Subject: Re: bug#64957: [PATCH] gnu: Add python-fontmake.

From: Maxim Cournoyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:43:48 -0400

Hi Sergio,

Sergio Pastor Pérez <[email-masked]> writes:

> Hi, again.
>
> When I submitted the package I thought the checks where passing at least
> it was building without errors for version 3.4.0.  I see that you are
> using another build system and you updated the version. I'm trying your
> patch out and I see the failures during the check phase.
>
> At first sight I would not know how to fix any of this. I'm not very
> experienced with python in general. If I find the problem I will send an
> updated revision.

It's common for the PyPI archives to lack the tests files and/or for the
old build system (python-build-system) to not successfully run the test
suite and report success (which is what happens with 3.4.0 it seems).
So the package was "building" fine, but that doesn't mean much for
Python since it's interpreted -- running the test suite is important.

Often looking at what upstream does in their CI (github workflow for
example) can provide cues.  Or sometimes the test may try to access the
network.  Or sometimes they embed paths such as '/bin/sh' in the middle
of a file.  Or sometimes they need a writeable HOME, etc.

It's sometimes a bit of an effort to get the test suite going, but it's
what gives us confidence that it works well.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim