Tuesday 14 Jan 03 Confcall summary

(actually summarizes the call, short-term actions,
and a few other thoughts)

(1) The beta release is now out.

- main webpage was updated
- "using" webpage was updated
- a new "building" webpage was added with some material
  yanked out of main, and some new stuff
- the three lsbsi-test bundles were uploaded,
  although they aren't built the same place as
  the main bundles, they should be okay (Stuart,
  feel free to upload yours if you'd like, that way
  the pieces would be more "matched")
- an announcement was sent out to lsb-discuss

(2) Testing status

- ia64 has 63 failures as follows:
  4 fixable (test suite config, build)
  4 to be removed (cmds ed, ex, vi, nm)
  6 to be fixed by changing build, locales, etc.
  So in theory the next test release should reduce to 49

  Of the rest:
  41 textutils
   2 tar (fixed by 1.13.25)
   2 findutils (fixed by 4.1.7)
   3 grep
   1 diffutils
  
- ia32 has essentially the same set, missing the
  first 4 fails above

- ppc32 seems to have many more failures, someone
  really needs to look into this

It's expected that these remaining 49 (or 45, see
(3) below) will be left in the initial 1.3 release,
and documented.


(3) two base packages have "unofficial" versions
with interesting status:
 
findutils is at 4.1.7 ("released" is 4.1)
and tar is at 1.13.25 ("released" is 1.13).

Both have been in this "alpha" state for a
very long time, and all distros I have access
to, even old ones, are using these versions.

Benefits of "alpha" versions:
a. eliminates need to use lsbsi-specific patch
b. eliminates all lsb-runtime test failures in
   these two packages
c. matches what everyone seems to be using (less
   any vendor-specific patches, of course)

Disadvantages:
a. no longer using "formally released" upstream
b. testing impace (tests already done on ia32, Itanium:
   no regressions, each fixes two)


(4) Some fixes are going in to the "phase4"
(addons) bits.  The cvs sources for 1.3b1
were stamped to be able to track changes.
So far, have fixed phase4 to generate tarballs
with the architecture, and fixed a postbuild
phase problem with ia64 in building the kernel.
Some changes need to go in to the same place
for ppc.

Also need to add /etc/services. 

Side note: test builds with gcc-3.2.1 and
binutils 2.13.2 (current versions are
3.2 and 2.13.1) show zero test regressions.


(5) Some discussion of UML.  It would be nice
to get this work going; the LFS initscripts
may not be appropriate, think we can craft the
right set for UML use and have them built
"by hand" by phase4c (i.e., not extracted
from a big tarball).


ACTION ITEMS:
(1)(mats ia32/Itanium; ??? ppc)
   Retest with next spin of lsb-runtime-test (1.3.3)
   to check expected fixes are in place
(2)(mats)
   prepare release notes documenting remaining
   test deficiencies and other "stuff"
(3)(???)
   Check in kernel "postbuild" changes for ppc32
(4)(???)
   Investigate ppc32 issues, determine if lsbsi is
   ready for release now or whether we need to hold
   back a bit
(5)(mats, marvin)
   Test appbat candidates against the lsbsi candidate
(6)(mats and/or stuart) spin next build, and release 
   if no remaining problems