Subject: Re: bug#35047: "Running the Test Suite" root user

From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2019 14:50:35 +0100

mikadoZero,

mikadoZero wrote:
> Looking at "2.3 Running the Test Suite" of the manual it does 
> not
> mention that tests should be run as a non root user.

I guess this is one of those (Unix-)cultural knowledge things: it 
wouldn't even occur to me to build or test anything as root unless 
explicitly asked to do so :-)

> The test `tests/pack` fails when `make check` is run as a root 
> user.  It
> does not fail when run as a non root user.  I found this example 
> by
> running `make check TESTS="tests/pack.scm"`.  Is this an issue 
> for many
> tests?
>
> I can prepare a patch for the relevant part (parts if this also 
> applies
> to `make check-system` as well) in "2.3 Running the Test Suite" 
> of the
> manual.

Thanks for the offer!  I think adding yet another gotcha to the 
manual should be a last resort, though.  Many people still miss 
them and get into trouble (and on to IRC).

Could we, in order of preference:

- make these tests pass even when run as root?  (I guess not?)
- skip them and add ‘n tests not run as root’ to the final tally?
- refuse to even start the test suite as root?

What ‘root’ means here will depend on why these tests are failing.

Kind regards,

T G-R