Bug#970026: perl: most if not all autopkgtests should be marked 'superficial'

[Niko Tyni]

Source: perl
Severity: minor
Version: 5.30.3-4
Control: found -1 5.32.0-3

Quoting https://release.debian.org/bullseye/rc_policy.txt :

 (a) autopkgtest

    Package are encouraged to implement autopkgtests. These tests must
    test at least one of its own installed binary packages in some way,
    or must be marked as superficial. Mere installability is not
    enough. [...]

See also https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2020/09/msg00071.html

Not sure how strictly to read this. Possibly all or most our tests are
superficial, at least 'released_versions'. The 'perl-base-self-contained'
and 'syntax' checks are somewhat covered by the latter reference:

  4) A Python or Perl library runs import foo or require Foo; but does
  not attempt to use the library beyond that.
       Test-Command: python3 -c "import foo"
 
but I guess it can be argued that they actually test the Perl interpreter
a bit. I think I'd still mark them superficial.

Maybe mark all except 'hello' and 'embed' as superficial?

Of course, the important thing is testing the numerous reverse
dependencies, which give us extensive coverage. So the tests in src:perl
itself don't really matter all that much. Hence filing at severity:minor.
-- 
Niko Tyni   ntyni at debian.org