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68-415: The first release candidate version of Rocky Linux was released on April 30, 2021, and its first general availability version was released on June 21, 2021. Rocky Linux 8 will be supported through May 2029 and Rocky Linux 9 through May 2032. On December 8, 2020, Red Hat announced that they would discontinue development of CentOS , which had been a production-ready downstream version of RHEL, in favor of

136-401: A boxed version of Apple 's Mac OS X Public Beta operating system was released. Between September 2005 and May 2006, Microsoft released community technology preview s ( CTP s) for Windows Vista . From 2009 to 2011, Minecraft was in public beta. In February 2005, ZDNet published an article about the phenomenon of a beta version often staying for years and being used as if it were at

204-537: A closed beta , or an open beta ; closed beta versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation, while open beta testers are from a larger group, or anyone interested. Private beta could be suitable for the software that is capable of delivering value but is not ready to be used by everyone either due to scaling issues, lack of documentation or still missing vital features. The testers report any bugs that they find, and sometimes suggest additional features they think should be available in

272-425: A database . The tester can observe the state of the product being tested after performing certain actions such as executing SQL statements against the database and then executing queries to ensure that the expected changes have been reflected. Grey-box testing implements intelligent test scenarios based on limited information. This will particularly apply to data type handling, exception handling , and so on. With

340-438: A feature freeze , indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature-complete . A beta test is carried out following acceptance testing at the supplier's site (the alpha test) and immediately before the general release of the software as a product. A feature-complete (FC) version of a piece of software has all of its planned or primary features implemented but

408-403: A preview , preview release , prototype , technical preview or technology preview ( TP ), or early access . Beta testers are people who actively report issues with beta software. They are usually customers or representatives of prospective customers of the organization that develops the software. Beta testers tend to volunteer their services free of charge but often receive versions of

476-526: A Requirements gap – omission from the design for a requirement. Requirement gaps can often be non-functional requirements such as testability , scalability , maintainability , performance , and security . A fundamental limitation of software testing is that testing under all combinations of inputs and preconditions (initial state) is not feasible, even with a simple product. Defects that manifest in unusual conditions are difficult to find in testing. Also, non-functional dimensions of quality (how it

544-467: A beta version to the users is called beta release and is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it. Software beta releases can be either open or closed , depending on whether they are openly available or only available to a limited audience. Beta version software is often useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization and to prospective customers. Some developers refer to this stage as

612-413: A failure. For example, a defect in dead code will not be considered a failure. A defect that does not cause failure at one point in time may later occur due to environmental changes. Examples of environment change include running on new computer hardware , changes in data , and interacting with different software. A single defect may result in multiple failure symptoms. Software testing may involve

680-429: A newer upstream development variant of that operating system known as CentOS Stream . In response, Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ (a Rocky Linux support provider) and one of the original founders of CentOS, announced that he would start a new project to achieve the original goals of CentOS. Its name was chosen as a tribute to early CentOS co-founder Rocky McGaugh. By December 12, the code repository of Rocky Linux had become

748-462: A software product is available for purchase, depending, however, on language, region, and electronic vs. media availability. Commercialization activities could include security and compliance tests, as well as localization and worldwide availability. The time between RTM and GA can take from days to months before a generally available release can be declared, due to the time needed to complete all commercialization activities required by GA. At this stage,

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816-449: Is a lack of its compatibility with other application software , operating systems (or operating system versions , old or new), or target environments that differ greatly from the original (such as a terminal or GUI application intended to be run on the desktop now being required to become a Web application , which must render in a Web browser ). For example, in the case of a lack of backward compatibility , this can occur because

884-412: Is called code complete when the development team agrees that no entirely new source code will be added to this release. There could still be source code changes to fix defects, changes to documentation and data files, and peripheral code for test cases or utilities. Beta testers, if privately selected, will often be credited for using the release candidate as though it were a finished product. Beta testing

952-740: Is conducted in a client's or customer's location and to test the software from a user's perspective. Also called production release , the stable release is the last release candidate ( RC ) which has passed all stages of verification and tests. Any known remaining bugs are considered acceptable. This release goes to production . Some software products (e.g. Linux distributions like Debian ) also have long-term support ( LTS ) releases which are based on full releases that have already been tried and tested and receive only security updates. This allows developers to allocate more time toward product development instead of updating code or finding and fixing newly introduced bugs due to outdated assumptions about

