New home for the l3build regression test suite
The team have developed l3build starting from the need to support work on LaTeX3/expl3 code. We have been using it for other work, most obviously for testing and releasing the LaTeX2e kernel, for some time.
Having l3build in the same (Subversion) repository as LaTeX3 developments did have some advantages for the team, but it meant that following the change log could be a bit tricky. Moreover, as it has become more general, the need to do releases of l3build to support non-LaTeX3 work has increased: for example, for releasing the LaTeX2e kernel! We have now spun l3build out to a new (Git) repository:
https://github.com/latex3/l3build
The history in this new repository includes all of changes to l3build since the team established it as a more than a build script for just the LaTeX3 repo.
Please report issues, etc., with l3build in this new location.
The l3build system can be useful to any package writer
The regression test suite carries “l3” in its name, but it was designed to support any typical TeX code development, i.e., it is in no way tied to LaTeX3 development.
It can therefore be very useful to any package writer who likes to set up
- automated testing of code
- automated generation of documentation
- automated production of releases suitable for sending to CTAN
You will find an introduction in the TUGboat article “l3build — A modern Lua test suite for TeX programming” from 2014 that can be found on the project publication page. Check it out, in case you hear about this test suite for the first time!
Regards
Joseph, Frank