[Fedora-packaging] should I include tests in the package?

[Michael Schwendt]

On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:54:58 -0500, JC (Jon) wrote:

> > Apart of this, experience tells, *-test packages cause more trouble thany
> > they use and often are removed in not too distant future.
> >
> Exactly, hence my suggestion to put it in %doc, to prevent deps,
> though it doesn't help with disk space as much as leaving it out.

Keeping the test-suite working outside its builddir creates maintenance
overhead. How often would you revisit the packaged %doc tests to check
that they still work? Sometimes developers know the tests are broken (or
some tests are broken) and then you get to keep the pieces. Often it's
necessary to beat into shape the tests anyway, since you cannot simply do

  %doc src/tests/

or similar. The included Makefiles won't work anymore due to incompatible
paths (generated and hardcoded ones) in them and missing tools. Not pretty.

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