. |
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4 |
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5 |
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6 Information for Emacs Pretesters |
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7 |
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8 The purpose of Emacs pretesting is to verify that the new Emacs |
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9 distribution, about to be released, works properly on your system *with |
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10 no change whatever*, when installed following the precise |
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11 recommendations that come with the Emacs distribution. |
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12 |
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13 Here are some guidelines on how to do pretesting so as to make it |
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14 helpful. All of them follow from common sense together with the |
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15 nature of the purpose and the situation. |
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16 |
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17 Please save this file, and reread it when a new series of pretests |
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18 starts. |
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19 |
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20 * Get the pretest from gnu/emacs/pretest/emacs-MM.0.NN.tar.gz |
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21 on alpha.gnu.org. |
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22 |
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23 * After a few days of testing, if there are no problems, please report |
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24 that Emacs works for you and what configuration you are testing it on. |
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25 |
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26 * If you want to communicate with other pretesters, send mail to |
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27 emacs-pretesters@gnu.org. I don't use that mailing list when I send |
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28 to you because I've found that mailing lists tend to amplify random |
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29 noise into long discussions or even arguments, and that can waste a |
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30 lot of time. But when you have a reason to ask other pretesters for |
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31 help, you can do it that way. |
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32 |
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33 * It is absolutely vital that you report even the smallest change or |
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34 departure from the standard sources and procedure. |
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35 |
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36 Otherwise, you are not testing the same program that we asked you to |
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37 test. Testing a different program is usually of no use whatever. It |
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38 can even cause trouble, if you fail to tell us that you tested some |
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39 other program instead of what we are about to release. We might think |
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40 that Emacs works, when in fact it has not even been tried, and might |
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41 have a glaring fault. |
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42 |
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43 * Don't use a site-load.el file or a site-init.el file when you pretest. |
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44 Using either of those files means you are not testing Emacs as a typical |
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45 site would use it. |
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46 |
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47 Actually, it does no harm to test Emacs with such customizations *as |
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48 well as* testing it "out of the box". Anything you do that could find |
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49 a bug is useful, as long as you make sure we know exactly what you |
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50 did. The important point is that testing with local changes is no |
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51 substitute for testing Emacs exactly as it is distributed. |
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52 |
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53 * Even changing the compilation options counts as a change in the |
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54 program. The Emacs sources specify which compilation options to use. |
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55 Some of them are specified in makefiles, and some in machine-specific |
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56 configuration files. They also give you ways to override this--but if |
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57 you do, then you are not testing what ordinary users will do. |
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58 Therefore, when pretesting, it is vital to test with the default |
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59 compilation options. |
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60 |
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61 (Testing with a different set of options can be useful *in addition*, |
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62 but not *instead of* the default options.) |
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63 |
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64 * The machine and system configuration files of Emacs are parts of |
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65 Emacs. So when you test Emacs, you need to do it with the |
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66 configuration files that come with Emacs. |
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67 |
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68 If Emacs does not come with configuration files for a certain machine, |
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69 and you test it with configuration files that don't come with Emacs, |
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70 this is effectively changing Emacs. Because the crucial fact about |
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71 the planned release is that, without changes, it doesn't work on that |
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72 machine. |
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73 |
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74 To make Emacs work on that machine, we would need to install new |
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75 configuration files. That is not out of the question, since it is |
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76 safe--it certainly won't break any other machines that already work. |
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77 But you will have to rush in the legal papers to give the FSF |
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78 permission to use such a large piece of text. |
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79 |
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80 * Look in the etc/MACHINES file. |
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81 |
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82 The etc/MACHINES file says which configuration files to use for your |
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83 machine, so use the ones that are recommended. If you guess, you might |
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84 guess wrong and encounter spurious difficulties. What's more, if you |
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85 don't follow etc/MACHINES then you aren't helping to test that its |
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86 recommendations are valid. |
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87 |
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88 The etc/MACHINES file may describe other things that you need to do |
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89 to make Emacs work on your machine. If so, you should follow these |
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90 recommendations also, for the same reason. |
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91 |
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92 * Send your problem reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org, not |
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93 bug-gnu-emacs. |
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94 |
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95 Sometimes we won't know what to do about a system-dependent issue, and |
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96 we may need people to say what happens if you try a certain thing on a |
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97 certain system. When this happens, we'll send out a query. |
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98 |
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99 * Don't delay sending information. |
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100 |
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101 When you test on a system and encounter no problems, please report it |
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102 right away. That way, we will know that someone has tested Emacs on |
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103 that kind of system. |
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104 |
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105 Please don't wait for several days "to see if it really works before |
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106 you say anything." Tell us right away that Emacs seems basically to |
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107 work; then, if you notice a problem a few days later, tell us |
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108 immediately about that when you see it. |
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109 |
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110 It is okay if you double check things before reporting a problem, such |
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111 as to see if you can easily fix it. But don't wait very long. A good |