1020-713: Is helpful in ensuring correct functionality, but not sufficient since the same code may process different inputs correctly or incorrectly. Black-box testing (also known as functional testing) describes designing test cases without knowledge of the implementation, without reading the source code. The testers are only aware of what the software is supposed to do, not how it does it. Black-box testing methods include: equivalence partitioning , boundary value analysis , all-pairs testing , state transition tables , decision table testing, fuzz testing , model-based testing , use case testing, exploratory testing , and specification-based testing. Specification-based testing aims to test

1088-448: Is not yet final due to bugs , performance or stability issues. This occurs at the end of alpha testing in development . Usually, feature-complete software still has to undergo beta testing and bug fixing , as well as performance or stability enhancement before it can go to release candidate , and finally gold status. Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet , is

1156-497: Is one that detects an as-yet undiscovered error." ), it illustrated the desire of the software engineering community to separate fundamental development activities, such as debugging, from that of verification. Software testing is typically goal driven. Software testing typically includes handling software bugs – a defect in the code that causes an undesirable result. Bugs generally slow testing progress and involve programmer assistance to debug and fix. Not all defects cause

1224-424: Is refined and tested further, before the final version is released. Some software, particularly in the internet and technology industries, is released in a perpetual beta state, meaning that it is continuously being updated and improved, and is never considered to be a fully completed product. This approach allows for a more agile development process and enables the software to be released and used by users earlier in

1292-446: Is sold as part of a bundle in a related computer hardware sale and typically where the software and related hardware is ultimately to be available and sold on mass/public basis at retail stores to indicate that the software has met a defined quality level and is ready for mass retail distribution. RTM could also mean in other contexts that the software has been delivered or released to a client or customer for installation or distribution to

1360-488: Is supposed to be versus what it is supposed to do ) – usability , scalability , performance , compatibility , and reliability – can be subjective; something that constitutes sufficient value to one person may not to another. Although testing for every possible input is not feasible, testing can use combinatorics to maximize coverage while minimizing tests. Testing can be categorized many ways. Software testing can be categorized into levels based on how much of

1428-438: Is supposed to do and what it needs to do? Information learned from software testing may be used to improve the process by which software is developed. Software testing should follow a "pyramid" approach wherein most of your tests should be unit tests , followed by integration tests and finally end-to-end (e2e) tests should have the lowest proportion. A study conducted by NIST in 2002 reported that software bugs cost

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1496-438: Is the process of developing, testing, and distributing a software product (e.g., an operating system ). It typically consists of several stages, such as pre-alpha, alpha, beta, and release candidate, before the final version, or "gold", is released to the public. Pre-alpha refers to the early stages of development, when the software is still being designed and built. Alpha testing is the first phase of formal testing, during which

1564-409: Is typically the final build of a piece of software in the beta stages for developers. Typically, for iOS , it is the final build before a major release, however, there have been a few exceptions. RTM is typically used in certain retail mass-production software contexts—as opposed to a specialized software production or project in a commercial or government production and distribution—where the software

1632-571: The 32-bit editions of Windows XP and two service packs for the 64-bit editions. Such service releases contain a collection of updates, fixes, and enhancements, delivered in the form of a single installable package. They may also implement new features. Some software is released with the expectation of regular support. Classes of software that generally involve protracted support as the norm include anti-virus suites and massively multiplayer online games . Continuing with this Windows XP example, Microsoft did offer paid updates for five more years after

1700-464: The Windows Insider Program launched in 2014 are termed "Insider Preview builds". "Beta" may also indicate something more like a release candidate , or as a form of time-limited demo, or marketing technique. Software testing Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations. Software testing can provide objective, independent information about

1768-498: The quality of software and the risk of its failure to a user or sponsor. Software testing can determine the correctness of software for specific scenarios but cannot determine correctness for all scenarios. It cannot find all bugs . Based on the criteria for measuring correctness from an oracle , software testing employs principles and mechanisms that might recognize a problem. Examples of oracles include specifications , contracts , comparable products, past versions of

1836-526: The software system is the focus of a test. There are many approaches to software testing. Reviews , walkthroughs , or inspections are referred to as static testing, whereas executing programmed code with a given set of test cases is referred to as dynamic testing . Static testing is often implicit, like proofreading, plus when programming tools/text editors check source code structure or compilers (pre-compilers) check syntax and data flow as static program analysis . Dynamic testing takes place when

