======================
56.0 The Second Mother
======================

The Avocado team is proud to present another release: Avocado version
56.0, AKA "The Second Mother", is now available!

Release documentation: `Avocado 56.0
<http://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/56.0/>`_

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

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

* The :mod:`avocado.core.utils.vmimage` library now allows users to
  expand the builtin list of image providers.  If you have a local
  cache of public images, or your own images, you can quickly and
  easily register your own providers and thus use your images on your
  tests.

* A documentation on how to create your own base classes for your
  tests, kind of like you own Avocado-based test framework, was
  introduced.  This should help users put common tasks into base
  classes and get even more productive test development.

* Avocado can record the output generated from a test, which can then
  be used to determine if the test passed or failed.  This feature is
  commonly known as "output check".  Traditionally, users would choose
  to record the output from ``STDOUT`` and/or ``STDERR`` into separate
  streams, which would be saved into different files.  Some tests suites
  actually put all content of ``STDOUT`` and ``STDERR`` together, and
  unless we record them together, it'd be impossible to record them in
  the right order.  This version introduces the ``combined`` option
  to ``--output-check-record`` option, which does exactly that: it
  records both ``STDOUT`` and ``STDERR`` into a single stream and
  into a single file (named ``output`` in the test results, and
  ``output.expected`` in the test data directory).

* A new varianter plugin has been introduced, based on PICT.  PICT is
  a "Pair Wise" combinatorial tool, that can generate optimal
  combination of parameters to tests, so that (by default) at least a
  unique pair of parameter values will be tested at once.

* Further progress towards Python 3 support.  While this version does
  not yet advertise full Python 3 support, the next development cycle
  will tackle any Python 3 issue as a critical bug.  On this release,
  some optional plugins, including the remote and docker runner
  plugins, received attention and now execute correctly on a Python 3
  stack.

Bug Fixes
=========

* The remote plugin had a broken check for the timeout when executing
  commands remotely.  It meant that the out-most timeout loop would
  never reach a second iteration.

* The remote and docker plugins had issues on how they were checking
  the installed Avocado versions.

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

* The CI checks on Travis received a lot of attention, and a new script
  that and should be used by maintainers was introduced.
  ``contrib/scripts/avocado-check-pr.sh`` runs tests on all commits in
  a PR, and sends the result over to GitHub, showing other developers
  that no regression was introduced within the series.

For more information, please check out the complete
`Avocado changelog
<https://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado/compare/56.0...55.0>`_.

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=PPFzrbA9AF0>`_.

----

| Sprint theme: https://trello.com/c/s1WobkdE/1157-sprint-theme-the-second-mother-2015