Re: [PATCH 4/4] meson: parse TAP output generated by our tests

> On Thu, May 15, 2025 at 12:48:23AM -0700, Karthik Nayak wrote:
>> Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:
>> > diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
>> > index 94bd525dd7b..cd8df189d79 100644
>> > --- a/meson.build
>> > +++ b/meson.build
>> > @@ -2031,6 +2031,14 @@ if get_option('tests')
>> >      'timeout': 0,
>> >    }
>> >
>> > +  # The TAP protocol was already understood by previous versions of Meson, but
>> > +  # it was incompatible with the `meson test --interactive` flag.
>> > +  if meson.version().version_compare('>=1.8.0')
>> > +    test_kwargs += {
>> > +      'protocol': 'tap',
>> > +    }
>> > +  endif
>> > +
>> >
>>
>> The change itself looks good. But I do have a question about this:
>>
> [snip]
>>
>> Shouldn't the '--interactive' flag also produce 'Ok: 1'. Instead it is
>> printing out 'Ignored: 1'. This is while I was testing on your series.
>> Seems to be fine on master.
>
> The answer is unfortunately "no". In interactive mode the expectation is
> that the user will, well, interact with the test. This has two
> consequences:
>
>   - The standard streams will be directly connected to the user's
>     console. This has the consequence that Meson won't be able to parse
>     the generated output anymore, and thus it labels the tests as
>     "ignored" because it cannot derive their status.
>
>   - Even if Meson intercepted the output it very likely wouldn't be able
>     to parse it. After all, we're in interactive mode, which means that
>     the user may be directly communicating with the tests. E.g. if you
>     use `test_pause`, then you'll be dropped to a shell and communicate
>     with it. The consequence is that the output won't follow proper TAP
>     format anymore.
>
> So it's basically impossible to parse TAP in interactive mode, which is
> why Meson then ignores the results. If all you want is to see verbose
> output you can do that with `meson test -v`. But interactive mode really
> indicates that you _want_ to get hands-on with the tests.
>