brunner@bullhead.uucp (07/21/89)
Hello everyone, Postings of official fixes to the current release of IBM/4.3 will be made to this newsgroup (comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt). Our intent is to extend the existing notes-based dial-up user support to readers of this newsgroup. Our format follows that of the moderated newsgroup for fixes released by Berkeley (comp.bugs.4bsd-fixes). We will include fixes only for IBM/4.3, Release 2 (September 88, updated December 88). If at all possible, postings will be diff listings from the released source, not from intermediate sources. Postings will be sequentially numbered and missed postings may be requested from the ACSC, or in if all else fails, from myself. The location and naming convention of fixes on ibmsupt have been changed to correspond with the new format. Formerly fixes were available via UUCP as follows: ibmsupt!/usr/spool/uucppublic/some_suggestive_name The new location and naming convention for fixes is: ibmsupt!/usr/spool/uucppublic/ibm43-fixes/Vn.mm where Vn is the volume number (V1 to begin with), and mm is the fix number within the volume. The archive of fixes on ibmsupt will be consistent with the fixes posted to this newsgroup. We intend that Larry Wall's patch program be used to apply the fixes. For sites which do not already have patch, a compressed tar image of the patch sources (version 2, patch level 9) is available from ibmsupt. As before, bug reports should continue to be forwarded to "ibmsupt!ibmapar" to ensure that each bug is entered into the formal bug reporting (APAR) system. Since IBM hasn't done anything like this before, we would appreciate any suggestions from the user community. This is note is Volume 1, number 1 (V1.1). Eric Brunner uunet!ibmsupt!brunner
brunner@bullhead.uucp (07/22/89)
The following letter will soon be received by the technical
contact at each IBM/4.3 licensed site. It concerns a change
in the organization of fixes which may be applied to IBM/4.3.
The change it refers to has been described in a posting to
this newsgroup. This note is Volume 1, number 2 (V1.2).
Eric Brunner
===================================================================
IBM Advanced Workstation Division
1510 Page Mill Road
M/S 35A
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Dear Colleague,
A revision to the organization of the on-line support
for IBM/4.3 at IBM Palo Alto has commenced this month. This
note describes the changes that have been made so that sites
which make use of on-line support can continue to apply bug
fixes to their release. The change discussed in this memo
is motivated by a desire to improve the quality of support
offered to IBM/4.3 customers.
IBM/4.3 is a PRPQ product in source form. It is
comprised of major sub-systems which are under development
within the research community, and for which exchanges of
fixes and enhancements in source form is the prevalent prac-
tice. Examples subsystems are the Andrew File System (CMU),
the X11 window system (MIT), and the Berkeley release of the
operating system and utilities.
Prior to this month, fixes to the product were organ-
ized only within the notes-based APAR bug reporting and
tracking system. As several APARs are duplicates or varia-
tions on common problems, (e.g., those APARs concerning the
asychronous line driver), this form of publishing fixes
occasionally requires extensive interactive traversal of the
notesfiles to obtain a fix. In order to improve con-
sistency, we are reorganizing the structure and format of
fixes.
Fixes to IBM/4.3 are now sequentially numbered within a
volume, and to the greatest extent possible, the format of
each fix is a forward context diff, suitable for multi-file
and multi-directory automatic installation via the patch
program. The fixes are all located on IBMSUPT as individual
files within a subdirectory of the publically readable UUCP
spool directory (/usr/spool/uucppublic/ibm43-fixes). The
names of each file correspond to the volume and sequence
number of the fix, e.g., V1.n is the nth-fix published
within Volume 1. In addition to the fixes, a compressed tar
image of the patch program sources is kept (patch.tar.Z) in
this subdirectory for the benefit of sites which do not
already have this useful program.
Our intent is to mimic the well-known organization and
format of "official" fixes to Berkeley's 4bsd release, pub-
lished via a moderated newsgroup (comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes)
and archived at UUNET. Each fix to IBM/4.3 will be
July 17, 1989
- 2 -
published via the un-moderated newsgroup specific to the IBM
RT (comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt), and archived on IBMSUPT as
described in the preceding paragraph. The new naming con-
vention and the selection of patch-compatible context
differences follows the format adopted by Berkeley in March
1987. An index of fixes will be maintained and published
regularly, and again, the Berkeley practice will be fol-
lowed.
This change improves upon the somewhat variable loca-
tion and naming conventions, in which occasional fixes
referred to within the notes-based APAR system were not con-
tained within a notesfile but were located in the publically
readable uucp spool directory (/usr/spool/uucppublic) on the
IBMSUPT machine, (e.g., the "hammerfix").
This change also makes consistent the format for diffs,
though non-context diffs were predominant, the direction of
the diffs was not consistent throughout. This lack of con-
sistency made the fixes unsuited to automatic installation
or management.
Finally, this change makes bug tracking and fix instal-
lation much easier to manage, and aids understanding of pos-
sible interdependencies of fixes. The extensive interactive
traversal of notesfiles for clues or later but apparently
unrelated notes is made unnecessary.
No change has been introduced to the system for open-
ing, tracking and closure of APARs. Some fixes may continue
to be introduced into the notesfiles, but the authoritative
fix will be as described above, and each APAR closure will
contain a reference to the Volume and sequence number of the
relevant fix.
We anticipate that the application of bug fixes will be
made simpler for IBM's customers, and tracking fix installa-
tions will be made easier for the on-site support staff, the
ACSC support staff, and the IBM/4.3 support programmers at
IBM Palo Alto
Sincerely,
IBM/4.3 Technical Support Staff
Palo Alto
13 July, 1989
July 17, 1989
Eric Brunner
uunet!ibmsupt!brunner