[PATCH 0/2] tests: avoid extra test generation (for `instspc' tests)

[Stefano Lattarini]

Hello automakers.

Recently, I've looked again into the `instspc*.test' tests (for more info:
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2011-02/msg00036.html>).
While doing so, I've come to realize that we don't really need to generate
tons and tons of wrapper test scripts (presently, ~ 90) just to run what is
basically a single test (specifically, `instspc-tests.sh') with different
parameters.  In fact, the possibility of running a single driver script
with multiple files/configurations/parameters is one of the major selling
points of the 'parallel-tests' testsuite driver of automake.  So why not
use ourselves more extensively the best features we provide?

I'll soon post a two-patches series implementing this idea (note that the
first one is just a preparatory patch that makes sense only in view of
the second one).  The patches has been tested with in-tree and VPATH
builds, with various shells (pdksh, mksh, older bash and ash versions,
Solaris 10 /bin/sh and /bin/ksh) and various make implementations (Debian
ports of FreeBSD and NetBSD make, GNU make versions from 3.79 to 3.82,
Heirloom make, and Solaris 10 dmake, CCS make and XPG4 make).

Regards,
  Stefano