On Sun, Oct 21, 2007 at 09:59:11AM -0700, Eric Wilhelm wrote: > It would be nice if the reports were somehow queryable WRT machine > config and failure mode. Sorting through a slew of reports is a real > pain when some have no usable information (like an error message) and > others are just poorly configured systems
I get accused of having a poorly-configured system all the time. What it nigh-on always means is that I'm testing against a build of perl that isn't in the $PATH, or that I'm not running the tests as root. Neither of these is a sign of a poorly-configured system. If I ever send you a test result with no useful error message, please let me know and I'll be happy to run your tests by hand, or individually, or with whatever debugging switches turned on that you care to specify. > but you have to skim past > the boilerplate header on every one, etc. At some point, you have to > wonder whether the PASS reports even mean anything. They mean that the code appeared to pass its tests. Usually that means that they *did* pass their tests. As a module *user* all I care about is failures/unknowns, and I tend to read those test results fairly carefully. As a module *author* I do care about some passes. eg, if my code passes on something weird like AIX it's nice to know about it. > I could really care less if an old CPAN.pm/CPANPLUS.pm or perl 5.005 > fails, especially if it is due to "inventing" a Makefile.PL, etc. Why > not test against perl4 and throw those results in with the rest too? Test results aren't just for module authors. They're for people who might want to use your code. As for old CPAN.pm - I expect that it's one of the least-often updated modules on users' machines. With EU::MM coming a close second. And if the build process had a create a Makefile.PL for you, then in my opinion it's pretty important to let you know about that if it causes problems. It shows that the module wasn't properly packaged, for some definition of properly. -- David Cantrell | top google result for "internet beard fetish club" What profiteth a man, if he win a flame war, yet lose his cool?
