On Monday 20 June 2011, Ralf Wildenhues wrote: > * Stefano Lattarini wrote on Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 10:22:28AM CEST: > > [Adding bug-grep, dropping bug-coreutils and automake-patches] > > re-adding the latter. > > > I've noticed that grep uses a definition of TESTS_ENVIRONMENT very similar > > to that of coreutils (the one we've just fixed), so it will break with > > oncoming automake too. > > That may be a sign that you may not want to actually break this code > with your proposed changes to Automake. > In fact I don't mind breaking it, because the problem stemmed from an unidiomatic (and bordering on uncorrect) usage of the TESTS_ENVIRONMENT variable. This is not to blame Jim or other coreutils maintainers, because such an usage was there since before 'parallel-tests' and LOG_COMPILER were available, so that "twisted usage" was truly required in order to work around the Automake limiations. But now that those limitations have been lifted, I think the correct thing to do is just go for a more idiomatic setup (and most importantly, Jim agreed with me on this).
> Put another way: it's a good idea to estimate the level of breakage > you're going to burden upon others (a couple of projects, dozens, > hundreds), the amount of work needed on their side to fix it, and the > amount of work (or possibility) it would take to change your code so > they are not broken in the first place. > > Also, of course, NEWS entries (and probably automake.texi entries) for > such changes are a good idea. > I agree with this, and in fact I've posted a NEWS entry this afternoon; the documentation, maybe with an example or two, can go in a follow-up patch. > One thing I've regularly done with new code that is not 100% backward > compatible is have a new Automake option for them. That is exactly why > there is a 'parallel-tests': it is not fully compatible with the simple > test driver, and requires work on behalf of developers using Automake. > This easily might become a maintainance nightmare though. In this case, I say we should help the users make a transition by adding good explanations and examples to the manual, and stop there. If you disagree, we can revisit the issue before the merge to master, and add a compatibility layer, but I'd keep that for later. This series have already undergone too many respins IMHO. > > Unfortunately, I don't have an FSF assignment > > for grep, so someone else should fix that issue :-( > > You can do minor fixes without assignments. > (Of course, I don't maintain grep, so it's up to them.) > > Cheers, > Ralf >
