SeaMonkey/Bug events/20110518

Where? When? What?

• Channel #bugday on irc.mozilla.org. If you are browsing this page with SeaMonkey, clicking the link will open that channel in ChatZilla. If you want to use a different IRC client, connect to irc.mozilla.org then type /join #bugday
• 18 to 20 may 2011, 12:00 - 22:00 GMT, which means among others:
  • 05:00 - 15:00 USA West Coast (PDT = "Mozilla HQ time")
  • 08:00 - 18:00 USA East Coast
  • 13:00 - 23:00 Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, etc.
  • 14:00 - 24:00 most of the European Union
  • 15:00 - 01:00* Finland, Greece etc.
  • 16:00 - 02:00* Moscow etc.
  • 20:00 - 06:00* Hong Kong, Singapore, Myanmar etc.
  • 21:00 - 07:00* Japan etc. (I think)

(Starred times are, of course, on the next day.)

Participants don't have to be there for the full session: if it starts too early for you, or ends too late, it's OK to be there only part of the time.

• Since the main focus of SeaMonkey development is currently on the 2.1 branch, we will be testing that, and not the "bleeding-edge" SeaMonkey 2.2a1pre. However, since the SeaMonkey 2.1 release build (which is not yet released as I'm writing this but will probably be shortly before the Bug Event) will probably not include the "Debug" and "QA" menus, we recommend that testers use a nightly build from the SeaMonkey 2.1 branch (see below), where these menus will be available. The recent SeaMonkey 2.1 nightlies available during the BugEvent will probably differ very little from the 2.1 release.

Before you start

Make sure you have a Bugzilla account with Mozilla

• If you have one, you probably know it.
• If you don't, you can get one here at no cost.

Install the latest SeaMonkey 2.1 nightly

• Browse to http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/nightly/latest-comm-2.0/ (for menus and messages in USA English) or http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/nightly/latest-comm-2.0-l10n/ (for menus and messages in other languages) then download and install the build corresponding to your OS and language. Installation instructions are found at http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/2.1/install-and-uninstall — You may want to install this test version in a different directory than your "usual" SeaMonkey.
  Notes:
  • The available Mac builds support 32- or 64-bit Intel Macs equipped with Mac OS X 10.5 or later. 10.4 or earlier is not supported anymore, and neither are Power-PC machines.
  • Linux 64-bit builds are available but they are regarded as "experimental".
  • For Windows, only 32-bit versions of SeaMonkey are available at this time. They ought to run correctly on both 32- and 64-bit machines equipped with Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7.
  • For detailed software and hardware requirements, see http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/2.1/system-requirements
• Before you start this new build, make sure that no other version of SeaMonkey is running. If you closed another instance of SeaMonkey a few minutes ago, it could still be busy closing down, even if all its windows have already disappeared. Check with the Windows Task Manager, KDE System Guard, the Gnome System Monitor, or (on Unix-like systems) the command-line ps utility, that there is no running process named seamonkey.exe, seamonkey-bin or seamonkey.app — and if there is, wait some more until they go away.
• Run this new build in a new profile.

The testing proper

We want to find or confirm bugs in SeaMonkey 2.1; below are a few ideas about that. In any case,

• please add [SmBugEvent] to the Whiteboard of any bug that you create or confirm during the event;
• Of course, if you find bugs that can immediately be RESOLVED, by all means do so. Here is a short (and approximate) summary of what the possible resolutions mean:
  • DUPLICATE: this bug is a duplicate of an older or better-documented bug
  • INVALID: this bug either describes expected behaviour, or concerns a real error but not in Mozilla code (e.g. an OS bug, a plugin bug, an extension bug, …)
  • INCOMPLETE: the reporter has been asked for more information, and hasn't replied within a reasonable time frame
  • WONTFIX: this bug is a real bug, but it has been officially decided that it will NOT be fixed.
  • WORKSFORME: the bug has disappeared, but we don't know exactly what fixed it.
  • FIXED: the bug has been fixed, and we know exactly which Mercurial changeset fixed it.
• If you cannot immediately resolve the bug, the following Whiteboard entry can be used to put them on the radar for resolution at a later time:
  • [CLOSEME 2011-07-01 INCO] for bugs to be resolved INCOMPLETE if the reporter doesn't answer a question that you asked during the Bug Event
  • [CLOSEME 2011-07-01 WFM] for bugs to be resolved WORKSFORME if no-one can both reproduce it on a recent build (2.1 or later), and say in a bug comment that he did.
  • [CLOSEME INVA/WONT?] for bugs which might possibly reflect "not a Mozilla bug" or "expected behaviour" (both INVALID), or "not worth fixing" (WONTFIX).
    • Only an Owner or Peer for the relevant code module may resolve a bug WONTFIX, so if you request a WONTFIX you will also have to bring the bug to the attention of at least one of these people. Here is where to find who they are:
      • for SeaMonkey
      • for Mozilla code in general, including not only SeaMonkey but the other Products relevant for SeaMonkey's backends
      • If you're in doubt, this spreadsheet could perhaps help you locate to which Module a given Component belongs. (Or it might not, and some parts of it are probably out-of-date.)
    • The "Bugzilla address of record" of some developers is different from their listed email address. Make sure that you have JavaScript enabled, at least on bugzilla.mozilla.org pages, and use the Bugzilla autocomplete feature to find the right CC address.

Predefined searches

• SeaMonkey UNCONFIRMED bugs
• Bugs currently assigned to product "SeaMonkey", component "General" — some of these might need triage to a different Product and/or Component
  • Newbie users will file new bugs under SeaMonkey::General; however, most new bugs belong either in a different Component of SeaMonkey, or even in some other Product, most often Core, MailNews Core or Toolkit. (These links are to the list of Components for each of these Products.)
• Reproducible open bugs for SeaMonkey-trunk: If there are any (last time I checked, there weren't), you may want to determine whether they also happen with Sm 2.1.

Predefined tests

You will find these in the "Debug" and "QA" menus which are part of the "Debug and QA UI" extension included with nightly builds but not with release builds. I'm not very conversant with these menus but perhaps some or all of the following may be relevant:

• Debug → Verification → …
• Debug → Viewer Demos → …
• Debug → XBL Test Suite → …
• Debug → XUL Test Suite → …
• Debug → chofmann's Browser Buster
• QA → Smoke Tests
• QA → Pre-checkin Tests

Other tests

We want to find any new bugs that may exist in SeaMonkey 2.1, not only those found by these predefined searches and tests. If you can think of something to test, and the results are not what was expected, then if the bug isn't yet known, you should file a new one. In case of doubt (if you're not sure whether it's a bug or a feature), ask on IRC during the Event.

If you have more questions about this Event before it begins

First, read this page again, more attentively. If you still can't answer your question, try asking in one of the following places:

• the #seamonkey channel at irc.mozilla.org
  • As always on IRC, don't be afraid to ask your question, and don't get impatient if you aren't answered straightaway. Many IRC old-timers leave their IRC client open while doing something else, and come back later to see if there was a question to which they know the answer. So ask your question then leave your IRC client open while doing something else, perhaps looking for other possible sources of information, checking your mail, etc. If anyone mentions your nickname in the IRC channel, your client will call for attention (e.g. by flashing its taskbar icon).
• the mozilla.dev.apps.seamonkey newsgroup of the news.mozilla.org news server. This newsgroup is not part of the "public" Usenet groups which might be mirrored by a news server hosted by your ISP. It is available as a Google group.
  • Try to make the Subject of your post as descriptive as possible without being overly long.
• In both cases, see also How To Ask Questions The Smart Way.