[73] in Release_7.7_team
draft message soliciting testers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dorothy Bowe)
Mon Apr 25 13:10:24 1994
To: release-77@MIT.EDU
Cc: salemme@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To:
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 94 13:09:50 EDT
From: Dorothy Bowe <dot@MIT.EDU>
I've put together a draft of a message to send out to [acs, css, dcns,
sipb] asking for release 7.7 testers. If you're interested, read it
over and send me any comments by Tuesday, May 3rd. I'd like to send out
a message some time next week to line up testers early.
Thanks again,
Dot
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Subject: Testers for Release 7.7
--------
The current schedule has release 7.7 ready for the first round of
testing ("friendly" or "beta" test) at the end of May and the second
round of testing ("staff" test) three weeks later. We are now asking
any and everyone interested in participating in friendly test to partake
in this enlightening experience. Of course, we also encourage as many
people as possible to participate in staff test.
The remainder of this message details release 7.7, what's involved in
testing a release, and how you can sign up now.
Thank you,
Dorothy Bowe
**************************************************************************
What's going into release 7.7?
------------------------------
The following list are the major items approved for inclusion in release 7.7:
* Solaris 2.3 (upgrade from 2.1)
* AIX (new clients built against 3.2.1)
* AFS 3.3 clients
* Emacs 18.59 (upgrade from 18.57)
* MH 6.8 (upgrade from 6.6)
* Support for kerberized remote access
* X11R5 clients on all platforms
* Pull moira clients from release
* Perl version upgrade
* Andrew version 6
* Tex/LaTeX: support for 600 dpi fonts
* dsmail daemon which supports subject chaining
* Support for Kerberos V5
For a complete list and description of each item, see the release-77
discuss meeting on menelaus, specifically transactions [4] and [14].
What needs to be tested?
------------------------
As usual, there's the open-ended question of what to test and how to
know if something is tested well. As a representative of this year's
release team, I don't pretend to know how to solve this problem, but we
have brainstormed a bit about the major things to test for each item.
By the time testing begins, there will be a file for each item in the
release77 locker containing a checklist of things we know think should
be tested. We encourage any testers, friendly or otherwise, to check
these lists out and send us feedback.
How to respond with bugs and/or test results
--------------------------------------------
You should report any bugs you find during "friendly" test to
testers@athena
To report the results of any non-buggy testing, please copy the
appropriate file from the release77 locker and fill it in according to
whatever pieces you tried. You can return it via email or
interdepartmental mail to me:
dot@mit
Dorothy Bowe
E40-357
or to the release-77 team and discuss meeting
release-77@mit
How do I become a friendly tester?
---------------------------------
First check to see if you are already on the beta or staff test lists. To
do this, type the command
hesinfo `hostname` cluster
If you see the line
syslib staff-test
you're in the staff test cycle. If instead you see the line
syslib beta-sys
you're a beta tester. (If you don't see anything resembling either of
these lines, you're not set up to take participate in either testing
cycle.)
To change your status for any reason, send email to
salemme@mit
If you're not sure whether you want to be a tester or not, contact me
for more information:
dot@mit
x3-0170
What do I get out of it?
------------------------
No, there are no magic prizes for helping with release testing.
However, you do get our gratitude :-), you may save everyone lots of
grief later, and you may even be the person to find this years hidden
bug. (I don't know what it is, but based on previous releases, it has
to be out there!)
