The Rocky Linux project has announced Testrarc, a new open-source, web-based platform designed to coordinate release testing, track validation results, and make the process more accessible to community contributors.
Since 2022, the distro has relied on Mattermost Playbooks to organize testing activities. With testing expanding across hardware architectures and deployment environments, the project developed a dedicated system to centralize the process.
The new platform provides a dashboard to track tests throughout the release cycle, from initial beta builds to release candidates, allowing contributors and the testing team to monitor completed tests, identify failures, and see which areas still need validation.
The platform is built with Python and the Rio web development framework, and supports testing across Rocky Linux’s architectures, including x86_64, aarch64, riscv64, ppc64le, and s390x.
Each recorded test includes its result (passed, failed, or partially completed), along with contributor and testing-environment details. Supported environments include physical hardware, KVM virtualization, containers, other virtual machines, and cloud infrastructure.
A key feature is that testing results are publicly accessible without authentication. Anyone interested in an upcoming Rocky Linux release can view results through the platform’s dashboard. Submitting new results requires a Rocky Linux account to link contributions to testers.
Lastly, Testrarc introduces a community_testable filter that helps volunteers find suitable tests without specialized hardware or advanced infrastructure. This lets users running Rocky Linux on everyday computers or virtual machines contribute to release validation.
The platform is already accessible, with testing results for the upcoming Rocky Linux 10.3 and 9.9 beta releases available for review. Both versions are currently undergoing validation ahead of their stable releases.
