[Asterisk-Dev] Asterisk test-o-matic

[Chris Lee]

Kristian Kielhofner wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
>     So, a crazy idea just hit me...  What about making an Asterisk 
> patch-o-matic?  As some of you know, I created AstLinux, a distro for 
> running Asterisk.  It has turned out to be quite adaptable, and I am 
> wondering if it might be able to help with another problem: Asterisk 
> patches.
> 
>     It is my opinion that people would be much more willing/able to try 
> Asterisk patches/CVS Head/etc if it didn't mean patching Asterisk, 
> re-compiling, and possibly breaking their production systems (they 
> should have test machines, anyways, right?).
> 
>     For instance, let's say that I had a machine with a Digium te110p 
> and four PRI's connected to it.  Every day from 9-5  it is handling 
> calls for my call center or whatever.  However, after hours it is just 
> sitting there, idle.  Wouldn't it be cool if I could boot from a CD (or 
> USB flash drive, USB hard drive, alternate hard drive, etc) and try out 
> a test version of Asterisk, new CVS, new patches, etc?  If something 
> goes wrong, reboot, and poof! you are back to your original environment 
> and configuration, no harm done.
> 
>     I am currently doing a lot of work on an automated 
> Asterisk/zaptel/libpri/AstLinux build system that will allow someone to 
> build Asterisk/zaptel/libpri (with AstLinux) with a single command (it 
> is practically done).  It would not be difficult to add the ability to 
> pull down CVS HEAD (or CVS of you choosing), grab any misc. patches 
> (again, of your choosing), and rebuild the AstLinux disk image with all 
> of this included.  Toss in some debug tools like strace and valgrind and 
> I say we are in business!
> 
>     To get really crazy (I'll have to think about this one), what if we 
> do this all from a web interface like rom-o-matic.net?  Go to the web 
> GUI, pick your Asterisk/libpri/zaptel version, pick your patches to 
> test, click a button, download your AstLinux disk image, write it to 
> CD/HD, etc, and test!
> 
>     For the web interface we would NOT be able to build 
> Asterisk/libpri/zaptel on the fly for every request, there would have to 
>  be selection of images that are built nightly, or whatever.
> 
> How about it?  Good idea?  Bad idea?  Wrong list? (oh no, not that) 
> Suggestions please!
> 
>     P.S. - I realize that it would have been better to think of this 
> months ago to better prepare 1.2, it's a little late now.  Oh well, you 
> can't always be in the right place at the right time :).   

Great idea, I would certainly be more likely to do some testing, my 
system is still pre 1.0, but it does the job :)

What about making it like Easy-URPMI where you answer questions and it 
provides you the scripts/commands to run.

i.e. I go to the site select the CVS version, the patches I want to use 
and hit go;
I then get command line output to create a directory structure, a set of 
wget/CVS commands and a build script that builds the lot and produces 
the image.

This takes the load off the web site and the auto build, though some 
bits can be pre-built if there are no patches to test against them on 
that day.

Chris.