Subject: RE: bug#20715: tap-driver.sh 'missing test plan' message contradicts the TAP Standard

From: "Arthur Schwarz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2015 09:40:15 -0700

The plan line has to be mandatory for this feature to work as
    intended (i.e., for the TAP consumer to determine whether a
    producer has run to completion or not).  An optional plan would
    be useless.

Sorry to be such a pest.

Your statement that "... determine whether a producer has run to completion
or not" is puzzling. The TAP Standard specifically states that if the test
plan is 1..N and the number of test lines are k < N, then the k+1 .. N
missing test lines are to be considered as skipped. If this is your
standards conforming implementation then correct test completion is seen
when either N test lines are detected or an end of file is seen. So your
statement is confusing. Are you saying that the Automake TAP implementation
is non-conforming?

There is one issue not addressed in the TAP Standard and not addressed in
the Automake Manual. What happens if k > N? From your statement I would
assume that the TAP Automake implementation gives up and goes home, perhaps
with a diagnostic message (sorry, I just haven't checked this out yet so I
really don't know). But if the TAP implementation just gives up then
trailing Diagnostic lines are not read which violates the TAP Standard.

If I sound confused and look ugly I am. One the state of mind, the other the
state of being.

art