[Koha-devel] QA on Stable Branch

[Paul POULAIN]

Joshua Ferraro a écrit :
> Hi all,
> 
> Now that pierrick has retired as QA manager ...
> 
> This email is to remind everyone that the 'stable' branch of Koha
> is so-named because it's supposed be the most 'bug-free' version
> of Koha. Especially since we're nearing the release of 2.2.6, it's
> very important that all commits don't break existing functionality.
> 
> Please, I can't stress this enough, before you commit something,
> please test the function completely to make sure it works. Also,
> test any related functions that may be affected by your commit. This
> may take a few extra minutes, but it will save the rest of us
> hours of troubleshooting a so-called 'stable' branch.

Joshua & me spoke of this on the chat yesterday (private channel don't 
search the logs)

We are caught between 2 positions :
- libraries that want Koha as it is, but bug free.
- libraries that want -minor- new features, and they want them NOW.

In 2.2.x branch, if you look at my release notes, I had announced when 
releasing 2.2.5 that it will be the last in branch 2.2 with new features.
In the next weeks, I will release a 2.2.6 that has few bugfixes, and so 
many new features or major improvement.
Let me list them quickly :
- changes in MARC editor to handle correctly MARC21. The problem was 
small, the solution heavy (=need for XML packages...)
- changes in acquisitions : libraries did not understand how receive 
worked. hdl added some features to create "parcels". they are nice, but 
introduced new problems
- changes in serials to handle expected date & real receive date. It was 
requested, but introduced many new problems too.

That's because of those new features that I released 2.2.6RC1 then 
2.2.6RC2. You will note that I did not release 2.2.5RC1 previously !

so, I think joshua is right here : we must try to have a 2.2 branch as 
stable as possible.
But I'm afraid we will stay between the hammer and the ??? (dunno the 
english word) for a while...

> If you do happen to commit something that breaks Koha, please
> either fix the bugs immediately, or revert the code back to a
> working state. There's nothing more annoying than trying to
> troubleshoot someone else's buggy code.

Nobody (at least not me) commit something knowing it's buggy (or I say 
it in commit notes).
But only heavy testing shows some problems.
I just hope everybody will understand your mail as a reminder to be as 
careful as possible. At least, that's how I understand it & will take it 
for me.

> Remember, if you wrote
> something, it will take you much less time to fix a bug than
> someone else.

for sure !

> 
> As a further reminder, there are still 9 'blocker' bugs that we
> know about, preventing us from releasing 2.2.6. 

only 7 now, and i'll work on some this afternoon.

-- 
Paul POULAIN et Henri Damien LAURENT
Consultants indépendants
en logiciels libres et bibliothéconomie (http://www.koha-fr.org)
Tel : 04 91 31 45 19