1904-484: The unit , integration , and system levels of the software testing process, it is usually done at the unit level. It can test paths within a unit, paths between units during integration, and between subsystems during a system–level test. Though this method of test design can uncover many errors or problems, it might not detect unimplemented parts of the specification or missing requirements. Techniques used in white-box testing include: Code coverage tools can evaluate

1972-425: The "alpha/beta" test terminology originated at IBM . Similar terminologies for IBM's software development were used by people involved with IBM from at least the 1950s (and probably earlier). "A" test was the verification of a new product before the public announcement. The "B" test was the verification before releasing the product to be manufactured. The "C" test was the final test before the general availability of

2040-737: The IUT should be decided before the testing plan starts to be executed (preset testing ) or whether each input to be applied to the IUT can be dynamically dependent on the outputs obtained during the application of the previous tests (adaptive testing ). Software testing can often be divided into white-box and black-box. These two approaches are used to describe the point of view that the tester takes when designing test cases. A hybrid approach called grey-box that includes aspects of both boxes may also be applied to software testing methodology. White-box testing (also known as clear box testing, glass box testing, transparent box testing, and structural testing) verifies

2108-490: The U.S. economy $ 59.5 billion annually. More than a third of this cost could be avoided if better software testing was performed. Outsourcing software testing because of costs is very common, with China, the Philippines, and India being preferred destinations. Glenford J. Myers initially introduced the separation of debugging from testing in 1979. Although his attention was on breakage testing ("A successful test case

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2176-468: The application is supposed to do. It uses external descriptions of the software, including specifications, requirements, and designs, to derive test cases. These tests can be functional or non-functional , though usually functional. Specification-based testing may be necessary to assure correct functionality, but it is insufficient to guard against complex or high-risk situations. Black box testing can be used to any level of testing although usually not at

2244-455: The completeness of a test suite that was created with any method, including black-box testing. This allows the software team to examine parts of a system that are rarely tested and ensures that the most important function points have been tested. Code coverage as a software metric can be reported as a percentage for: 100% statement coverage ensures that all code paths or branches (in terms of control flow ) are executed at least once. This

2312-501: The concept of grey-box testing, this "arbitrary distinction" between black- and white-box testing has faded somewhat. Most software systems have installation procedures that are needed before they can be used for their main purpose. Testing these procedures to achieve an installed software system that may be used is known as installation testing . These procedures may involve full or partial upgrades, and install/uninstall processes. A common cause of software failure (real or perceived)

2380-444: The developer as opposed to just describing it, and the need to replicate test failures will cease to exist in many cases. The developer will have all the evidence he or she requires of a test failure and can instead focus on the cause of the fault and how it should be fixed. Ad hoc testing and exploratory testing are important methodologies for checking software integrity because they require less preparation time to implement, while

2448-406: The development cycle. Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the software project before formal testing. These activities can include requirements analysis , software design , software development , and unit testing . In typical open source development, there are several types of pre-alpha versions. Milestone versions include specific sets of functions and are released as soon as

2516-484: The end of extended support. This means that support ended on April 8, 2019. When software is no longer sold or supported, the product is said to have reached end-of-life, to be discontinued, retired, deprecated, abandoned, or obsolete, but user loyalty may continue its existence for some time, even long after its platform is obsolete—e.g., the Common Desktop Environment and Sinclair ZX Spectrum . After

2584-464: The end user to verify the integrity and authenticity of the software purchase. A copy of the RTM build known as the " gold master " or GM is sent for mass duplication or disc replication if applicable. The terminology is taken from the audio record-making industry, specifically the process of mastering . RTM precedes general availability (GA) when the product is released to the public. A golden master build (GM)

2652-422: The end-of-life date, the developer will usually not implement any new features, fix existing defects, bugs, or vulnerabilities (whether known before that date or not), or provide any support for the product. If the developer wishes, they may release the source code, so the platform will live again, and be maintained by volunteers, and if not, it may be reverse-engineered later when it becomes abandonware . Usage of

2720-460: The feature is complete. The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase of software testing (alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet , used as the number 1). In this phase, developers generally test the software using white-box techniques . Additional validation is then performed using black-box or gray-box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black-box testing inside

2788-611: The final version. Open betas serve the dual purpose of demonstrating a product to potential consumers, and testing among a wide user base is likely to bring to light obscure errors that a much smaller testing team might not find. A release candidate ( RC ), also known as gamma testing or "going silver", is a beta version with the potential to be a stable product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. In this stage of product stabilization, all product features have been designed, coded, and tested through one or more beta cycles with no known showstopper-class bugs. A release

