Re: Server at Paris VIII

[address@hidden]

On 14 mai 2012, at 18:00, James wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> On 14 May 2012 14:56, address@hidden <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 
>> On 14 mai 2012, at 15:40, Graham Percival wrote:
>> 
>>> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 02:25:29PM +0200, John Mandereau wrote:
>>>> Hi Graham,
>>>> Il giorno dom, 13/05/2012 alle 19.24 +0200, Graham Percival ha scritto:
>>>>> Agreed.  I think the most we'd use it for would be LSR.  I don't
>>>>> think we should give ssh logins to developers for testing patches;
>>>>> that should be done locally otherwise it could easily lead to
>>>>> major headaches [3] for whoever's handling this.
>>>>> 
>>>>> [3] then again, it's not me so if you want to try it, go ahead.
>>>> 
>>>> So, who should be initially given access to this server?  Mike and you?
>>>> A subset of Mike, you and me?
>>> 
>>> I'd rather not touch it if possible -- I spent a moderate amount
>>> of thought+effort into the Patchy system specifically because I
>>> wanted it to be decentralized.
>>> 
>> 
>> The main reason I want the server at Paris VIII is so that people can use it 
>> without tying up their home machine.  Ideally, it'll just ping them whenever 
>> it's done.  This'll be really helpful for me - I often have heavy processes 
>> running on my MacBook Pro and builds slow them down.  So the goal is still 
>> for it to be decentralized but to have one pole in Saint-Denis for those who 
>> don't have enough spare processing power to run patchy regularly on their 
>> home machine.
> 
> I don't mind continuing running test-patches, it might be just as easy
> for most patches to just get set up as patch-new and wait for me to
> test them than a dev fuss with ssh logins and running their own,
> waiting to be pinged so they can check. The idea of test patchy
> remember was to take the admin off of the devs so they could get
> devving. It just depends I guess on what they are testing. Either way
> I don't mind continuing to do it.
> 

This is very kind of you - I really appreciate it, and it is a valuable service 
to the community.
I know that in my development cycle, I often want to run regtests on totally 
bogus patches just to see how bad it breaks things to then gage how much time 
I'll need to fix something.  This is the sorta thing I'd use the Paris VIII 
server for.  Nightly builds would be cool too!

> Now that John M is going to run patchy-merge, I've got a hunk of
> relatively powerful iron not doing much at home. I have the luxury of
> being able to test a patch in less time it takes to grind beans to
> make a decent cup of coffee, it just depends if someone is doing
> incremental changes and wants to see what a line here and there would
> look like for the reg tests - but I am sure there are better ways to
> do this for experienced devs.

For me, it is faster to write a lot of kludgy code, see what it breaks, and 
then write good code [1]  rather than trying to write good code from the 
get-go.  So cheap regtests definitely help.

> My point is that it might be more hassle
> to ssh and test your own patch than just throw it up on the tracker
> and let me find out that it barfs or passes.
> 

Cheers,
MS

[1] Sometimes this last part of the processes is unintentionally omitted.