[Xen-API] Automated OCaml testing of Xen packages

[Anil Madhavapeddy <anil@xxxxxxxxxx>]

[not sure if more appropriate for xapi or xs-devel, so x-posting]

We've been working on a new automated testing infrastructure for the OCaml OPAM 
package database to improve its reliability out-of-the-box.  I thought I'd drop 
a note to this list, as some of our 'beta testers / guinea pigs' have been Dave 
Scott and Jon Ludlam who have been adding regular updates to OPAM from the 
opensource XAPI project.

I've written an overview of the test infrastructure as it stands now at:
http://anil.recoil.org/2013/09/09/ocamlot-autotriaging.html

...and will be updating it when the new fancy auto-triage, GitHub-based 
workflow goes live towards the end of the year.

The Xen packages have been remarkably well packaged so far, and we've only had 
to fix minor issues due to missing constraints (which happen when a new library 
is released that's got an incompatible interface) or dependencies.  The summary 
of activity is up at:
https://github.com/OCamlPro/opam-repository/issues/1029

The reason the blog post is of interest is that we've also been testing on the 
very latest OCaml release (4.01), and categorized some of the common failures 
that you may see, and how to avoid them.

We're also very thankful to Rackspace Cloud for adding us to the developer 
relations program, and so are currently building VM-based unit test support for 
x86 to run every single package in its own Xen VM (with the external network 
unplugged for security).  One of the more unique aspects of our test 
infrastructure is that it includes ARM, Sparc and PowerPC boxes too, so we plan 
to rotate in a cluster of Cubieboards running Xen-ARM just as soon as Ian 
Campbell is done with getting it booting reliably!

If anyone's got any feature requests or tests we can add to make your life 
easier, now is the time to speak up so we can weave it in.  Feature requests 
for OCamlot can go straight on the OPAM issue database [1], and we'll 
categorise it appropriately.  One of the requests from the XAPI team have been 
to add support for testing RPMs and Apt PPAs, which is something we anticipate 
being able to do when the Rackspace integration is complete.

[1] https://github.com/OCamlPro/opam/issues

cheers
Anil
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