Easy testing of packages
It would be great if we could have a list of packages for testing ‒ like when we try to fix a bug, so we can easily tell people „go here, click on this testing package and tell us if it works for you“. Once the test package would disappear (got merged and released), it would remove the preference to use it.
On the implementation side, something like this could be done:
- There's a kind of manifest somewhere on our web. It would be similar to the list of userlists, but it would be auto-updated or downloaded when an appropriate Foris page is visited.
- A repository-like structure (well, it would be valid repository from the technical point of view, with index and such, but generated in a different way than directly by the buildroot scripts) would be published. It wouldn't be complete ‒ the dependencies that would not be tested wouldn't be present.
- If a user turns on at least one testing package, this repository is included, but with a very low priority (do we support a priority = 0, where it isn't used to look for packages at all?).
- Every package that is turned on downloads a configuration file, which installs the packages directly from that repository, overriding the priority.
- Once we want to stop testing, we remove the server-side configuration file for it. As it would be marked not to fail if it is not present, it would make the updater go back to the ordinary package. Deletion of the local option could happen on the next foris access.