It's taken me a few hours to unwind all this stuff, but the bottom line seems to be that "make check" doesn't think it needs to do anything to make the test log file.
Googling for: "making test-suite.log: failed to create" log "nothing to be done for" did not yield any useful hints. Help, please? =========================== $ make check [.....] >bash> make base.log make[3]: Entering directory `/u/bkorb/ag/mypw/mypw-0.1-dev11/_build/tests' make[3]: Nothing to be done for `base.log'. make[3]: Leaving directory `/u/bkorb/ag/mypw/mypw-0.1-dev11/_build/tests' >bash> am__dry=no >bash> case $MAKEFLAGS in >bash> for am__flg in '$MAKEFLAGS' >bash> case $am__flg in >bash> for am__flg in '$MAKEFLAGS' >bash> case $am__flg in >bash> for am__flg in '$MAKEFLAGS' >bash> case $am__flg in >bash> test no = yes >bash> st=0 >bash> errmsg='fatal: making test-suite.log: failed to create' >bash> for i in '$redo_bases' >bash> test -f base.trs >bash> echo 'fatal: making test-suite.log: failed to create base.trs' fatal: making test-suite.log: failed to create base.trs >bash> st=1 >bash> test -f base.log >bash> echo 'fatal: making test-suite.log: failed to create base.log' fatal: making test-suite.log: failed to create base.log >bash> st=1 >bash> test 1 -eq 0 >bash> exit 1 make[2]: *** [test-suite.log] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/u/bkorb/ag/mypw/mypw-0.1-dev11/_build/tests' make[1]: *** [check-TESTS] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/u/bkorb/ag/mypw/mypw-0.1-dev11/_build/tests' ===================== Makefile.am: TESTS = base.test TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = builddir=`pwd`