Re: [PATCH v4 1/3] parallel-tests: add auxiliary script 'pt-driver', refactor

[Stefano Lattarini]

On Thursday 16 June 2011, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> This refactoring should cause no API of functionality change,
> and is meant only to simplify the future implementation of TAP
> and SubUnit testsuite drivers.  More precisely, our roadmap is
> to move most of the "testsuite driving" features out of the
> Automake-generated Makefiles, and into external scripts with
> well-defined interfaces.  This will allow the user to define
> its own personalized testsuite drivers, and will also offer us
> a framework upon which to implement our new TAP and SubUnit
> drivers, all in a very unobtrusive way and retaining an high
> degree of code reuse and backward-compatibility.
> 
The NEWS entry wasn't descriptive enough, as the problems with the
coreutils's testsuite have showed.  I've squashed this is (which
also fixes a couple of typos in the process):

  diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
  index 7930135..394f6b2 100644
  --- a/NEWS
  +++ b/NEWS
  @@ -16,9 +16,16 @@ New in 1.11a:
     - The parallel-tests driver is now implemented (partly at least) with
       the help of automake-provided auxiliary scripts (e.g., `test-driver'),
       instead of relying entirely on code in the generated Makefile.in.
  -    This implies that project using the `parallel-tests' option should
  -    now wither run automake with the `--add-missing' option, or manually
  -    copy the `test-driver' script into their tree.
  +    This has two noteworthy implications.  The first one is that projects
  +    using the `parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
  +    the `--add-missing' option, or manually copy the `test-driver' script
  +    into their tree.  The second, and more important, implication is that
  +    now shell functions and non-environmental shell variables defined in
  +    TESTS_ENVIRONMENT are not anymore available in LOG_COMPILER and
  +    <ext>_LOG_COMPILER.  For example, it is now no more possible to define
  +    a shell function, say `custom_test_runner', in TESTS_ENVIRONMENT, and
  +    then setting "LOG_COMPILER = custom_test_runner" in the Makefile.am in
  +    oder to use that function to run the tests.

   * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
 
An update to the documentation is also in order IMHO, but I'd rather
keep that for a follow-up patch.

Regards,
  Stefano