Hi everybody. I found what follows using the latest automake from the git repository, on my debian unstable system.
While trying to run the automake testsuite *in parallel*, using zsh (version 4.3), I ran into some apparently random failures (with most test scripts failing), which I tracked down to the way $testSubDir is defined in `tests/defs.in'. In fact, in `tests/defs.in' there are the following definitions: me=`echo "$0" | sed -e 's,.*[\\/],,;s/\.test$//'` testSubDir=$me.dir Thus one would expect that, if `test.foo' does the customary: ./defs || Exit 1 then it ends up defining `$me' to `foo' and $testSubDir to `foo.dir'. Unfortunately, this is not the case with zsh. By default, in a sourced script, zsh set $0 to the path of that same sourced script -- more info at: http://zsh.dotsrc.org/Doc/Release/Parameters.html#IDX166 This problem *seems* to be taken care of in `defs.in' itself, by the command `emulate sh', but unfortunately this command is issued too late. In fact, when `foo.test' includes `./defs', it isn't in "emulate sh" mode yet, so that in `./defs' tha value of $0 remains set to `./defs', no matter if the sh-compatibility mode is later activated. Thus $me is *always* set to `defs' and $testSubDir is *always* set to `defs.dir'. D'oh. Some commands showing this problem in action: $ git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/automake.git $ cd automake $ ./bootstrap && ./configure $ cd tests $ cat >foo.test <<'EOF' . ./defs || exit 100 test x"$me" = x"foo" || Exit 1 Exit 0 EOF $ bash foo.test === Running test foo.test ++ pwd /tmp/automake/tests/foo.dir + test xfoo = xfoo + Exit 0 ... : exit 0 + exit 0 $ dash foo.test === Running test foo.test + pwd /tmp/automake/tests/foo.dir + test xfoo = xfoo + Exit 0 ... : exit 0 + exit 0 $ zsh foo.test === Running test ./defs +./defs:427> pwd /tmp/automake/tests/defs.dir +foo.test:2> test xdefs '=' xfoo +foo.test:2> Exit 1 +Exit:2> set +e +Exit:3> exit 1 +Exit:4> exit 1 +foo.test:2> exit_status=1 +foo.test:2> set +e +foo.test:2> cd /tmp/automake/tests +foo.test:2> case 1, (0,) +foo.test:2> test 0 '!=' 0 +foo.test:2> echo ': exit 1' : exit 1 +foo.test:2> exit 1 - - - I'm not sure if this can be truly classified as a bug, since the test scripts all have a `#!/bin/sh' shebang line, and I hope that few people or systems are crazy enough to use zsh as their default Bourne shell. Anyway, this problem might deserve some consideration. Regards, Stefano
