Bug#416450: [PROPOSAL] New option in DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS to avoid running test-suites

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org> writes:

> I'd like to propose to formalize a new option («nocheck») in
> DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS to make the build skip running any test-suites.
>
> This helps for example when doing iterations of patching, building
> and testing, until you want to do the final build.
>
> There are already packages using either nocheck or notest, I chose
> nocheck because it matches autotools conventions, but I don't really
> care on which one we settle down, the important thing is to use one
> consistently in the packages.
>
> Attached the patch against latest policy document (it might need
> rewording by a native speaker).

Here's a slightly modified version of Guillem's patch that makes fewer
assumptions about the structure of the debian/rules file in the example
and doesn't refer to a non-mandatory target (install).  Seconds?

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index c9bd84f..ad5ba08 100644
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -2028,6 +2028,11 @@
 	  <p>
 	    The meaning of the following tags has been standardized:
 	    <taglist>
+	      <tag>nocheck</tag>
+	      <item>
+		  This tag says to not run any build-time test suite
+		  provided by the package.
+	      </item>
 	      <tag>noopt</tag>
 	      <item>
 		  The presence of this tag means that the package should
@@ -2095,6 +2100,12 @@ ifneq (,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
     NUMJOBS = $(patsubst parallel=%,%,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
     MAKEFLAGS += -j$(NUMJOBS)
 endif
+
+build:
+	# ...
+ifeq (,$(filter nocheck,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+	# Code to run the package test suite.
+endif
 	    </example>
 	  </p>
 	</sect1>

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>