Re: Texinfo 7.1.90 on Solaris 11 OmniOS

[Gavin Smith]

On Mon, Oct 28, 2024 at 08:39:54PM +0100, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 27, 2024 at 11:32:18PM +0100, Bruno Haible via Bug reports for 
> the GNU Texinfo documentation system wrote:
> > Oh, right. I had written that I reproduced it locally and that it was
> > a /bin/sh bug [1].
> > 
> > This time, I can't reproduce it locally (with or without
> > CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash). I would propose:
> >   - either the workaround/fix that Patrice had proposed [2],
> 
> I remember that Gavin was opposed.  I still think that having a way to
> customize the shell could be relevant independentely of this issue, but
> I'll let Gavin decide.

I was only opposed to skipping the tests, not to allowing customizing the
shell.  I haven't got an opinion on the use of SHELL as mentioned at
the referenced message,(*) as I haven't researched the implications of this.
It seems like a valid goal to allow the user to override the shell
when running Makefile rules that launch shell scripts, and SHELL is
already used in some places.

(*) https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2024-06/msg00043.html

> >   - or to drop Solaris 11 OmniOS from the CI. (We still have Solaris 11.4
> >     running.)
> 
> And there is also the opencsw build farm CI, which is, in my opinion,
> even more interesting as it tests older setups than the Solaris 11.4
> in the CI:
> https://buildfarm.opencsw.org/buildbot/waterfall?category=texinfo 
> 
> If we drop omnios from the platforms that are run, I think that it would
> be better to leave it in the file and retest from time to time.

Note that the CI system on Github is not used or controlled by the GNU
project.  Github is not especially recommended for use by GNU packages; see
<https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria-evaluation.html#github-com>.

If people want to use Github to run tests of Texinfo, that is up to them.
They are not discouraged from doing so and reports from such tests are
welcome.