Subject: system info in test-suite.log

From: Bruno Haible <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2024 17:24:13 +0200

Hi,

The 1.16.90 NEWS file states:

  - test-suite.log now contains basic system information, and the
    console message about bug reporting on failure has a bit more detail.
    (bug#68746)

1) This system information is the naked output of some OS commands:

          (uname -a | awk '{$$2=""; print}') 2>&1; \
          if test -r /etc/os-release; then         \
            sed 8q /etc/os-release;                \
          elif test -r /etc/issue; then            \
            cat /etc/issue;                        \
          fi;                                      \

In my case:

Linux  5.15.0-107-generic #117-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 26 12:26:49 UTC 2024 x86_64 GNU/Linux
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
VERSION="22.04.4 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"

The problem with this is that
  - It's not immediately clear to everyone what this information is.
  - It can get in the way, for example when I want to search for "Linux"
    among the test logs:
      grep '^Linux' test-suite.log

I would therefore suggest to mark them in some way:

System information: Linux  5.15.0-107-generic #117-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 26 12:26:49 UTC 2024 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Distribution:
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
VERSION="22.04.4 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"

2) The double-space is confusing. It rings a bell immediately.
Can you find a way to omit not only the machine name, but also the space
before it?

3) Btw, one does not need a subshell in order to run a pipe.
Replace
  (uname -a | awk '{$$2=""; print}') 2>&1
with
  { uname -a | awk '{$$2=""; print}'; } 2>&1

Bruno