AutoQA is an automated test system for Fedora. Its basic design is simple: when certain events occur (a package is built, updates are pushed, a new Rawhide build is available, etc.) autoqa launches some automated tests.
Events and Hooks
For AutoQA to respond to an event, someone needs to write a "hook" for that event. The first step in creating a new hook is, obviously, to define the event it responds to.
For example, the post-repo-update
hook is triggered whenever a Fedora repo is updated. Obviously, any test that will run in response to this event will need to know the URL of the repo that was just updated. (This is a required argument.) Certain repos can't be used properly without other "parent" repos (for example, the Fedora 11 updates
repo isn't useful without also knowing the address of the main Fedora 11 repo). So a list of "parent repos" is an optional argument to the tests.
Detailed information about implementing new hooks can be found in Writing AutoQA Hooks.
The autoqa Harness
The autoqa harness is launched by the watchers in response to an event.