[dmd-internals] generating pull requests for DMD

[Robert Clipsham]

On 29 May 2011 19:13, Walter Bright <walter at digitalmars.com> wrote:

> For those doing compiler patches, I know it's a tough job, and thanks!
>
> But please consider running the dmd test suite (and try to build/run phobos
> unittests) before issuing a pull request. There are a lot of
> interdependencies in the compiler, and the test suite is designed to flush
> them out. The cool thing is the test suite consists of cases that are
> already minimized! The suite also is designed to not take that long to run.
>
> I run it constantly when I do dev on the compiler, and I constantly get
> dinged by it for something I overlooked. I consider the D test suite to be a
> major asset for us.
>
> Please use it. If you've got problems using it, please post here and we'll
> try to help.
>

An idea relayed from Vladimir Panteleev: It could be a good idea to
integrate pull requests with the automatic test runner - github has APIs for
pull requests, the test runner could pull out the commits, test them, then
post a comment on the pull request.

I see a few problems with this however:
 - Added load for the test runner (although, they could be run with low
priority and only when there aren't commits to master to test)
 - Security - if you're testing all pull requests some sort of sandbox would
be needed so the patch isn't running rm -rf or something more malicious
 - More commits can be added to pull requests later on, it would need
re-running in this case
 - The test suite could be altered to make it look like the pull request is
fine - although I guess anything that gets integrated will be looked over
anyway, so this isn't much of an issue.

-- 
Robert
http://octarineparrot.com/
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