[Python-Dev] Where is our official policy of what platforms we do support?

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Am 15.05.14 16:20, schrieb Skip Montanaro:
> On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
>> We already have such buildbots, they are in the "unstable" category.
>> You can browse through existing buildbots here:
>> https://www.python.org/dev/buildbot/
> 
> I can't see how to distinguish "stable" from "unstable" (or to view
> just the "unstable" category. What do those two categories have to do
> with "supported" and "unsupported"?

There are two competing definitions of "stable" vs. "unstable" when it
comes to buildbots.

1. "stable buildbot" (my preferred definition)
   * the buildbot is available most of the time, an operator will deal
     with it when it happens to go down, and the builds always complete.
   * consequentially, an unstable buildbot is one that tends to
     disconnect, and takes a long time for the operator to recover
2. "stable platform"
   * all tests are expected to pass all the time; i.e. there are no
     tests that randomly fail, and no platform-specific failures
   * thus, a failed test is an indication that a new bug has been
     introduced

When Antoine talked about "unofficial" buildbots, he was referring to
the fact that we accept nearly any buildbot offered, but put them into
the unstable category, which they often belong to by either definition
of unstable.

Regards,
Martin