File: autoconf.info,  Node: Autotest Logs,  Prev: testsuite Scripts,  Up: Using an Autotest Test Suite

19.1.2 Autotest Logs
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When run, the test suite creates a log file named after itself, e.g., a
test suite named ‘testsuite’ creates ‘testsuite.log’.  It contains a lot
of information, usually more than maintainers actually need, but
therefore most of the time it contains all that is needed:

command line arguments
     A bad but unfortunately widespread habit consists of setting
     environment variables before the command, such as in
     ‘CC=my-home-grown-cc ./testsuite’.  The test suite does not know
     this change, hence (i) it cannot report it to you, and (ii) it
     cannot preserve the value of ‘CC’ for subsequent runs.  Autoconf
     faced exactly the same problem, and solved it by asking users to
     pass the variable definitions as command line arguments.  Autotest
     requires this rule, too, but has no means to enforce it; the log
     then contains a trace of the variables that were changed by the
     user.

‘ChangeLog’ excerpts
     The topmost lines of all the ‘ChangeLog’ files found in the source
     hierarchy.  This is especially useful when bugs are reported
     against development versions of the package, since the version
     string does not provide sufficient information to know the exact
     state of the sources the user compiled.  Of course, this relies on
     the use of a ‘ChangeLog’.

build machine
     Running a test suite in a cross-compile environment is not an easy
     task, since it would mean having the test suite run on a machine
     BUILD, while running programs on a machine HOST.  It is much
     simpler to run both the test suite and the programs on HOST, but
     then, from the point of view of the test suite, there remains a
     single environment, HOST = BUILD.  The log contains relevant
     information on the state of the BUILD machine, including some
     important environment variables.

tested programs
     The absolute file name and answers to ‘--version’ of the tested
     programs (see *note Writing Testsuites::, ‘AT_TESTED’).

configuration log
     The contents of ‘config.log’, as created by ‘configure’, are
     appended.  It contains the configuration flags and a detailed
     report on the configuration itself.