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18.4 Making testsuite Scripts

For putting Autotest into movement, you need some configuration and makefile machinery. We recommend, at least if your package uses deep or shallow hierarchies, that you use tests/ as the name of the directory holding all your tests and their makefile. Here is a check list of things to do.

With Automake, here is a minimal example about how to link `make check' with a validation suite.

     EXTRA_DIST = testsuite.at $(TESTSUITE) atlocal.in
     TESTSUITE = $(srcdir)/testsuite
     
     check-local: atconfig atlocal $(TESTSUITE)
             $(SHELL) '$(TESTSUITE)' $(TESTSUITEFLAGS)
     
     installcheck-local: atconfig atlocal $(TESTSUITE)
             $(SHELL) '$(TESTSUITE)' AUTOTEST_PATH='$(bindir)' \
               $(TESTSUITEFLAGS)
     
     clean-local:
             test ! -f '$(TESTSUITE)' || \
              $(SHELL) '$(TESTSUITE)' --clean
     
     AUTOTEST = $(AUTOM4TE) --language=autotest
     $(TESTSUITE): $(srcdir)/testsuite.at
             $(AUTOTEST) -I '$(srcdir)' -o $@.tmp $@.at
             mv $@.tmp $@

You might want to list explicitly the dependencies, i.e., the list of the files testsuite.at includes.

With strict Autoconf, you might need to add lines inspired from the following:

     subdir = tests
     
     atconfig: $(top_builddir)/config.status
             cd $(top_builddir) && \
                $(SHELL) ./config.status $(subdir)/$@
     
     atlocal: $(srcdir)/atlocal.in $(top_builddir)/config.status
             cd $(top_builddir) && \
                $(SHELL) ./config.status $(subdir)/$@

and manage to have atconfig.in and $(EXTRA_DIST) distributed.

With all this in place, and if you have not initialized `TESTSUITEFLAGS' within your makefile, you can fine-tune test suite execution with this variable, for example:

     make check TESTSUITEFLAGS='-v -d -x 75 -k AC_PROG_CC CFLAGS=-g'