The Fedora updates-testing repositories contain updates scheduled to be released for the maintained releases of Fedora. User testing and feedback provided via Bodhi, on the test mailing list and the relevant Bugzilla is vital to ensure that good updates are released quickly and bad ones kept away from release.
Using the updates-testing repository
Enabling the repository permanently
To enable the updates-testing repository permanently, run the repository configuration tool. From the Fedora menu, click Administration and then Software Sources. Now check the box labelled Show debug and development software sources. Now, check the boxes with Test Updates (but not Test Updates Source) in their name for your release of Fedora. From now on, when you update your system, test updates will be installed just as official updates were previously.
Enabling the repository temporarily
If you'd rather not enable the updates-testing repository permanently but just use it on a case-by-case basis, you can do this with yum. The command:
- yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing
will update the entire system using packages from the updates-testing repository, while the command:
- yum install <foo> --enablerepo=updates-testing
will install or update only the package named <foo> from the updates-testing repository.
What to test, testing, and reporting results
The Bodhi system is used to track and collate feedback on testing updates. All testing updates will be shown in the Bodhi system. First of all, if any test update package works worse for you in any respect than the pre-update version did, this is a problem that should be communicated to the developers. Secondly, when you click on a certain update, you will see a screen with more information on the update. The Details section should give you information on what the update is intended to fix. You should, if possible, test that the update does indeed fix the issues it claims to fix.
There is a tool you can use to ease the process of reporting your feedback, called fedora-easy-karma. It is currently maintained in a git repository. You can download the current version of the tool here: if it is displayed as plain text in your browser, save the text as a file named ~/fedora-easy-karma.py. Edit the file and change your username and Fedora version to the appropriate values. Then run these commands at a console to make it easily executable:
su -c 'chown root.root ~/fedora-easy-karma.py' su -c 'chmod ugo+x ~/fedora-easy-karma.py' su -c 'mv ~/fedora-easy-karma.py /usr/local/bin'
Now you can launch the tool at any time by running fedora-easy-karma.py in a console. It will automatically discover what packages, if any, you currently have installed from the updates-testing repository, and let you file your feedback before moving on to the next package, all in one linear process.
You can also give your feedback on a test update by using the Bodhi web interface. There is a Login link in the left-hand sidebar. Log in using your Fedora account. If you don't have a Fedora account, you can create an account here. Once you are logged in, you will be able to leave a comment on the update. Underneath the comment box are three options: Untested, Works for me, and Does not work.
- Use Untested if you need to comment without yet leaving definite positive or negative feedback on the update.
- Use Works for me to report that you tested the update, found no problems compared to the previous package, and it addressed the issues it is intended to address (as far as you could test).
- If you experience any problem with the test update, use the Does not work button, and leave a comment explaining exactly what problem you had.
Each Works for me adds 1 to the test update's karma, while each Does not work subtracts 1 from it. Untested leaves the karma unchanged. Test updates with karma of 3 are automatically sent out as full official updates, while test updates with karma of -3 are automatically withdrawn from the testing repository. As you can see, your testing and feedback is vital to make sure that good updates are released quickly and bad ones don't get out to the general public.