thunderbird / thunderbird/developer-docs

Improve docs for try server with non-tip mozilla-central changeset

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Description

Yesterday comm-central was busted when I did a try server run (which failed due to the bustage). I followed the docs to redo the try run with a mozilla-central changeset that was earlier than the one that busted comm-central. The docs could be improved for this use case.

The relevant docs are here, but they cover a different use case, and didn't work for me when I tried to follow them. I had to get some help on IRC, and what I ended up having to do is not what was described in the docs.

All I had to do was add a GECKO_HEAD_REV line to my .gecko_rev.yml file so it looked like this:

GECKO_BASE_REPOSITORY: https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-unified
GECKO_HEAD_REPOSITORY: https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central
GECKO_HEAD_REF: default
GECKO_HEAD_REV: 7faec8e0996bce01fdd1bb9f1b2a1c60045de16c

One thing I didn't realize, since these docs don't mention it, is that you have to commit your changes to the .gecko_rev.yml file for them to take effect on the try server.

Since bustages are still common, I think it would be worth having a different section in the docs to cover this scenario.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the linked try-server documentation section, “Testing Mozilla-central patches,” and compare its instructions with the issue’s .gecko_rev.yml example. Add guidance for testing a non-tip mozilla-central changeset, including GECKO_HEAD_REV and the requirement to commit the file; done means the scenario and resulting workflow are documented clearly.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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