Re: Package testing with Salsa CI for new packages
On Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 05:10:08PM +0200, Paul Boddie wrote:
> Here, it would seem that the most prudent approach is to use the Salsa CI
> service instead of trying to get the test suite to run during the package
> build process.
You should do both if possible, assuming that by "Salsa CI service" you
mean autopkgtests which you can, and IMO should, also run locally.
> One motivation for doing so involves not having to specify
> build dependencies for packages only needed for test suite execution, which
> itself requires the invocation of gbp buildpackage with --extra-package
> arguments since some packages are completely new to Debian.
This is fine. Not to mention that the same problem exists for
autopkgtests, as you say below.
> I have also found it difficult to persuade the tests to run successfully
> during the build process. A few of these attempt to invoke the moin program,
> but this cannot be located since it is not installed in the build environment.
This should also be fine, unless it's completely impossible to run it
without installing into /.
> However, one conclusion is that testing a system, as some of the
> test cases appear to do, and as opposed to testing library functionality, is
> not necessarily appropriate when directed by something like dh_auto_test.
If there are tests that can't be run at build time you can skip those. You
can even ask the upstream to provide tool arguments to simplify that.
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