Launch bash script for functional testing with "make check" and "make distcheck"

[Timothée Flutre]

Hello,
I am using Autotools for my C++ package. My package has a single
binary (let's call it "myprog"). I also wrote a bash script,
"launch_functional_tests.bash". This script has 4 steps:
(1) create input files,
(2) generate expected output files (by launching something like "R
--file=functional_tests.R",
(3) launch "myprog" on the input files,
(4) compare the outputs of "prog" with the expected outputs generated
by the R script at step 2.

In step 3, "launch_functional_tests.bash" needs to know the path to
"myprog". If I run the bashs cript on standalone myself, I give the
path to "myprog" as an option on the command-line. But what can I do
when using make check?

I asked this question on stackoverflow
(http://stackoverflow.com/q/14223208/597069) but didn't get any answer
so far, that's why I'm asking it here now.

In the mean time, I found that the following Makefile.am allows me to
run "make check" successfully:

TESTS = launch_functional_tests.bash
EXTRA_DIST = launch_functional_tests.in functional_tests.R
CLEANFILES = $(TESTS)

all: launch_functional_tests.bash

launch_functional_tests.bash: $(srcdir)/launch_functional_tests.in
        sed -e 's,PATHTOBINDIR,$(bindir),g'
$(srcdir)/launch_functional_tests.in > launch_functional_tests.bash
        chmod +x launch_functional_tests.bash

But this works only if "make install" has been run before, so that
"myprog" is indeed inside the directory specified by $(bindir).

First question: is there a way for "make check" to work without
launching "make install" before?

Moreover, my solution doesn't work for "make distcheck" because
"launch_functional_tests.bash" doesn't find the R script anymore (as
the test is now executed in something like ".../mypck-1.0/_build").

Second question: what can I do to execute my functional test with
"make distcheck"?

I guess that maybe both of my problems could be resolved if I could
use a variable like $(testdir). But how can I do that?

Thanks in advance for any help!