"pike -x test_pike -F -a -v" and "make just_verify" are basically the same thing. The main difference is that the make target will also generate the "testsuite" files from the "testsuite.in" files, and that it will use the pike from the build tree rather than the installed one of course.
There is a script "bin/mktestsuite" in the pike distribution that you can use if you want to manually create a "testsuite" file from a "testsuite.in" file. The various tests you can use are listed in section 30.2 of the manual.
