[RFC] change test output to subunit when stdout is a pipe

[Robert Collins]

On Mon, 2009-07-20 at 17:03 +1000, Martin Pool wrote:
> 
> I used it for the last test run I did and will keep using it as the
> default for a while.
> 
> The first thing I noticed is that it loses the elapsed time measure.

Coincidentally my current project in subunit is making using of the
time: feature. https://lists.launchpad.net/subunit-dev/msg00016.html

> So far I think on the whole it's not that bad, but it doesn't compare
> well to our default.
> 
> I can see some cases where redirection into a file rather than on a
> terminal should change default behaviour - for instance, from the
> recent thread, that it shouldn't show the progress bar.  I think using
> an entirely different format seems like too large of a change.  Would
> it be enough to just give --subunit a short name?

I'm happy typing --subunit always. The main reason to change would be so
that when someone redirects to a file, to attach to a bug, they get a
more robust trace.

> Is there a larger story around why you're often redirecting the
> output?

I redirect for several reasons:
 - to capture for sharing with others
 - to generate test lists to run on ec2
 - as part of my shrinking-failure workflow:
   selftest --subunit | subunit-filter --no-skips | tee failing.log |
subunit2pyunit
   cat failing.log | subunit-ls > failing.list
   # hack on a failed test
   selftest --load-list failing.list --subunit | ... 
   # repeat until nothing is failing

-Rob
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