Unit tests for package oct-files

[Oliver Heimlich]

I added unit tests to the *.cc files of a package. After installing the 
package I was not able to execute the tests, because the sources could 
not be found by the test.m script.

I found the following solution (workaround?): I can save a list of *.cc 
and *.oct file names in a src/FILES file of the package. Then, during 
package installation the complete sources of the OCT-files will be 
copied into the package's installation directory, where the test script 
can perfectly find them.

Without the src/FILES list, the *.cc sources are lost during package 
installation, this is the part of the configure_make.m file that ignores 
them:

    else
      m = dir (fullfile (src, "*.m"));
      oct = dir (fullfile (src, "*.oct"));
      mex = dir (fullfile (src, "*.mex"));

      filenames = cellfun (@(x) fullfile (src, x),
                           {m.name, oct.name, mex.name},
                           "uniformoutput", false);
    endif

How should unit tests from packages be installed?

A) The package maintainer has to maintain a src/FILES list, and *.cc 
sources are installed to the package installation directory. This 
requires no code changes.

B) The configure_make.m script will be extended and also copy *.cc 
sources automatically during package installation. There will be no 
general need for a src/FILES.

C) During OCT-file compilation (package's Makefile), the relevant test 
cases have to be extracted into separate *.cc-tst files. The 
configure_make.m script will be extended and also copy *.cc-tst files 
automatically during package installation. The test.m script will be 
extended and also look for *.cc-tst files, if it is called with “test 
<function>”.

Option B is the most simple solution for the package maintainer.

However, with option C life can be made easier for downstream distros, 
which do not want to include unnecessary source code in binary package 
releases.

Oliver