This file describes the flex test suite.

* WHO SHOULD USE THE TEST SUITE?

The test suite is intended to be used by flex developers, i.e., anyone hacking

the flex distribution. If you are simply installing flex, then you can ignore

this directory and its contents.

* STRUCTURE OF THE TEST SUITE

The testsuite consists of several tests. Each test is centered around

a scanner known to work with the most recent version of flex. In

general, after you modify your copy of the flex distribution, you

should re-run the test suite. Some of the tests may require certain

tools to be available (e.g., bison, diff). If any test returns an

error or generates an error message, then your modifications *may*

have broken a feature of flex. At a minimum, you'll want to

investigate the failure and determine if it's truly significant.

* HOW TO RUN THE TEST SUITE

To build and execute all tests from the top level of the flex source tree:

  $ make check

To build and execute a single test:

  $ cd tests/ # from the top level of the flex tree.

  $ make testname.log

  where "testname" is the name of the test. This is an automake-ism

  that will create (or re-create, if need be), a log of the particular

  test run that you're working on.

* HOW TO ADD A NEW TEST TO THE TEST SUITE

** List your test in the TESTS variable in Makefile.am in this

   directory. Note that due to the large number of tests, we use

   variables to group similar tests together. This also helps with

   handling the automake test suite requirements. Hopefully your test

   can be listed in SIMPLE_TESTS. You'll need to add the appropriate

   automake _SOURCES variable as well. If you're unsure, then consult

   the automake manual, paying attention to the parallel test harness

   section.

** On success, your test should return zero.

** On error, your test should return 1 (one) and print a message to

stderr, which will have been redirected to the log file created by the

automake test suite harness.

** If your test is skipped (e.g., because bison was not found), then

   the test should return 2 (two).

** Once your work is done, submit a patch via the flex development

   mailing list, the github pull request mechanism or some other

   suitable means.