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2856-543: The first version to support little-endian PowerPC processors and IBM Z (s390x) mainframes. Some of the ISO images released by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation have no direct upstream equivalents. They are created for specific purposes, such as for providing a live bootable image, or for providing a reduced-size installation medium. Release candidate The software release life cycle

2924-401: The functionality of software according to the applicable requirements. This level of testing usually requires thorough test cases to be provided to the tester, who then can simply verify that for a given input, the output value (or behavior), either "is" or "is not" the same as the expected value specified in the test case. Test cases are built around specifications and requirements, i.e., what

2992-612: The important bugs can be found quickly. In ad hoc testing, where testing takes place in an improvised impromptu way, the ability of the tester(s) to base testing off documented methods and then improvise variations of those tests can result in a more rigorous examination of defect fixes. However, unless strict documentation of the procedures is maintained, one of the limits of ad hoc testing is lack of repeatability. Grey-box testing (American spelling: gray-box testing) involves using knowledge of internal data structures and algorithms for purposes of designing tests while executing those tests at

3060-476: The internal structures or workings of a program, as opposed to the functionality exposed to the end-user. In white-box testing, an internal perspective of the system (the source code), as well as programming skills are used to design test cases. The tester chooses inputs to exercise paths through the code and determines the appropriate outputs. This is analogous to testing nodes in a circuit, e.g., in-circuit testing (ICT). While white-box testing can be applied at

3128-508: The next unit. The aim of visual testing is to provide developers with the ability to examine what was happening at the point of software failure by presenting the data in such a way that the developer can easily find the information he or she requires, and the information is expressed clearly. At the core of visual testing is the idea that showing someone a problem (or a test failure), rather than just describing it, greatly increases clarity and understanding. Visual testing, therefore, requires

3196-542: The organization is known as alpha release . Alpha software is not thoroughly tested by the developer before it is released to customers. Alpha software may contain serious errors, and any resulting instability could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha software may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version. In general, external availability of alpha software is uncommon for proprietary software , while open source software often has publicly available alpha versions. The alpha phase usually ends with

3264-485: The product they test, discounts on the release version, or other incentives. Some software is kept in so-called perpetual beta , where new features are continually added to the software without establishing a final "stable" release. As the Internet has facilitated the rapid and inexpensive distribution of software, companies have begun to take a looser approach to the use of the word beta . Developers may release either

3332-548: The product. As software became a significant part of IBM's offerings, the alpha test terminology was used to denote the pre-announcement test and the beta test was used to show product readiness for general availability. Martin Belsky, a manager on some of IBM's earlier software projects claimed to have invented the terminology. IBM dropped the alpha/beta terminology during the 1960s, but by then it had received fairly wide notice. The usage of "beta test" to refer to testing done by customers

3400-510: The production level. It noted that Gmail and Google News , for example, had been in beta for a long time although widely used; Google News left beta in January 2006, followed by Google Apps (now named Google Workspace ), including Gmail, in July 2009. Since the introduction of Windows 8 , Microsoft has called pre-release software a preview rather than beta . All pre-release builds released through

3468-423: The program itself is run. Dynamic testing may begin before the program is 100% complete in order to test particular sections of code and are applied to discrete functions or modules. Typical techniques for these are either using stubs /drivers or execution from a debugger environment. Static testing involves verification , whereas dynamic testing also involves validation . Passive testing means verifying

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3536-451: The programmers develop and test software only on the latest version of the target environment, which not all users may be running. This results in the unintended consequence that the latest work may not function on earlier versions of the target environment, or on older hardware that earlier versions of the target environment were capable of using. Sometimes such issues can be fixed by proactively abstracting operating system functionality into

3604-553: The range or data types can be checked for data generated from one unit and tested for validity before being passed into another unit. One option for interface testing is to keep a separate log file of data items being passed, often with a timestamp logged to allow analysis of thousands of cases of data passed between units for days or weeks. Tests can include checking the handling of some extreme data values while other interface variables are passed as normal values. Unusual data values in an interface can help explain unexpected performance in

3672-417: The recording of the entire test process – capturing everything that occurs on the test system in video format. Output videos are supplemented by real-time tester input via picture-in-a-picture webcam and audio commentary from microphones. Visual testing provides a number of advantages. The quality of communication is increased drastically because testers can show the problem (and the events leading up to it) to

