MySQL Bugs: #41900: undocumented test programs should not be packaged (ma_sp

Bug #41900	undocumented test programs should not be packaged (ma_sp_test.exe, etc.)
Submitted:	6 Jan 2009 17:57	Modified:	2 Dec 2010 16:59
Reporter:	Timothy Smith	Email Updates:
Status:	Closed	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Maria storage engine	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	6.0,all	OS:	Any
Assigned to:	Timothy Smith	CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
This came out of Bug #41789.  At least the ma_sp_test.exe and sp_test.exe executables are distributed in the \bin\ directory, but have no documentation or help strings.  It's not clear what they should do, or how the user should use them.

How to repeat:
Look for documentation on these programs.

Suggested fix:
I can think of a few solutions:

- Move all test programs into a test directory, and document them somewhere in the manual
- Leave the test programs in bin, ensure they all accept --help and don't do anything potentially destructive, and document them somewhere in the manual
- Don't distribute test programs; anyone who wants them can build from source

I think this isn't specific to Maria; MyISAM has some test programs, too.  I think the first option above is the best one.  That way we can run these tests during package verification to ensure that they work as expected.  But I think the last option would be OK, too; these programs could be tested after building, before packaging.  I don't like the middle option (stuff in the bin directory should be useful, imo).

Tim, please specify exactly which programs are to be documented.

OK, Docs bounces this back to dev.  Triage, please consider:  d4/w1/i4 (p4 checked).

All clients that we distribute should accept --help option, and print something meaningful.

So the description of this bug becomes:

Identify all clients that are distributed, but do not properly handle --help option.  Implement help in them.  Add a comment on this bug listing the modified clients.

After discussion, it was agreed to leave these clients in the 'bin' directory, where we also put things like mysqltest.

Docs will update manual once clients have been identified and fixed.

Tools that are specific to a storage engine like ma_sp_test belong to the team for that storage engine, and bugs about them shouldn't be filed into the general-purpose client category. (FWIW, I don't think these should be installed.)

Well, the same problem exists for MyISAM. All MyISAM bugs are to be fixed by the relevant team, then the Maria team merges the fix into Maria.

I just checked 5.1 packages on Unix, and neither "ma_sp_test" (of course: Maria engine) nor "sp_test" (might be: MyISAM) are included.
This is because "sp_test" is built with the "noinstall" attribute.
So these packages seem to be clean.

To further verify, I checked the RPM spec files for all current versions (5.0 and up), and in none of them I found an undocumented program (= program without accompanying manual).

Because of this positive result, I set this bug from "unsupported" to "closed".