[F45 test days] RPM

kparal commented

2026-07-20 15:58:34 +00:00

Owner

RPM has multiple F45 changes which seem impactful:

It might be a good idea to organize test days for them.

If you take this ticket, please make the change owners subscribed to this ticket, talk to them whether organizing test days makes sense and whether they can participate (write test cases and other instructions), and help them handle the event preparation.

RPM has multiple F45 changes which seem impactful: * https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/RPM-6.1 * https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/RelocateRpmRepoConfigsToUsr * https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Enforcing_signature_checking_by_default It might be a good idea to organize [test days](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days) for them. If you take this ticket, please make the change owners subscribed to this ticket, talk to them whether organizing test days makes sense and whether they can participate (write test cases and other instructions), and help them handle the event preparation.

kparal added this to the Fedora 45 milestone

2026-07-20 15:58:34 +00:00

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2026-07-20 15:58:34 +00:00

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#916 Plan F45 test days (Changes, usual events)

kparal added the

test days

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2026-07-20 16:00:14 +00:00

kparal commented

2026-07-20 16:23:48 +00:00

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Owner

Ping @pmatilai @ngompa @mdomonko for feedback

mdomonko commented

2026-07-21 07:50:34 +00:00

We haven't done an RPM test day before (or at least not during my tenure) but the concept does sound useful. There's a couple of new features in RPM 6.1 but they're mostly interesting to packagers. Would that count?

As for the enforced signature policy thing, it's ideally a non-event for the vast majority of users, but of course there can be use cases that we haven't thought about.

The repo config relocation is perhaps also relevant to the DNF folks (@egoode), though, so consider looping them in for that, too.

Either way, I'll need to sync up with @pmatilai who's currently on PTO (for the rest of July) so will get back to you then if that's fine.

Thanks!

We haven't done an RPM test day before (or at least not during my tenure) but the concept does sound useful. There's a couple of new features in RPM 6.1 but they're mostly interesting to packagers. Would that count? As for the enforced signature policy thing, it's ideally a non-event for the vast majority of users, but of course there can be use cases that we haven't thought about. The repo config relocation is perhaps also relevant to the DNF folks (@egoode), though, so consider looping them in for that, too. Either way, I'll need to sync up with @pmatilai who's currently on PTO (for the rest of July) so will get back to you then if that's fine. Thanks!

kparal commented

2026-07-22 08:26:50 +00:00

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Owner

Thanks, Michal, for your update.

Let me give a quick summary first. The purpose of Test Days is to provide a little more test coverage for important features and changes in Fedora. You can see past events at https://testdays.fedoraproject.org . There are some unknowns, e.g. how many community testers we can attract for a particular topic. Usually the test cases must be simple enough for people to do, or if it targets some specific group (like packagers, sysadmins, etc) they can be more involved, but there's a smaller pool of potential contributors. The tests should ideally not mimic an existing test suite, but leverage people input for things where there's some benefit - e.g. testing various hardware, personalized user configuration, unexpected workflows, or just blank spots and hard-to-automate parts in your existing test suite. But it's really up to the team what they want to see covered.

We don't have to have a test day for RPM. But we identified these Changes as potentially important, and just want to reach out to you and discuss with you whether it makes sense to you or not. If it does, we can help set everything up. Making it a combined RPM+DNF test day also sounds like a good idea.

Let's wait for Panu and let's also hear from Evan, thanks!

Thanks, Michal, for your update. Let me give a quick summary first. The purpose of Test Days is to provide a little more test coverage for important features and changes in Fedora. You can see past events at https://testdays.fedoraproject.org . There are some unknowns, e.g. how many community testers we can attract for a particular topic. Usually the test cases must be simple enough for people to do, or if it targets some specific group (like packagers, sysadmins, etc) they can be more involved, but there's a smaller pool of potential contributors. The tests should ideally not mimic an existing test suite, but leverage people input for things where there's some benefit - e.g. testing various hardware, personalized user configuration, unexpected workflows, or just blank spots and hard-to-automate parts in your existing test suite. But it's really up to the team what they want to see covered. We don't have to have a test day for RPM. But we identified these Changes as potentially important, and just want to reach out to you and discuss with you whether it makes sense to you or not. If it does, we can help set everything up. Making it a combined RPM+DNF test day also sounds like a good idea. Let's wait for Panu and let's also hear from Evan, thanks!

👍 1

mdomonko commented

2026-07-22 15:48:59 +00:00

Meanwhile, one realization: We have recently changed our release model (and schedule) that allows us to deliver feature releases more often than once per year, similar to how the Linux kernel does it.

That means, a single RPM minor release like we've known it becomes less "special", and Fedora will eventually see more frequent minor updates of RPM as well. We are yet to decide on the cadence and/or the Fedora change process associated with it, but that's the plan. See also: https://rpm.org/2026/05/11/release-cycle.html.

I feel like this change has some effect on whether such a one-off test day focused on 6.1 would be a meaningful use of resources, since there's always the next release in the works. Maybe it would make more sense after 6.3 or so? Dunno. We can discuss this when Panu is back, indeed.

Meanwhile, one realization: We have recently changed our release model (and schedule) that allows us to deliver feature releases more often than once per year, similar to how the Linux kernel does it. That means, a single RPM minor release like we've known it becomes less "special", and Fedora will eventually see more frequent minor updates of RPM as well. We are yet to decide on the cadence and/or the Fedora change process associated with it, but that's the plan. See also: https://rpm.org/2026/05/11/release-cycle.html. I feel like this change has some effect on whether such a one-off test day focused on 6.1 would be a meaningful use of resources, since there's always the next release in the works. Maybe it would make more sense after 6.3 or so? Dunno. We can discuss this when Panu is back, indeed.

mdomonko commented

2026-07-22 15:50:57 +00:00

@kparal wrote in #917 (comment):

Making it a combined RPM+DNF test day also sounds like a good idea.

Indeed, a combined test day sounds like a good idea (but see my previous comment also).

@kparal wrote in https://forge.fedoraproject.org/quality/tickets/issues/917#issuecomment-1068089: > Making it a combined RPM+DNF test day also sounds like a good idea. Indeed, a combined test day sounds like a good idea (but see my previous comment also).

kparal commented

2026-07-24 14:45:24 +00:00

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Owner

We included RPM 6.1 just because it's listed as one of the F45 changes. But the test days are not tied to just upcoming Fedora release and their schedule. If you appreciate it, we can definitely also create test days for RPM 6.2, 6.3, etc in the future. It's really up to you, whether you want to gather some community testing feedback, and when.

kparal commented

2026-08-19 09:22:44 +00:00

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Owner

Hi @mdomonko and @pmatilai , have you discussed whether a test day for the RPM (maybe plus DNF) changes make sense to you?

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[F45 test days] RPM #917