Subject: Re: [PATCH] t/README: mention test files are make targets

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2024 09:10:32 -0700

"Philippe Blain via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]> writes:

> From: Philippe Blain <[email-masked]>
>
> Since 23fc63bf8f (make tests ignorable with "make -i", 2005-11-08), each
> test file defines a target in the test Makefile, such that one can
> invoke:
>
> 	make *checkout*
>
> to run all tests with 'checkout' in their filename. This is useful to
> run a subset of tests when you have a good idea of what part of the code
> is touched by the changes your are testing.

While I agree with the patch that this is a useful "feature" of
t/Makefile, I've always felt it was ugly to use a file itself that
we do not consider a build product, rather a source, as the target
to trigger some action.  Are we comfortable casting this behaviour
in stone by documenting it here?  Just checking by asking others, as
you are obviously comfortable enough to write this patch ;-)

Thanks.

> Document that in t/README to help new (or more seasoned) contributors
> that might not be aware.
>
> Signed-off-by: Philippe Blain <[email-masked]>
> ---
>     t/README: mention test files are make targets
>
> Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-1701%2Fphil-blain%2Ftests-makefile-targets-v1
> Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-1701/phil-blain/tests-makefile-targets-v1
> Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/1701
>
>  t/README | 7 +++++++
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/t/README b/t/README
> index 621d3b8c095..71211109338 100644
> --- a/t/README
> +++ b/t/README
> @@ -32,6 +32,13 @@ the tests.
>      ok 2 - plain with GIT_WORK_TREE
>      ok 3 - plain bare
>  
> +t/Makefile defines a target for each test file, such that you can also use
> +shell pattern matching to run a subset of the tests:
> +
> +    make *checkout*
> +
> +will run all tests with 'checkout' in their filename.
> +
>  Since the tests all output TAP (see https://testanything.org) they can
>  be run with any TAP harness. Here's an example of parallel testing
>  powered by a recent version of prove(1):
>
> base-commit: 3e0d3cd5c7def4808247caf168e17f2bbf47892b