Subject: Re: Expected test suite behavior

From: Jeff King <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 May 2026 03:27:11 -0400

On Sun, May 24, 2026 at 11:20:54PM -0700, Michael Montalbo wrote:

> Amogh Dambal <[email-masked]> writes:
> > Hey folks,
> >
> > I wanted to get started hacking on/poking around the Git source, but I'm
> > seeing some behavior with the tests that I can't quite figure out.
> > [...]
> > Is there a README/documentation I've missed reading that can help
> > explain the behavior I'm seeing?
> 
> Hello. If you run `make test GIT_TEST_OPTS=--verbose` or uncomment
> L16 of t/Makefile is there more information describing the issue?

You can't use --verbose when running under the "prove" TAP harness
(which the OP seems to be doing). You can use --verbose-log instead, and
then output is in t/test-results/t1234-whatever.out.

However, when debugging tests I find it easier to focus on a single
failing test by running it individually, like:

  cd t
  ./t1234-whatever.sh -v -i -x

That will stop at the first failure (-i), showing the output of all
commands (-v), and additionally enabling shell tracing (-x) so you can
see which command in the test failed.

-Peff