Re: [PATCH 2/2] test-lib: GIT_TEST_ONLY to run only specific tests

Ilya Bobyr [off-list ref] writes:

On 3/4/2014 12:29 AM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
...

quoted

then you
shouldn't be mucking with environment variables in the first place,
primarily because running:

     $ GIT_TEST_ONLY='1 4' make test

to run test .1 and .4 of all the test scripts would not make any
sense.

No it does not.  It only makes sense for one test suite.

quoted

I think your "simplicity" argument is a total red-herring.
Of course if you do not have to say the test script name, your
specification would be shorter, but that is only because your
specification is not specific enough to be useful.

In my case it is very useful :)

It invites a nonsense usage (i.e. running "make test" under that
environment variable setting); that is not a good trade-off.

quoted

  * Even though GIT_SKIP_TESTS mechanism still allows you to skip
    individual test pieces, it has never been a serious "feature" in
    the first place. Many of the tests unfortunately do rely on state
    previous sequences of tests left behind, so it is not realistic
    to expect that you can skip test pieces randomly and exercise
    later test pieces reliably.

  * The numbering of individual test pieces can easily change by new
    tests inserted in the middle; again, many tests do take advantge
    of the states earlier tests leave behind, so "do not add new
    tests in the middle" is not a realistic rule to enforce, unless
    you are willing to clean up existing test scripts so that each
    test piece is independent from all the previous ones.

Both are true, but do not apply to the TDD case.

The existing tests are designed to be black-box tests, not function
level unit tests, and touching lower level code carelessly affects
other parts of the system you did not know the interactions about.

What does "TDD case" change anything in that equation?