avocado-framework/avocado

=======================
65.0 Back to the Future
=======================

The Avocado team is proud to present another release: Avocado version
65.0, AKA "Back to the Future", is now available!

Release documentation: `Avocado 65.0
<http://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/65.0/>`_

The major changes introduced on this version are listed below,
roughly categorized into major topics and intended audience:

Users/Test Writers
==================

* A new utility library, :mod:`avocado.utils.ssh`, has been
  introduced.  It's a simple wrapper around the OpenSSH client
  utilities (your regular ``/usr/bin/ssh``) and allows a
  connection/session to be easily established, and commands to be
  executed on the remote endpoint using that previously established
  connection.

* Passing parameters to tests is now possible directly on the Avocado
  command line, without the use of any varianter plugin.  In fact,
  when using variants, these parameters are (currently) ignored.  To
  pass one parameter to a test, use ``-p NAME=VAL``, and repeat it
  for other parameters.

* The ``timeout`` feature on the various :mod:`avocado.utils.process`
  functions is now respected for processes started with ``sudo=True``.
  Sending general signals to processes that have also been started in
  privileged mode (and killing them) is now possible and is the basis
  of this improvement.

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.cloudinit` module now adds support for
  instances to be configured to allow ``root`` logins and
  authentication configuration via SSH keys.

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.distro` module introduced a probe for the
  Ubuntu distros.

* New :func:`avocado.utils.disk.get_disk_blocksize` and
  :func:`avocado.utils.disk.get_disks` disk related utilities.

* New :func:`avocado.utils.process.get_parent_pid` and
  :func:`avocado.utils.process.get_owner_id` process related functions

Bug Fixes
=========

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.vmimage` had an issue when dealing with bytes
  and strings on Python 3.  Now the expected encoding on the parsed web
  pages is explicitly given and used.

* The :func:`avocado.utils.linux_modules.get_submodules` function now
  returns unique modules names, instead of possibly having duplicate
  modules names.
  
* The system information collection, known in Avocado as "sysinfo", now
  properly collects information after failed and errored tests finish.

* The INSTRUMENTED test loader now properly finds all tests when, within
  the same module, either the Avocado library or the :class:`avocado.Test`
  class is imported more than once, and with different names.

* The INSTRUMENTED test loader now won't crash when specific multi
  inheritance happens on test classes.

* The external test runner feature now supports relative paths given
  on the command line when used in conjunction with
  ``--external-runner-chdir=runner``.

Internal Changes
================

* A number of utility libraries, including :mod:`avocado.utils.process`
  and :mod:`avocado.utils.linux_modules` have been modified to use
  system files (such as the ones from ``/proc/``) instead of depending
  and executing command line utilities whenever possible.  This type
  of change is expected to continue happening on Avocado.

* Tests depending on the presence of the HTML and remote plugin have
  been moved to the plugin themselves.

* A number of refactors and general improvements, usually accompanied
  by new tests, have increased the number of self tests from 549 to
  the 590 mark.

* Continuing from the past release, another large number of warnings
  checks have been enabled in the "lint" check, making the Avocado
  source code better now, and avoiding best practices regressions.

* Fixes to self tests that require privileged execution (tests
  covering the mount support in :mod:`avocado.utils.vmimage` and
  general operation of the :mod:`avocado.utils.lv_utils` module).

For more information, please check out the complete
`Avocado changelog
<https://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado/compare/64.0...65.0>`_.

Release Meeting
===============

The Avocado release meetings are now open to the community via
Hangouts on Air.  The meetings are recorded and made available on the
`Avocado Test Framework YouTube channel
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RVZ_HFTbEztDM7wNY4NfA>`_.

For this release, you can watch the meeting on `this link
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA3RTixd5Yg>`_.

----

| Sprint theme: https://trello.com/c/lhw9hO0L/1416-sprint-theme-back-to-the-future-1985