From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from cuda.sgi.com (cuda3.sgi.com [192.48.176.15]) by oss.sgi.com (8.14.3/8.14.3/SuSE Linux 0.8) with ESMTP id o0KLQEqr033285 for ; Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:26:14 -0600 Received: from mail.internode.on.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by cuda.sgi.com (Spam Firewall) with ESMTP id 81F971C67DDF for ; Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:27:13 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail.internode.on.net (bld-mail14.adl6.internode.on.net [150.101.137.99]) by cuda.sgi.com with ESMTP id 9OY4iRqGG3scwFD0 for ; Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:27:13 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:27:10 +1100 From: Dave Chinner Subject: Re: [PATCH] [RFC] xfstests: deprecate busted log printing tests Message-ID: <20100120212710.GK14035@discord.disaster> References: <1263967158-7685-1-git-send-email-david@fromorbit.com> <1AB9A794DBDDF54A8A81BE2296F7BDFE012A69A1@cf--amer001e--3.americas.sgi.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1AB9A794DBDDF54A8A81BE2296F7BDFE012A69A1@cf--amer001e--3.americas.sgi.com> List-Id: XFS Filesystem from SGI List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: xfs-bounces@oss.sgi.com Errors-To: xfs-bounces@oss.sgi.com To: Alex Elder Cc: xfs@oss.sgi.com On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 09:53:27AM -0600, Alex Elder wrote: > Dave Chinner wrote: > > Tests 018, 081 and 082 read the contents of the log and assume that the > > contents will always be the same. They are trying to ensure that the > > contents of the log don't change for a given fixed load. > > > > This has several problems - high level changes to the filesystem and > > VFS code can change the order and contents of the log. Changes to > > the way we sync the filesystem will change the contents of the log. > > background writeback occurring in the middle of the test will change > > the contents of the log by allowing the tail to move. Even changes > > to the default mkfs parameters can break them! > > > > The tests also assume that unmount leaves a dirty log behind. We've > > fixed lots of problems in sync and the unmount paths over recent > > times, so now a clean unmount leaves a clean log behind. That is, > > there is nothing left in the log print output for these tests to > > check. IOWs, major surgery is required for these tests to be > > returned to their former break-when-something-changes behaviour. > > > > However, these tests are a maintenance nightmare. They spend more > > time broken and failing than they do passing, and then it's not long > > before they get broken again. They have to cover all sorts of > > different permutations of log configurations and that will continue > > to grow and increase the complexity of making these tests continue > > to work. And to top it all off, I can't remember a bug actually ever > > being found by these tests. Hence I think we should just stop using > > them altogether. > > > > So this patch deprecates 018, 081 and 082 rather than fixes them. > > It introduces a "deprecated" test group and puts them in it. That > > means the tests can still be run on older systems where they may > > have some use, but will not be run automatically any more, nor > > will any attempt be made to keep them up to date or working. > > I think this is a reasonable thing to do. My only thought > is that it might be good to somehow indicate *when* or *why* > something got deprecated. That is what the commit message is for ;) i.e. use git blame to find the commit that marked a test deprecated and then go read the commit message, which in this case would be all of the above... Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Chinner david@fromorbit.com _______________________________________________ xfs mailing list xfs@oss.sgi.com http://oss.sgi.com/mailman/listinfo/xfs