[petsc-users] make check vs make test

[Jed Brown]

`make check` has been a synonym for `make test` for several releases,
and we used `make -f gmakefile test` for the comprehensive suite.  We
recently made it so that if you have a sufficiently recent GNU Make, you
can `make test` without the `-f gmakefile` verbosity.  If you want the
simple test, either continue using `make check` or select a small number
of tests using `make test search=snes_tutorials-ex5_1` or whatever.

Adrian Croucher <a.croucher at auckland.ac.nz> writes:

> hi
>
> In the latest PETSc version (3.13), 'make test' seems to be doing a much 
> more comprehensive set of tests than it used to.
>
> That is ok except that I have a CI pipeline which builds PETSc and my 
> code, and then runs my tests. It also does a 'make test' after building 
> PETSc and that is now making the CI time out.
>
> At the end of the PETSc build process it says I should run 'make check' 
> to "check if the libraries are working". I can't seem to find any 
> documentation on what 'make check' actually does, but it looks like it 
> runs a much reduced set of tests. Currently I am running both 'make 
> check' and 'make test'.
>
> For this use case should it be sufficient to run 'make check' and omit 
> 'make test'?
>
> - Adrian
>
> -- 
> Dr Adrian Croucher
> Senior Research Fellow
> Department of Engineering Science
> University of Auckland, New Zealand
> email: a.croucher at auckland.ac.nz
> tel: +64 (0)9 923 4611