Re: minimum perl version

[Jim Meyering]

Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
>> diff --git a/tests/test-update-copyright.sh b/tests/test-update-copyright.sh
>> index 2d1022a..607928d 100755
>> --- a/tests/test-update-copyright.sh
>> +++ b/tests/test-update-copyright.sh
>> @@ -16,6 +16,10 @@
>>  # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
>>  # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
>>
>> +# Skip this test if Perl is too old.  FIXME: 5.6.0 is just a guess.
>> +# We have a report that 5.004_05 is inadequate and that 5.8.8 works.
>> +perl -e 'require 5.6.0' || exit 77
>> +
>>  diffout=`diff -u /dev/null /dev/null 2>&1`
>>  if test x"$diffout" = x"" && test $? -eq 0; then
>>    compare() { diff -u "$@"; }
>
> A little down in this test, there is a check whether perl exists at all.
> It makes no sense IMO to test the perl version, risking a message to stderr
> if it is missing, and then afterwards to test whether perl exists.
>
> Also, when the test is skipped, we should output an explanation why.
> This explanation has already uncovered bugs. A message like
>   "Perl v5.8.0 required--this is only v5.6.0, stopped at -e line 1."
> sounds more like an error message than like an explanation why a test is
> being skipped.
>
> How about this proposed change?
...
>
> + # Skip this test if Perl is too old.  FIXME: 5.8.0 is just a guess.
> + # We have a report that 5.6.1 is inadequate and that 5.8.0 works.
> + perl -e 'require 5.8.0' 2>/dev/null || {
> +   echo '$0: skipping this test; Perl version is too old' 1>&2
> +   exit 77
> + }

Hi Bruno,

Thanks.  Moving the new test down is a definite improvement.
However, I'd prefer to continue to report the offending version of Perl
and the minimum required version.  One way to do that would be
to not suppress stderr.