Hash :
ccbb437e
Author :
Date :
2011-12-14T20:53:10
readme: don't reference the old homepage at sources.redhat.com * README: Don't reference the old homepage at sources.redhat.com, which is no longer active; reference the homepage on www.gnu.org instead. See also automake bug#10157 and bug#10248. * tests/README: Likewise, and remove related extra-pedantic advice about copyright papers for test cases (we'll ask for those papers explicitly when we think they are warranted).
The Automake test suite
User interface
==============
Running all tests
-----------------
make check
You can use `-jN' for faster completion (it even helps on a
uniprocessor system, due to unavoidable sleep delays, as
noted below).
Interpretation
--------------
Successes:
PASS - success
XFAIL - expected failure
Failures:
FAIL - failure
XPASS - unexpected success
Other:
SKIP - skipped tests (third party tools not available)
Getting details from failures
-----------------------------
Each test is a shell script, and by default is run by /bin/sh.
In a non-VPATH build you can run them directly, they will be verbose.
By default, verbose output of a test foo.test is retained in the log
file foo.log. A summary log is created in the file test-suite.log.
You can limit the set of files using the TESTS variable, and enable
detailed test output at the end of the test run with the VERBOSE
variable:
env VERBOSE=x TESTS='first.test second.test ...' make -e check
Supported shells
----------------
The test scripts are written with portability in mind, so that they
should run with any decent Bourne-compatible shell.
However, some care must be used with Zsh, since, when not directly
starting in Bourne-compatibility mode, it has some incompatibilities
in the handling of `$0' which conflict with our usage, and which have
no easy workaround. Thus, if you want to run a test script, say
foo.test, with Zsh, you *can't* simply do `zsh foo.test', but you
*must* resort to:
zsh -o no_function_argzero foo.test
Note that this problem does not occur if zsh is executed through a
symlink with a basename of `sh', since in that case it starts
in Bourne compatibility mode. So you should be perfectly safe when
/bin/sh is zsh.
Reporting failures
------------------
Send verbose output, i.e., the contents of test-suite.log, of failing
tests to <bug-automake@gnu.org>, along with the usual version numbers
(which Automake, which Autoconf, which operating system, which make
version, which shell, etc.)
Writing test cases
==================
Do
--
If you plan to fix a bug, write the test case first. This way you'll
make sure the test catches the bug, and that it succeeds once you have
fixed the bug.
Add a copyright/license paragraph.
Explain what the test does.
Cite the PR number (if any), and the original reporter (if any), so
we can find or ask for information if needed.
If a test checks examples or idioms given in the documentation, make
sure the documentation reference them appropriately in comments, as in:
@c Keep in sync with autodist-config-headers.test.
@example
...
@end example
Use `required=...' for required tools. Do not explicitly require
tools which can be taken for granted because they're listed in the
GNU Coding Standards (for example, `gzip').
Include ./defs in every test script (see existing tests for examples
of how to do this).
Use the `skip_' function to skip tests, with a meaningful message if
possible. Where convenient, use the `warn_' function to print generic
warnings, the `fail_' function for test failures, and the `fatal_'
function for hard errors. In case a hard error is due to a failed
set-up of a test scenario, you can use the `framework_fail_' function
instead.
For tests that use the `parallel-tests' Automake option, set the shell
variable `parallel_tests' to "yes" before including ./defs. Also,
do not use for them a name that ends in `-p.test', since that would
risk to clash with automatically-generated tests. For tests that are
*not* meant to work with the `parallel-tests' Automake option (these
should be very very few), set the shell variable `parallel_tests' to
"no" before including ./defs.
./defs sets a skeleton configure.in. If possible, append to this
file. In some cases you'll have to overwrite it, but this should
be the exception. Note that configure.in registers Makefile.in
but do not output anything by default. If you need ./configure
to create Makefile, append AC_OUTPUT to configure.in.
Use `set -e' to catch failures you might not have thought of.
End the test script with a `:' or `Exit 0'. Otherwise, when somebody
changes the test by adding a failing command after the last command,
the test will spuriously fail because $? is nonzero at the end.
Note that this is relevant also for tests using `set -e', if they
contain commands like "grep ... Makefile.in && Exit 1" (and there
are indeed a lot of such tests).
Use $ACLOCAL, $AUTOMAKE, $AUTOCONF, $AUTOUPDATE, $AUTOHEADER,
$PERL, $MAKE, $EGREP, and $FGREP, instead of the corresponding
commands.
Use $sleep when you have to make sure that some file is newer
than another.
Use `cat' or `grep' to display (part of) files that may be
interesting for debugging, so that when a user send a verbose
output we don't have to ask him for more details. Display stderr
output on the stderr file descriptor. If some redirected command
is likely to fail, and `set -e' is in effect, display its output
even in the failure case, before exiting.
Use `Exit' rather than `exit' to abort a test.
Use `$PATH_SEPARATOR', not hard-coded `:', as the separator of
PATH's entries.
It's more important to make sure that a feature works, than
make sure that Automake's output looks correct. It might look
correct and still fail to work. In other words, prefer
running `make' over grepping `Makefile.in' (or do both).
If you run $AUTOMAKE or $AUTOCONF several times in the same test
and change `configure.in' by the meantime, do
rm -rf autom4te.cache
before the following runs. On fast machines the new `configure.in'
could otherwise have the same timestamp as the old `autom4te.cache'.
Alternatively, use `--force' for subsequent runs of the tools.
Use filenames with two consecutive spaces when testing that some
code preserves filenames with spaces. This will catch errors like
`echo $filename | ...`.
Before commit: make sure the test is executable, add the tests to
TESTS in Makefile.am, add it to XFAIL_TESTS in addition if needed,
write a ChangeLog entry, send the diff to <automake-patches@gnu.org>.
Do not
------
Do not test an Automake error with `$AUTOMAKE && Exit 1', or in three
years we'll discover that this test failed for some other bogus reason.
This happened many times. Better use something like
AUTOMAKE_fails
grep 'expected diagnostic' stderr
(Note this doesn't prevent the test from failing for another
reason, but at least it makes sure the original error is still
here.)
Do not override Makefile variables using make arguments, as in e.g.:
$MAKE prefix=/opt install
This is not portable for recursive targets (targets that call a
sub-make may not pass `prefix=/opt' along). Use the following
instead:
prefix=/opt $MAKE -e install