Hello,

Since I started RubyInstaller 4 years ago, ensuring that Ruby worked on every
single release took time.

Back then, my hardware was limited, so running Ruby tests took a considerable
amount of time (more than one cup of tea using tea cups scale).

Not only that, even after 4 years and different versions of Ruby and Windows,
Ruby still have some failures:

Finished tests in 526.522392s, 21.2128 tests/s, 3665.2629 assertions/s.
11169 tests, 1929843 assertions, 9 failures, 2 errors, 80 skips

Wouldn't be awesome that Ruby own tests were all green on Windows?

The truth is that having Ruby achieve `0F0E` (0 failures, 0 errors) will help
detect real errors, not to mention automate the testing process, perhaps
allowing teams have *nightly builds* of Ruby to play with.

Following a similar idea from Ruby 1.9.3 Documentation Challenge [1], I would
like to propose some test-fixing hunt!

## Objective

Reach 0 failures and 0 errors for Windows (MinGW) in the upcoming weeks, is
not that hard: 9 failures and 2 errors.

The target is Ruby **trunk** (upcoming 2.0), but I expect these fixes be
backported to Ruby 1.9.3 too.

## I have no idea how to compile things...

I heard *I would like to help but have no idea how to compile Ruby*, and I
know is not easy, so that is why I present to you the **Ruby Challenge Kit**

Those of you who are well versed in the art of compiling can skip to the next
section (Compiling).

### Ruby Challenge Pack

The Ruby Challenge Pack is a single-file package that provides all the tools
require to compile, test and fix Ruby. Once extracted, it provides:

- Ruby 1.9.3-p194 (required as base to compile Ruby).
- 32bits DevKit GCC 4.6.1 (based on TDM builds).
- 32bits support libraries (OpenSSL, zlib, libffi, libyaml, etc).
- Easy 1-click batch to start a tailored Command Prompt
- Easy 1-step batch to compile Ruby and run basic tests
- A document (README) describing how compile and send your fixes.

What is not included and you need is:

- A working Git installation on your computer (recommended is msysGit).
- A clone of Ruby source from GitHub [2]

Download here:
http://cdn.rubyinstaller.org/archives/experimental/RubyChallengePack-v1.exe

MD5 for verification:
0e6259c256beb5fba7e7ec53bd9e5c21

After download of the package, extract into a directory *without spaces*
(e.g. C:\RubyChallenge) and check the included README for instructions (or
keep reading)

## Compiling

For those using the Ruby Challenge Pack, simply run `quick-compile.bat`
as indicated in the documentation.

For others, do what you do and always verify Ruby core tests pass:

make test

Compiling will take long, depending on your system. You can go and grab
a cup of tea while it completes.

## Running and fixing tests

Once you've compiled Ruby, you can run the tests:

make test-all TESTS="-q"

Above command will run **all** Ruby tests, which could take around 10
minutes.

Once it completes, you should get a list that only contains the errors. For
example, let's look at the following one:

[ 3348/11169] TestEnv#test_win32_blocksize = 0.00 s
4) Failure:
test_win32_blocksize(TestEnv)
[C:/Users/Worker/Code/ruby/ruby/test/ruby/test_env.rb:404]:
Errno::EINVAL expected but nothing was raised.

Notice the file where the test failed: `test/ruby/test_env.rb` and the line
too.

Now open your editor/IDE, find that file, open it, and locate the failing
test.

Figure out if the test is valid and Ruby is failing or is test that is not
meant to be run on Windows.

At any time, you can email RubyInstaller group [3] and ask questions,
everybody will be pleased to help you out.

Once you find a solution, modify the file and run the tests again, but this
time just for a single file:

make test-all TESTS="-q ruby/test_env.rb"

## Sending your patches

You fixed a test, great! Now is time to send this to Ruby developers so they
can apply it.

Open a ticket on Ruby-trunk [4] tracker and assign it to me (luislavena).
I'll review and merge accordingly.

To reduce changes people stepping into each other, please email RubyInstaller
group [3] before to announce or see if others are working on that particular
failure.

## A big thank you

There is no such thing as small contributions, all contributions are valuable.

Help us make a better Ruby.

Thank you.
--

[1] http://blog.segment7.net/2011/05/09/ruby-1-9-3-documentation-challenge
[2] http://github.com/ruby/ruby
[3] https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/rubyinstaller
[4] http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/ruby-trunk/issues/new

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