X-Git-Url: https://git.notmuchmail.org/git?p=notmuch;a=blobdiff_plain;f=test%2FREADME;h=43656a35baf9f9bc5e5d41aca2b65c8e4e763450;hp=ebaa3cfd2c732dde689ee6055883dabca54ab598;hb=260975e8aff635b6b99db835ee8d40ec33ee916c;hpb=44ea57a0d10ddab514abea319c4d25ec4e36b51e

diff --git a/test/README b/test/README
index ebaa3cfd..43656a35 100644
--- a/test/README
+++ b/test/README
@@ -6,6 +6,19 @@ When fixing bugs or enhancing notmuch, you are strongly encouraged to
 add tests in this directory to cover what you are trying to fix or
 enhance.
 
+Prerequisites
+-------------
+Some tests require external dependencies to run. Without them, they
+will be skipped, or (rarely) marked failed. Please install these, so
+that you know if you break anything.
+
+  - dtach(1)
+  - emacs(1)
+  - emacsclient(1)
+  - gdb(1)
+  - gpg(1)
+  - python(1)
+
 Running Tests
 -------------
 The easiest way to run tests is to say "make test", (or simply run the
@@ -13,7 +26,8 @@ notmuch-test script). Either command will run all available tests.
 
 Alternately, you can run a specific subset of tests by simply invoking
 one of the executable scripts in this directory, (such as ./search,
-./reply, etc.)
+./reply, etc). Note that you will probably want "make test-binaries"
+before running individual tests.
 
 The following command-line options are available when running tests:
 
@@ -41,11 +55,27 @@ The following command-line options are available when running tests:
 	As the names depend on the tests' file names, it is safe to
 	run the tests with this option in parallel.
 
+--root=<dir>::
+	This runs the testsuites specified under a seperate directory.
+	However, caution is advised, as not all tests are maintained
+	with this relocation in mind, so some tests may behave
+	differently.
+
+	Pointing this argument at a tmpfs filesystem can improve the
+	speed of the test suite for some users.
+
 When invoking the test suite via "make test" any of the above options
 can be specified as follows:
 
 	make test OPTIONS="--verbose"
 
+You can choose an emacs binary to run the tests in one of the
+following ways.
+
+	TEST_EMACS=my-special-emacs make test
+	TEST_EMACS=my-special-emacs ./emacs
+	make test TEST_EMACS=my-special-emacs
+
 Skipping Tests
 --------------
 If, for any reason, you need to skip one or more tests, you can do so
@@ -68,11 +98,11 @@ remaining tests to be unaffected.
 
 Writing Tests
 -------------
-The test script is written as a shell script.  It should start
-with the standard "#!/bin/bash" with copyright notices, and an
+The test script is written as a shell script.  It should start with
+the standard "#!/usr/bin/env bash" with copyright notices, and an
 assignment to variable 'test_description', like this:
 
-	#!/bin/bash
+	#!/usr/bin/env bash
 	#
 	# Copyright (c) 2005 Junio C Hamano
 	#
@@ -123,20 +153,19 @@ library for your script to use.
    <script>.  If it yields success, test is considered
    successful.  <message> should state what it is testing.
 
- test_expect_failure <message> <script>
-
-   This is NOT the opposite of test_expect_success, but is used
-   to mark a test that demonstrates a known breakage.  Unlike
-   the usual test_expect_success tests, which say "ok" on
-   success and "FAIL" on failure, this will say "FIXED" on
-   success and "still broken" on failure.  Failures from these
-   tests won't cause -i (immediate) to stop.
-
  test_begin_subtest <message>
 
    Set the test description message for a subsequent test_expect_equal
    invocation (see below).
 
+ test_subtest_known_broken
+
+   Mark the current test as broken.  Such tests are expected to fail.
+   Unlike the normal tests, which say "PASS" on success and "FAIL" on
+   failure, these will say "FIXED" on success and "BROKEN" on failure.
+   Failures from these tests won't cause -i (immediate) to stop.  A
+   test must call this before any test_expect_* function.
+
  test_expect_equal <output> <expected>
 
    This is an often-used convenience function built on top of
@@ -147,12 +176,12 @@ library for your script to use.
    will generate a failure and print the difference of the two
    strings.
 
- test_expect_equal_failure <output> <expected>
+ test_expect_equal_file <output> <expected>
 
-   This works similar to test_expect_equal (see above) but is used to
-   mark a test that demonstrates a known breakage, (that is, the
-   author of the test expectes "output" and "expected" to differ until
-   the breakage is fixed). See test_expect_failure for details.
+   Identical to test_exepect_equal, except that <output> and
+   <expected> are files instead of strings.  This is a much more
+   robust method to compare formatted textual information, since it
+   also notices whitespace and closing newline differences.
 
  test_debug <script>
 
@@ -165,9 +194,21 @@ library for your script to use.
 
    This function executes the provided emacs lisp script within
    emacs. The script can be a sequence of emacs lisp expressions,
-   (that is, they will be evaluated within a progn form). The lisp
-   expressions can call `message' to generate output on stdout to be
-   examined by the calling test script.
+   (that is, they will be evaluated within a progn form). Emacs
+   stdout and stderr is not available, the common way to get output
+   is to save it to a file. There are some auxiliary functions
+   useful in emacs tests provided in test-lib.el. Do not use `setq'
+   for setting variables in Emacs tests because it affects other
+   tests that may run in the same Emacs instance.  Use `let' instead
+   so the scope of the changed variables is limited to a single test.
+
+ test_emacs_expect_t <emacs-lisp-expressions>
+
+  This function executes the provided emacs lisp script within
+  emacs in a manner similar to 'test_emacs'. The expressions should
+  return the value `t' to indicate that the test has passed. If the
+  test does not return `t' then it is considered failed and all data
+  returned by the test is reported to the tester.
 
  test_done
 
@@ -175,13 +216,13 @@ library for your script to use.
    is to summarize successes and failures in the test script and
    exit with an appropriate error code.
 
-There are also a number of mail-specific functions which are useful in
-writing tests:
+There are also a number of notmuch-specific auxiliary functions and
+variables which are useful in writing tests:
 
   generate_message
 
     Generates a message with an optional template. Most tests will
-    actually prefere to call add_message. See below.
+    actually prefer to call add_message. See below.
 
   add_message
 
@@ -197,6 +238,18 @@ writing tests:
 
     This function should be called at the beginning of a test file
     when a test needs to operate on a non-empty body of messages. It
-    will intialize the mail database to a known state of 50 sample
+    will initialize the mail database to a known state of 50 sample
     messages, (culled from the early history of the notmuch mailing
     list).
+
+  notmuch_counter_reset
+  $notmuch_counter_command
+  notmuch_counter_value
+
+    These allow to count how many times notmuch binary is called.
+    notmuch_counter_reset() function generates a script that counts
+    how many times it is called and resets the counter to zero.  The
+    function sets $notmuch_counter_command variable to the path to the
+    generated script that should be called instead of notmuch to do
+    the counting.  The notmuch_counter_value() function prints the
+    current counter value.