docs: serial-tests are not deprecated, just discouraged

We don't plan to remove support for them, nor to have the serial-tests
option give any kind of runtime warning, so don't alarm the users
still using serial tests with pointless "deprecation" or "obsolescence"
warnings.

Fixes automake bug#13478.

See also:
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2013-01/msg00058.html>

* doc/automake.texi: Adjust.
* THANKS: Update.

Signed-off-by: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattarini@gmail.com>

diff --git a/THANKS b/THANKS
index 58745e7..21ea373 100644 (file)
--- a/THANKS
+++ b/THANKS
@@ -331,6 +331,7 @@ Reuben Thomas                   rrt@sc3d.org
 Rich Wales                      richw@webcom.com
 Richard Boulton                 richard@tartarus.org
 Richard Dawe                    rich@phekda.freeserve.co.uk
+Richard W.M. Jones              rjones@redhat.com
 Rob Savoye                      rob@cygnus.com
 Robert Bihlmeyer                robbe@orcus.priv.at
 Robert Boehne                   rboehne@ricardo-us.com

diff --git a/doc/automake.texi b/doc/automake.texi
index ffc6819..3b830d5 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/automake.texi
+++ b/doc/automake.texi
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ Support for test suites
 Simple Tests
 
 * Scripts-based Testsuites::    Automake-specific concepts and terminology
-* Serial Test Harness::         Older (and obsolescent) serial test harness
+* Serial Test Harness::         Older (and discouraged) serial test harness
 * Parallel Test Harness::       Generic concurrent test harness
 
 Using the TAP test protocol
@@ -8806,7 +8806,7 @@ terminology)?
 
 @menu
 * Scripts-based Testsuites::    Automake-specific concepts and terminology
-* Serial Test Harness::         Older (and obsolescent) serial test harness
+* Serial Test Harness::         Older (and discouraged) serial test harness
 * Parallel Test Harness::       Generic concurrent test harness
 @end menu
 
@@ -8979,12 +8979,16 @@ by the tests, not the tests themselves.  Of course you can set
 @code{TESTS = $(check_PROGRAMS)} if all your programs are test cases.
 
 @node Serial Test Harness
-@subsection Older (and obsolescent) serial test harness
+@subsection Older (and discouraged) serial test harness
 @cindex @option{serial-tests}, Using
 
-@emph{This harness is obsolescent}, and kept for backward-compatibility
-reasons only.  The user is strongly advised to just use the parallel test
-harness instead (@pxref{Parallel Test Harness}).
+First, note that today the use of this harness is strongly discouraged in
+favour of the parallel test harness (@pxref{Parallel Test Harness}).
+Still, there are @emph{few} situations when the advantages offered by
+the parallel harness are irrelevant, and when test concurrency can
+even cause tricky problems.  In those cases, it might make sense to
+still use the serial harness, for simplicity and reliability (we still
+suggest trying to give the parallel harness a shot though).
 
 The serial test harness is enabled by the Automake option
 @option{serial-tests}. It operates by simply running the tests serially,