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112 rule to use in pretesting is always to report every problem on the |
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113 same day you encounter it, even if that means you can't find a |
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114 solution before you report the problem. |
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115 |
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116 I'd much rather hear about a problem today and a solution tomorrow |
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117 than get both of them tomorrow at the same time. |
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118 |
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119 * Make each bug report self-contained. |
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120 |
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121 If you refer back to another message, whether from you or from someone |
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122 else, then it will be necessary for anyone who wants to investigate |
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123 the bug to find the other message. This may be difficult, it is |
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124 probably time-consuming. |
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125 |
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126 To help save our time, simply copy the relevant parts of any previous |
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127 messages into your own bug report. |
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128 |
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129 In particular, if we ask you for more information because a bug report |
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130 was incomplete, it is best to send me the *entire* collection of |
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131 relevant information, all together. If you send just the additional |
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132 information, that makes extra work for us. There is even a risk that |
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133 we won't remember what question you are sending the answer to. |
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134 |
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135 * When you encounter a bug that manifests itself as a Lisp error, |
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136 try setting debug-on-error to t and making the bug happen again. |
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137 Then you will get a Lisp backtrace. Including that in your bug report |
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138 is very useful. |
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139 |
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140 * For advice on debugging, see etc/DEBUG. |
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141 |
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142 * Debugging optimized code is possible, if you compile with GCC, but |
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143 in some cases the optimized code can be confusing. If you are not |
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144 accustomed to that, recompile Emacs without -O. One way to do this is |
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145 |
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146 make clean |
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147 make CFLAGS=-g |
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148 |
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149 * Configure tries to figure out what kind of system you have by |
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150 compiling and linking programs which calls various functions and looks |
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151 at whether that succeeds. The file config.log contains any messages |
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152 produced by compilers while running configure, to aid debugging if |
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153 configure makes a mistake. But note that config.cache reads: |
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154 |
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155 # Giving --cache-file=/dev/null disables caching, for debugging configure. |
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156 |
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157 or more simply, |
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158 |
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159 rm config.cache |
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160 ./configure |
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161 |
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162 * Don't try changing Emacs *in any way* during pretest unless it fails |
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163 to work unchanged. |
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164 |
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165 * Always be precise when talking about changes you have made. Show |
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166 things rather than describing them. Use exact filenames (relative to |
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167 the main directory of the distribution), not partial ones. For |
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168 example, say "I changed Makefile" rather than "I changed the |
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169 makefile". Instead of saying "I defined the MUMBLE macro", send a |
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170 diff. |
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171 |
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172 * Always use `diff -c' to make diffs. If you don't include context, it |
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173 may be hard for us to figure out where you propose to make the |
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174 changes. So we might ignore your patch. |
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175 |
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176 * When you write a fix, keep in mind that we can't install a change |
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177 that *might* break other systems without the risk that it will fail to |
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178 work and therefore require an additional cycle of pretesting. |
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179 |
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180 People often suggest fixing a problem by changing config.h or |
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181 src/ymakefile or even src/Makefile to do something special that a |
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182 particular system needs. Sometimes it is totally obvious that such |
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183 changes would break Emacs for almost all users. We can't possibly |
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184 make a change like that. All we can do is ask you to find a fix that |
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185 is safe to install. |
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186 |
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187 Sometimes people send fixes that *might* be an improvement in |
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188 general--but it is hard to be sure of this. I can install such |
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189 changes some of the time, but not during pretest, when I am trying to |
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190 get a new version to work reliably as quickly as possible. |
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191 |
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192 The safest changes for us to install are changes to the s- and m- |
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193 files. At least those can't break other systems. |
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194 |
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195 Another safe kind of change is one that uses a conditional to make |
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196 sure it will apply only to a particular kind of system. Ordinarily, |
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197 that is a bad way to solve a problem, and I would want to find a |
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198 cleaner alternative. But the virtue of safety can make it superior at |
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199 pretest time. |
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200 |
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201 * Don't suggest changes during pretest to add features or make |
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202 something cleaner. Every change risks introducing a bug, so I won't |
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203 install a change during pretest unless it is *necessary*. |
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204 |
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205 * If you would like to suggest changes for purposes other than fixing |
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206 user-visible bugs, don't wait till pretest time. Instead, send them |
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207 after we have made a release that proves to be stable. That is the |
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208 easiest time to consider such suggestions. If you send them at |
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209 pretest time, we will have to defer them till later, and that might |
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210 mean we forget all about them. |
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211 |
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212 * In some cases, if you don't follow these guidelines, your |
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213 information might still be useful, but we would have to do more work |
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214 to make use of it. That might cause it to fall by the wayside. |
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215 |
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216 Local Variables: |
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217 mode: text |
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218 End: |
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220 # arch-tag: caf47b2c-b56b-44f7-a760-b5bfbed15fd3 |