bug#8887: Automake patches for custom test drivers' support break coreutils testsuite

[Jim Meyering]

Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> [Adding bug-coreutils]
>
> Reference:
>  <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2011-06/msg00093.html>
>
> On Friday 17 June 2011, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
>> I generally like the direction this is taking.  The point of best
>> separation between which code goes into Makefile.in and which into
>> the driver scripts can be fine-tuned when we have more than one such
>> script.
>>
>> Actually, yes, before deciding on this for real I really do want to see
>> a nontrivial other driver script.  There is no point in hardcoding
>> too much in several driver scripts if it all needs to be the same
>> anyway.
>>
>> Please measure the time overhead your changes introduce into the current
>> code, for a trivial testsuite (say, 50 tests running 'true'), and a
>> nontrivial one like Automake's and one with faster tests.
>>
> I've tried the coreutils testsuite and ... Ouch!  That gets broken
> by my patches :-(

Thank you for trying with coreutils before committing them.

> That's due to the overly complex TESTS_ENVIRONMENT employed by
> conreutils' tests/Makefile.am:
>
>  TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
>   . $(srcdir)/lang-default;                     \
>   tmp__=$${TMPDIR-/tmp};                        \
>   test -d "$$tmp__" && test -w "$$tmp__" || tmp__=.;    \
>   . $(srcdir)/envvar-check;                     \
>   TMPDIR=$$tmp__; export TMPDIR;                \
>   shell_or_perl_() {                            \
>     if grep '^\#!/usr/bin/perl' "$$1" > /dev/null; then                 \
>       if $(PERL) -e 'use warnings' > /dev/null 2>&1; then               \
>         grep '^\#!/usr/bin/perl -T' "$$1" > /dev/null && T_=T || T_=;   \
>         $(PERL) -w$$T_ -I$(srcdir) -MCoreutils -MCuSkip                 \
>               -M"CuTmpdir qw($$f)" -- "$$1";    \
>       else                                      \
>         echo 1>&2 "$$tst: configure did not find a usable version of Perl," \
...
>
> In order to work with the upcoming new Automake testsuite harness, coreutils
> have two possibilities:
>  1. move the `shell_or_perl_' subroutine's functionality into a real acript,
>     and define the LOG_COMPILER to point to it; or
>  2. add a `.pl' extension to the perl test scripts, and define PL_LOG_COMPILER
>     appropriately (might be a little tricky, considering the hops that the
>     `shell_or_perl_' subroutine goes through in order to get the flags and
>     imports right).

1) sounds preferable.

> I should have have an FSF copyright assignement in place for coreutils too,

Confirmed.

> so I can volounteer to write a fix for this situation, if no one wants to
> beat me.

I  won't say "no" ;-)
Thanks for volunteering.