19.4 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.

• Make sure to create the file package.m4, which defines the identity of the package. It must define AT_PACKAGE_STRING, the full signature of the package, and AT_PACKAGE_BUGREPORT, the address to which bug reports should be sent. For sake of completeness, we suggest that you also define AT_PACKAGE_NAME, AT_PACKAGE_TARNAME, AT_PACKAGE_VERSION, and AT_PACKAGE_URL. See Initializing configure, for a description of these variables. Be sure to distribute package.m4 and to put it into the source hierarchy: the test suite ought to be shipped! See below for an example Makefile excerpt.
• Invoke AC_CONFIG_TESTDIR.
  — Macro: AC_CONFIG_TESTDIR (directory, [test-path = ‘directory’])
  

  An Autotest test suite is to be configured in directory. This macro causes directory/atconfig to be created by config.status and sets the default AUTOTEST_PATH to test-path (see testsuite Invocation).

• Still within configure.ac, as appropriate, ensure that some AC_CONFIG_FILES command includes substitution for tests/atlocal.
• The appropriate Makefile should be modified so the validation in your package is triggered by ‘make check’. An example is provided below.

With Automake, here is a minimal example for inclusion in tests/Makefile.am, in order to link ‘make check’ with a validation suite.

     # The `:;' works around a Bash 3.2 bug when the output is not writable.
     $(srcdir)/package.m4: $(top_srcdir)/configure.ac
             :;{ \
               echo '# Signature of the current package.' && \
               echo 'm4_define([AT_PACKAGE_NAME],' && \
               echo '  [$(PACKAGE_NAME)])' && \
               echo 'm4_define([AT_PACKAGE_TARNAME],' && \
               echo '  [$(PACKAGE_TARNAME)])' && \
               echo 'm4_define([AT_PACKAGE_VERSION],' && \
               echo '  [$(PACKAGE_VERSION)])' && \
               echo 'm4_define([AT_PACKAGE_STRING],' && \
               echo '  [$(PACKAGE_STRING)])' && \
               echo 'm4_define([AT_PACKAGE_BUGREPORT],' && \
               echo '  [$(PACKAGE_BUGREPORT)])'; \
               echo 'm4_define([AT_PACKAGE_URL],' && \
               echo '  [$(PACKAGE_URL)])'; \
             } >'$(srcdir)/package.m4'
     
     EXTRA_DIST = testsuite.at $(srcdir)/package.m4 $(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
     
     AUTOM4TE = $(SHELL) $(srcdir)/build-aux/missing --run autom4te
     AUTOTEST = $(AUTOM4TE) --language=autotest
     $(TESTSUITE): $(srcdir)/testsuite.at $(srcdir)/package.m4
             $(AUTOTEST) -I '$(srcdir)' -o $@.tmp $@.at
             mv $@.tmp $@

Note that the built testsuite is distributed; this is necessary because users might not have Autoconf installed, and thus would not be able to rebuild it. Likewise, the use of missing provides the user with a nicer error message if they modify a source file to the testsuite, and accidentally trigger the rebuild rules.

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

If you don't use Automake, you should include the above example in tests/Makefile.in, along with additional lines inspired from the following:

     subdir = tests
     PACKAGE_NAME = @PACKAGE_NAME@
     PACKAGE_TARNAME = @PACKAGE_TARNAME@
     PACKAGE_VERSION = @PACKAGE_VERSION@
     PACKAGE_STRING = @PACKAGE_STRING@
     PACKAGE_BUGREPORT = @PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@
     PACKAGE_URL = @PACKAGE_URL@
     
     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 $(EXTRA_DIST) distributed. You will also want to distribute the file build-aux/missing from the Automake project; a copy of this file resides in the Autoconf source tree.

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'