The parameter &$sandbox is not documented in hook_update_N

I wouldn't exactly say it's not documented. The function doc says:

If your update task is potentially time-consuming, you'll need to implement a multipass update to avoid PHP timeouts. Multipass updates use the $sandbox parameter provided by the batch API (normally, $context['sandbox']) to store information between successive calls, and the $sandbox['#finished'] value to provide feedback regarding completion level.

This is missing from the Drupal 6 doc though, and should be added.

OK. Someone can add an @param and say something like "see above". Should be done in D7 first. Then D6 needs the @param as well as the section quoted above that exists in D7 and is missing in D6.

Good project for a novice doc contributor

Added documentation for @param $sandbox.

#6: 937560-6.patch queued for re-testing.

Hmm. How about "Stores information for multi-pass updates. See above for more information." or something slightly more illuminating?

Also, it looks like the test bot was randomly failing. If that is systemic (e.g. if it's always failing on a particular test), we might have an issue somewhere else in Drupal. We just fixed one of these over the weekend (a filter.test failure). So net time you queue for retesting, maybe you could also put a link in to the failed test results, so we can investigate? i.e. the URL linked to in "View details" in the testing line.

Thanks!

I messed around with it a little bit, but kept coming back to your wording jhodgdon. Patch attached.

Looks good, thanks!

Committed to CVS HEAD. Thanks.

Right. See #3 above for what needs to be done. Thanks for remembering to set the status to "to be ported", kiamlaluno...

Version wasn't changed. :)

D6 backport attached.

Ignore the test failure. The hook docs files are in the Documentation project, not the Drupal project, in D6. I'll see about applying it to Drupal 6 shortly. Thanks!

This patch applies fine to the Drupal 6 documentation, but it isn't quite enough. In D7/8, the page tells what a "sandbox" is before you get to the @param $sandbox. But the D6 documentation does not have this information. So that needs to be ported from the D7/8 docs before we can say " See above for more information."
http://api.drupal.org/api/drupal/modules--system--system.api.php/functio...

Ah, I should have read it closer. Updated.

That's better! This one line needs to be shortened to less than 80 characters though:

+ *
+ * See the batch operations page for more information on how to use the batch API: http://drupal.org/node/180528
+ *

Fixed!

That looks better. I've committed it to the Documentation project. Thanks!