[perl #112924] [PATCH] Clarify test instructions in INSTALL

# New Ticket Created by  Andy Dougherty 
# Please include the string:  [perl #112924]
# in the subject line of all future correspondence about this issue. 
# <URL: https://rt.perl.org:443/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=112924 >


While trying to track down a failed test, I found the instructions
in the INSTALL file to be less than optimal.  

This patch re-orders the suggestions to put the ones most likely
to work first, clarifies which directory you should be in, and
moves a "see-also" type reference to where it is more likely to be 
useful.

The catalyst for this was that
    
    ./perl -MTestInit cpan/Archive-Extract/t/01/Archive-Extract.t

fails because it can't find strict.pm.  (I'll file a separate report
for that.)  Since it's probably not the only such case, I thought it
useful and prudent to advise using t/harness instead as a first recourse.

I'd just apply this myself, but I don't know where we are in the RC
process, and don't want to mess anything up.


--- perl-5.16.0-RC0/INSTALL	2012-05-10 14:38:09.000000000 -0400
+++ perl-andy/INSTALL.new	2012-05-14 08:48:40.000000000 -0400
@@ -1865,7 +1865,7 @@
 
 This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made.  If
 'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
-wrong.  See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
+wrong.
 
 Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
 opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
@@ -1874,13 +1874,10 @@
 =head2 What if make test doesn't work?
 
 If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
-by hand to see if it makes any difference.  If individual tests
-bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
+by hand to see if it makes any difference.
 
-	./perl -MTestInit t/op/groups.t
-
-Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
-individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
+One way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
+individual subtests is to run the harness from the t directory:
 
 	cd t ; ./perl harness <list of tests>
 
@@ -1888,12 +1885,20 @@
 complicated constructs). If no list of tests is provided, harness
 will run all tests.
 
+If individual tests fail, you can often run them by hand (from the main
+perl directory), e.g.,
+
+	./perl -MTestInit t/op/groups.t
+
 You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
 comments that apply to your system.  You may also need to setup your
 shared library path if you get errors like:
 
 	/sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
 
+The file t/README in the t subdirectory contains more information about
+running and modifying tests.
+
 See L</"Building a shared Perl library"> earlier in this document.
 
 =over 4


-- 
    Andy Dougherty		doughera@lafayette.edu

• Re: [perl #112924] [PATCH] Clarify test instructions in INSTALL by Andy Dougherty
• [perl #112924] [PATCH] Clarify test instructions in INSTALL by James E Keenan via RT
• [perl #112924] [PATCH] Clarify test instructions in INSTALL by Andy Dougherty