Re: GDB 7.9.90 available for testing

[David Edelsohn <dje dot gcc at gmail dot com>]

On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 11:42 PM, Joel Brobecker <brobecker@adacore.com> wrote:
>> I'm not certain if the baselines truly are accurate for all
>> buildslaves, but it seems strange to create a release when the
>> buildbot testsuite results show patches causing new failures.
>
> To me, you are saying the same thing, and I don't disagree with you.
> I said I didn't know that the buildBots were showing regressions.
> Of course I would have held the creation of the branch if I had
> known about this. But I didn't, and so here we are. Now we all know,
> and the only way forward is to look at those regressions, and decide
> what to do. We can and will delay the release if we have to.

Joel,

We are agreeing.  I was trying to provide some additional information
about interpretation of the buildbot status.

I am note two things about the buildbots:

1) Their color-coded "regression status" apparently is a comparison of
the testsuite between a "base" run and the current run. This is due to
few or no targets have completely clean testsuite runs to consider
"green".  Because there has been some adjustment and tweaking while
buildbots were added, the first run was not necessarily the ideal one
to choose as the "base" run, i.e., "regressions" may be due to changes
in the measurements after the first "base" run, not new failing tests.

2) Separate from the "regression" status, a quick inspection of some
testsuite output in the buildbots show the introduction of new errors
with recent commits.  Even if the overall regression status is not an
accurate measure of the state of GDB on those targets, the change in
regression status that is not monotonic reduction in regressions in
preparation for a release is disappointing.

I'm not demanding STOP SHIP.  GDB may not necessarily be in a bad
state for a release.  I don't know how this compares to the regression
status of previous releases.

I hope that GDB developers will become more aware of the effects of
their patches on multiple targets.

Thanks, David