MySQL Bugs: #41526: mysql reference manual should mention that diff is required for the test suite

Bug #41526	mysql reference manual should mention that diff is required for the test suite
Submitted:	17 Dec 2008 0:16	Modified:	13 Jan 2009 16:12
Reporter:	Patrick Crews	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Documentation	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:		OS:	Any
Assigned to:	Paul DuBois	CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	diff, documentation, mysql-test-run, test suite, Tests

Description:
The reference manual does not mention that 'diff' is required to successfully run the test suite (for reporting differences between expected and actual values on failing tests).

While mysql-test-run is supposed to provide an error message along these lines if diff is not present, it might be useful to have it in the documentation as well, especially for our growing Windows user-base.

Also, in the event diff is not found, the entire contents of <test>.result and <test>.reject will be dumped for a failing test.  This does not provide meaningful input for tests with large .result files.

How to repeat:
Examine the documentation:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/mysql-test-suite.html

Suggested fix:
Add some text to the manual that captures the information contained in the Description section of the bug.

Don't know if it's "kosher" in official docs, but it might be a good idea to point Windows users to the GnuWin32 diff utility:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm

Thank you for your bug report. This issue has been addressed in the documentation. The updated documentation will appear on our website shortly, and will be included in the next release of the relevant products.

The MySQL Test Framework manual is a better place to mention system requirements for the test suite. So for the Reference Manual referred to above I have mentioned that the Test Framework manual describes the system requirements, and in the Test Framework manual I have created this section that mentions diff:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysqltest/en/tests-system-requirement.html