The parallel test harness doesn't seem to like conditional tests. I get the following output using the attached configure.ac and Makefile.am: $ ./configure checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking whether make supports nested variables... yes checking that generated files are newer than configure... done configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating pet_test.sh $ make check make check-TESTS make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' make[2]: Entering directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' make[3]: Entering directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' make[3]: Nothing to be done for `pet_test.sh.log'. make[3]: Leaving directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' fatal: making test-suite.log: failed to create pet_test.sh.trs fatal: making test-suite.log: failed to create pet_test.sh.log make[2]: *** [test-suite.log] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' make[1]: *** [check-TESTS] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' make: *** [check-am] Error 2 This is with automake 1.13.1 and autoconf 2.68. The same input works fine with automake 1.11.3: $ ./configure checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating pet_test.sh $ make check make check-TESTS make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' PASS: pet_test.sh ============= 1 test passed ============= make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/pet-0.03' Is it no longer allowed to have conditional tests as in TESTS = @extra_tests@ EXTRA_TESTS = pet_test.sh or is anything missing from my input? Thanks in advance, skimo