escape sequences in test output -- colors (new snapshot)

[Bob Proulx]

Jim Meyering wrote:
> Mike Frysinger wrote:
> > btw, where are the colors coming from ?  is that coreutils
> > specific or is that a feature of autotest in newer autotools ?  i
> > love it :)
> 
> They colors in "make check" output are from the combination of
> build-aux/check.mk and tests/check.mk. It's specific to coreutils,
> for now.

I won't disagree that people may like the colors but personally I find
them annoying.  Mostly this is because wading through the escape
sequences in the logs makes it difficult to find failures.  I am
rarely watching these in real time and 'grep FAIL:' no longer hits.

Here is an example from the buildbot logs so you can see what I am
talking about.  The escape sequences does not cut-n-paste well either
or I would simply show that.

  http://buildbot.proulx.com:9000/i686%20gnu-linux%20VPATH/builds/1/step-test/0

I would like it if there were a way to disable the escape sequences.
But my creativity is at a loss at thinking up a well named environment
variable to do this.  COREUTILS_TESTS_COLOR=no ??  I am okay if this
is an optional configuration and not the default.

I would like it if "FAIL:" were displayed again when tests failed.  I
think that is the more intuitive opposite to the "PASS:" and "SKIP:"
strings.  Looking for "Error 1" from make seems to be the only way to
find failures now.

> If enough people tell address@hidden that they like it, maybe
> it'll end up being added there.  Thank the Vaucanson group for their
> build-aux/check.mk file.

Or perhaps lobby against it.  :-)

Bob