3740-474: The related hardware end user computers or machines. The term does not define the delivery mechanism or volume; it only states that the quality is sufficient for mass distribution. The deliverable from the engineering organization is frequently in the form of a golden master media used for duplication or to produce the image for the web. General availability ( GA ) is the marketing stage at which all necessary commercialization activities have been completed and

3808-418: The same product, inferences about intended or expected purpose, user or customer expectations, relevant standards, and applicable laws. Software testing is often dynamic in nature; running the software to verify actual output matches expected. It can also be static in nature; reviewing code and its associated documentation . Software testing is often used to answer the question: Does the software do what it

3876-459: The software development phase following alpha. A beta phase generally begins when the software is feature-complete but likely to contain several known or unknown bugs. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software and speed or performance issues, and may still cause crashes or data loss. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts on users, often incorporating usability testing . The process of delivering

3944-654: The software has "gone live". Release to the Web ( RTW ) or Web release is a means of software delivery that utilizes the Internet for distribution. No physical media are produced in this type of release mechanism by the manufacturer. Web releases have become more common as Internet usage grew. During its supported lifetime, the software is sometimes subjected to service releases, patches or service packs , sometimes also called "interim releases" or "maintenance releases" (MR). For example, Microsoft released three major service packs for

4012-402: The software is tested internally using white-box techniques . Beta testing is the next phase, in which the software is tested by a larger group of users, typically outside of the organization that developed it. The beta phase is focused on reducing impacts on users and may include usability testing. After beta testing, the software may go through one or more release candidate phases, in which it

4080-453: The stable release of Rocky Linux 8.4 was released, with the code name "Green Obsidian". Rocky Linux 9.0 was released on July 14, 2022, alongside a new reproducible build system called "Peridot", created to ensure the community can easily create new RHEL forks if Rocky Linux ever were to be discontinued, and to allow the Rocky Linux project to make new releases faster. Rocky Linux 9.0 is also

4148-496: The system under test. This distinction is particularly important when conducting integration testing between two modules of code written by two different developers, where only the interfaces are exposed for the test. By knowing the underlying concepts of how the software works, the tester makes better-informed testing choices while testing the software from outside. Typically, a grey-box tester will be permitted to set up an isolated testing environment with activities, such as seeding

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4216-423: The system's behavior without any interaction with the software product. Contrary to active testing, testers do not provide any test data but look at system logs and traces. They mine for patterns and specific behavior in order to make some kind of decisions. This is related to offline runtime verification and log analysis . The type of testing strategy to be performed depends on whether the tests to be applied to

4284-412: The top-trending repository on GitHub . On December 22, 2020, Rocky Linux community manager Jordan Pisaniello announced that the target for an initial release was anywhere between March and May of 2021. On January 20, 2021, it was announced that a test repository would be made available to the public by the end of February, and a release candidate was on target for the end of March 2021. However, that date

4352-471: The unit level. Component interface testing Component interface testing is a variation of black-box testing , with the focus on the data values beyond just the related actions of a subsystem component. The practice of component interface testing can be used to check the handling of data passed between various units, or subsystem components, beyond full integration testing between those units. The data being passed can be considered as "message packets" and

4420-418: The used system, language, or underlying libraries. Once released, the software is generally known as a "stable release". The formal term often depends on the method of release: physical media, online release, or a web application. The term "release to manufacturing" (RTM), also known as "going gold", is a term used when a software product is ready to be delivered. This build may be digitally signed, allowing

4488-424: The user, or black-box level. The tester will often have access to both "the source code and the executable binary." Grey-box testing may also include reverse engineering (using dynamic code analysis) to determine, for instance, boundary values or error messages. Manipulating input data and formatting output do not qualify as grey-box, as the input and output are clearly outside of the "black box" that we are calling

4556-566: Was not done in IBM. Rather, IBM used the term "field test". Major public betas developed afterward, with early customers having purchased a "pioneer edition" of the WordVision word processor for the IBM PC for $ 49.95. In 1984, Stephen Manes wrote that "in a brilliant marketing coup, Bruce and James Program Publishers managed to get people to pay for the privilege of testing the product." In September 2000,

4624-429: Was slightly pushed back, and on April 30, 2021, the first release candidate was officially released. The second release candidate, of version 8.4, the last before the stable release, was released on June 4, 2021. The high version number is based on the designation of RHEL. Rocky Linux is a clone of RHEL, which is also binary-compatible and is already supported by numerous large, financially strong sponsors. On June 21, 2021,

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