Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: [Qemu-commits] [COMMIT f80f9ec] Convert machine registration to use module initfunctions

[Anthony Liguori <aliguori@us.ibm.com>]

Glauber Costa wrote:
> On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 11:36:01PM +0100, Paul Brook wrote:
>   
>>> From: Anthony Liguori <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
>>>
>>> This cleans up quite a lot of #ifdefs, extern variables, and other
>>> ugliness.
>>>       
>> This changes the default for at least the ARM target, which I consider to be a 
>> bug. Worse than that, the default is now arbitrary and depends on unspecified 
>> toolchain implementation details.
>>     
> How about we start sending patches to the list? Then this kind of thing can be avoided.
>   

It doesn't magically solve the problem.  I post most patches and still 
regressions slip in.  I review every patch I commit and still 
regressions slip in.  People are imperfect.

The best way to prevent regressions is to have an automated test suite 
that everyone can use to validate that a series of patches doesn't break 
things.

> Note that although at first there is nothing wrong with just messing around with
> the devel repository, this kind of thing breaks bisectability of the tree, which is kind 
> of a pain.
>   

You can always --skip.  I understand your point.  In this case, the 
patch was very large and mostly mechanical.  There was a design flaw but 
I didn't expect to get much useful feedback because of the shear amount 
of things it touched.

Regression tests are the only way we're going to really solve this problem.

-- 
Regards,

Anthony Liguori