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• Launchpad Entry: daily-kernel-builds

  • Packages affected: linux-source, elmo, PPA's

Summary

Daily kernel builds using PPA would allow for more frequent testing outside of the normal archive uploads.

Release Note

Daily kernel builds provide better test coverage then the normal development release process.

Rationale

Normal kernel uploads are infrequent enough for proper testing. However, more frequent official uploads are too much of a load on kernel devs, the archive and users who are following the development cycle.

Use Cases

• John reports a bug that is fixed the same day with a patch in git repo. Normally he would have to wait to test this fix, but using the PPA he could do so the next day.

Assumptions

• PPA's are fast and stable

Design

• Cronjob to create the source uploads
• ABI will be based on a subset of GIT-SHA for HEAD and injected into sources
• Sources will have a file created prior to the upload that denotes a PPA build
• Sources include: linux-source, lum, lrm, linux-meta
• Only specific flavors will be built:

  • i386, amd64 -> generic

  • lpia -> lpia

• Use canonical-kernel-team account with passphraseless gpg key to do uploads

Implementation

• Packages need to recognize trigger for PPA-only build (limit flavors and no udebs)
• Cronjob to generate these source packages, but only if they have changed since the previous build.

Test/Demo Plan

The best way to get good test coverage is to have a number of people add the PPA APT repo reference to their /etc/apt/sources.list file. Certainly all of the kernel developers should do so.

Outstanding Issues

Until the kernel build files are made smart about where they are being built (such as on a PPA), all of the x86 flavours will get built. However, the intent of the specification is to build only a subset of the available x86 and x86_64 flavours and architectures. Some community members have complained about this, but there is no reason that the community maintained flavours cannot manage their own PPA.

CategorySpec CategoryKernel