How to check installed binaries using the same tests in the source code?

[Santiago Vila]

Hello.

For our Debian CI framework (ci.debian.net)
we are adding tests to every package, called
autopkgtests.

The gettext package already has a "make check"
target, but it checks the just-built package,
not the installed version in /usr which
is what we would need for the CI framework.

Somebody suggested the trick of symlinking the
executables to their /usr-installed counterpart
before running make check, but it would be great
if there was already some Makefile target
to achieve that "out-of-the-box".

(I see there is an "installcheck" target, which apparently
checks for --version and --help but I think nothing else)

Thanks.