4 ms·

No idea how this patch passed QA Testing internally.

by revisionzero 12y ago

meepmorp 12y ago
This never would've happened if Steve Jobs were alive.
- saryant 12y ago
  Apple pushed several broken updates under Jobs. Remember the iTunes update that wiped hard drives?
  - EricBart 12y ago
    I haven't heard of that before now, and now I am super curious. Is there an article that details what happened?
    - Someone 12y ago
      http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110223300292 http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110223300292
      - jamessb 12y ago
        So the root cause of this is similar to that of the broken Bumbeebee upgrade script [1,2]: a typo (missing quotation marks or unintended space) caused far more data than intended (a whole volume or /usr) to be rm'd. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2661209 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2661209 2: https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/commit/a047be85247755cdbe0acce6f1dafc8beb84f2ac https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/commi...
  - ARCarr 12y ago
    I think it was a joke.
mikestew 12y ago
Though I've pointed out before that I don't think formal testing is a big part of Apple culture, I'm at a loss to come up with how this passed the most basic smoke testing. Or to flip it around, what random variable wasn't accounted for that allowed the devices in the test matrix to pass? Sure, it seems obvious that Apple just didn't test it. But c'mon, we know that can't be true. They must have loaded on some iPhone 6s. So what's the missing piece?
- selectodude 12y ago
  The update works fine if updated via iTunes. Only OTA updates are broken. Maybe they didn't test the OTA update process? It sounds absurd but it's the only viable option in my mind.
  - cheald 12y ago
    It's surprising to me that those would even differ in the first place. You'd think that you'd have a single deliverable which is delivered and signed, and the installer does the same thing regardless of where it gets the package. What makes OTA different from iTunes?
    - selectodude 12y ago
      The iTunes update is the entire OS patched, so it's like a 2GB download. The OTA update is a delta update, which is only 75MB or so.
      - cheald 12y ago
        Ah, got it!
- Someone1234 12y ago
  Pure 100% speculation: Maybe this only impacted some carriers and maybe Apple only tests on a subset (e.g. AT&T was tested, but T-Mobile broke, etc). Would be interesting to hear what carrier it broke on for people.
eridius 12y ago
AFAIK the issue only affected OTA updates. I suspect that the vast majority of testing occurred without using OTA. I wouldn't be surprised if they are a bit more aggressive about testing OTA updates too after this.

No idea how this patch passed QA Testing internally.

meepmorp 12y ago

This never would've happened if Steve Jobs were alive.

saryant 12y ago
Apple pushed several broken updates under Jobs. Remember the iTunes update that wiped hard drives?
- EricBart 12y ago
  I haven't heard of that before now, and now I am super curious. Is there an article that details what happened?
  - Someone 12y ago
    http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110223300292 http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2001110223300292
    - jamessb 12y ago
      So the root cause of this is similar to that of the broken Bumbeebee upgrade script [1,2]: a typo (missing quotation marks or unintended space) caused far more data than intended (a whole volume or /usr) to be rm'd. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2661209 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2661209 2: https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/commit/a047be85247755cdbe0acce6f1dafc8beb84f2ac https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee-Old-and-abbandoned/commi...
- ARCarr 12y ago
  I think it was a joke.

mikestew 12y ago

Though I've pointed out before that I don't think formal testing is a big part of Apple culture, I'm at a loss to come up with how this passed the most basic smoke testing. Or to flip it around, what random variable wasn't accounted for that allowed the devices in the test matrix to pass? Sure, it seems obvious that Apple just didn't test it. But c'mon, we know that can't be true. They must have loaded on some iPhone 6s. So what's the missing piece?

selectodude 12y ago
The update works fine if updated via iTunes. Only OTA updates are broken. Maybe they didn't test the OTA update process? It sounds absurd but it's the only viable option in my mind.
- cheald 12y ago
  It's surprising to me that those would even differ in the first place. You'd think that you'd have a single deliverable which is delivered and signed, and the installer does the same thing regardless of where it gets the package. What makes OTA different from iTunes?
  - selectodude 12y ago
    The iTunes update is the entire OS patched, so it's like a 2GB download. The OTA update is a delta update, which is only 75MB or so.
    - cheald 12y ago
      Ah, got it!
Someone1234 12y ago
Pure 100% speculation: Maybe this only impacted some carriers and maybe Apple only tests on a subset (e.g. AT&T was tested, but T-Mobile broke, etc). Would be interesting to hear what carrier it broke on for people.

eridius 12y ago

AFAIK the issue only affected OTA updates. I suspect that the vast majority of testing occurred without using OTA. I wouldn't be surprised if they are a bit more aggressive about testing OTA updates too after this.