[Pkg-octave-devel] Running Octave tests under xvfb

[rafael@debian.org (Rafael Laboissière)]

* Rafael Laboissi?re <rafael at debian.org> [2017-10-18 13:07]:

> * Rafael Laboissi?re <rafael at debian.org> [2017-10-17 22:07]:
>
>> * Antonio Terceiro <terceiro at debian.org> [2017-10-17 14:54]:
>>>
>>> Isn't this something that could be handled in octave-autopkgtest 
>>> instead? /usr/share/octave-pkg-dev/check-pkg is a shell script, it 
>>> could source e.g. debian/tests/octave-autopkgtest.conf or 
>>> debian/octave-autopkgtest.conf if it exists, and do different 
>>> things based on the values of some documented environment 
>>> variables.
>>>
>>> One of those variables would mean "Run the tests under xvfb". This 
>>> has the advantage of also working when check-pkg is executed 
>>> during the build ...
>>>
>>> Also this way you only use xvfb for the packages that really need 
>>> it, cutting down in test dependencies, download/install time, etc.
>>
>> This is a sensible suggestion.  I will think about it.
>
> I have given a though on your suggestion.  Imagine that a given 
> package tells the check-pkg script (through a config file as you 
> suggested) that the tests will need xvfb.  How can that work on 
> ci.debian.org, if xvfb is not declared as a dependency for running the 
> unit tests?
>
> I am probably missing something here.

Ok, I guess I could add xvfb and xauth to the list of dependencies of 
octave-autopkgtest, but this would defeat the goal of Antonio's proposal, 
since xfvb and xauth would always be installed at autopkgtest time, even 
for packages which do not need them.

Best,

Rafael