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(autoconf.info)Autotest Logs

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Autotest Logs
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   When run, the test suite creates a log file named after itself,
e.g., a test suite named `testsuite' creates `testsuite.log'.  It
contains a lot of information, usually more than maintainers actually
need, but therefore most of the time it contains all that is needed:

command line arguments
     A very bad Unix habit which is unfortunately wide spread consists
     of setting environment variables before the command, such as in
     `CC=my-home-grown-cc ./testsuite'.  This results in the test suite
     not knowing this change, hence (i) it can't report it to you, and
     (ii) it cannot preserve the value of `CC' for subsequent runs(1).
     Autoconf faced exactly the same problem, and solved it by asking
     users to pass the variable definitions as command line arguments.
     Autotest requires this rule too, but has no means to enforce it;
     the log then contains a trace of the variables the user changed.

`ChangeLog' excerpts
     The topmost lines of all the `ChangeLog's found in the source
     hierarchy.  This is especially useful when bugs are reported
     against development versions of the package, since the version
     string does not provide sufficient information to know the exact
     state of the sources the user compiled.  Of course this relies on
     the use of a `ChangeLog'.

build machine
     Running a test suite in a cross-compile environment is not an easy
     task, since it would mean having the test suite run on a machine
     BUILD, while running programs on a machine HOST.  It is much
     simpler to run both the test suite and the programs on HOST, but
     then, from the point of view of the test suite, there remains a
     single environment, HOST = BUILD.  The log contains relevant
     information on the state of the build machine, including some
     important environment variables.

tested programs
     The absolute path and answers to `--version' of the tested
     programs (see *Note Writing testsuite.at::, `AT_TESTED').

configuration log
     The contents of `config.log', as created by `configure', are
     appended.  It contains the configuration flags and a detailed
     report on the configuration itself.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) When a failure occurs, the test suite is rerun, verbosely, and
the user is asked to "play" with this failure to provide better
information.  It is important to keep the same environment between the
first run, and bug-tracking runs.