Re: [PATCH 0/2] Revert imprudent test changes

Daniel Kiper
2025-11-19T20:44:46Z

On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 01:11:33PM -0600, Glenn Washburn wrote:
> The two commit reverted in this series degrade the GRUB tests and must be
> reverted. The goal of any testing system for a project should be to find
> bugs. That goal is not served by reducing test coverage, which is what
> both of those commits did. Just because some (influential) users have a
> different objective, such as making the test harness not error so they
> can check the "GRUB tests pass" box after building, does not mean that
> GRUB should override the testing goal of the project. It should be fairly
> obvious when reading the results of the tests that there were issues in
> running some tests and why the issue occurred. The solution to this is
> not to pretend there was no issue, and the testing system should not help
> the user in pretending there was no issue (no matter how much the user
> would like it). These two reverted commits do just that, among other issues.
> Of course, if the test requirements are so onerous that no one runs the
> tests, that's also an issue, and patches are welcome to improve this.
> However, due to the nature of the GRUB project and thus the kind of testing
> it needs, GRUB will always require a complex testing environment. And
> test coverage should not be sacrificed to simplify this environment.
>
> I would also like to add that there is a history of certain large distros
> submitting patches that are in the (percieved) interests of those distros
> and not in the interests of the GRUB project or community as a whole.
> In my estimation, mostly this has been due to ignorance as opposed to intent.
> Regardless, I hope in the future, people working for these distros can take
> off their distro hat and put on a GRUB hat before sending patches. Distros
> contribute a lot of valueable work to GRUB and I would like to continue to
> see high-quality patches that are in the interest of the project as a whole.
>
> Glenn
>
> Glenn Washburn (2):
> Revert "tests: Skip tests if required tools are not available"
> Revert "tests: Remove -w param from mkfs.hfsplus command"

Taking into account the cover letter and updated GRUB Developers Manual
I think these two patches have to be reverted.

So, Reviewed-by: Daniel Kiper <daniel.kiper@oracle.com>...

Daniel