trouble testing dispatch.cc

[Ben Abbott]

Using a fresh copy of the developers sources, I encountered some  
strange behavior with regards to the tests for dispatch.cc.

First time I did a make check, I encountered a seg-fault at dispatch.cc.

make check
make -f octMakefile check
make -C test check
./build_sparse_tests.sh
../run-octave --norc --silent --no-history ./fntests.m .

Integrated test scripts:

   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/besselj.cc ........................... PASS   
180/180
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/betainc.cc ........................... PASS    6/6
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/bsxfun.cc ............................ PASS   55/55
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/cellfun.cc ........................... PASS   74/74
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/chol.cc .............................. PASS   23/23
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/conv2.cc ............................. PASS    2/2
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/dassl.cc ............................. PASS    4/4
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/det.cc ............................... PASS    5/5
   src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/dispatch.cc ..........................make[2]:  
*** [check] Segmentation fault
make[1]: *** [check] Error 2
make: *** [check] Error 2

The second time, I got a single failure for dispatch.cc

src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/dispatch.cc .......................... PASS    
12/13   FAIL 1

19 >>>>> processing /Users/bpabbott/Development/mercurial/ 
octave-3.1.51/src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/dispatch.cc
  20   ***** test # replace base m-file
  21  echo_to_file ('function a=dispatch_x(a)', "dispatch_x.m");
  22  dispatch('dispatch_x','length','string')
  23  assert(dispatch_x(3),3)
  24  assert(dispatch_x("a"),1)
  25  sleep (2);
  26  echo_to_file ('function a=dispatch_x(a),++a;', "dispatch_x.m");
  27  rehash();
  28  assert(dispatch_x(3),4)
  29  assert(dispatch_x("a"),1)
  30 !!!!! test failed
  31 `dispatch_x' undefined near line 5 column 9>>>>> processing / 
Users/bpabbott/Development/mercurial/octave-3.1.51/src/DLD-FUNCTIONS/ 
dlmread.cc

When I ran "test dispatch.cc" from the prompt, all 13 tests passed.

octave:11> test dispatch.cc
PASSES 13 out of 13 tests

Has anyone else encountered this? ... I'd guess the sleep(2) is  
present to avoid these problems?

Ben