Re: minimum perl version

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Jim,

> However, I'd prefer to continue to report the offending version of Perl
> and the minimum required version.  One way to do that would be
> to not suppress stderr.

OK, as you like. I'm applying it like this:


2010-09-04  Bruno Haible  <address@hidden>

        update-copyright test: Improve output when perl is missing or too old.
        * tests/test-update-copyright.sh: Move test of Perl version down after
        the test whether Perl exists. Provide an explanation relating Perl's
        error message to Automake's SKIP: message.

--- tests/test-update-copyright.sh.orig Sat Sep  4 13:56:40 2010
+++ tests/test-update-copyright.sh      Sat Sep  4 13:53:56 2010
@@ -16,10 +16,6 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
-# Skip this test if Perl is too old.  FIXME: 5.8.0 is just a guess.
-# We have a report that 5.6.1 is inadequate and that 5.8.0 works.
-perl -e 'require 5.8.0' || exit 77
-
 diffout=`diff -u /dev/null /dev/null 2>&1`
 if test x"$diffout" = x"" && test $? -eq 0; then
   compare() { diff -u "$@"; }
@@ -54,6 +50,13 @@
     exit 77
   }
 
+# Skip this test if Perl is too old.  FIXME: 5.8.0 is just a guess.
+# We have a report that 5.6.1 is inadequate and that 5.8.0 works.
+perl -e 'require 5.8.0' || {
+  echo '$0: skipping this test; Perl version is too old' 1>&2
+  exit 77
+}
+
 # Do not let a different envvar setting perturb results.
 UPDATE_COPYRIGHT_MAX_LINE_LENGTH=72
 export UPDATE_COPYRIGHT_MAX_LINE_LENGTH