[Python-Dev] test failures on Debian unstable

[Tim Peters]

If you want to change the skip mechanism on Linux, I've already said that's
fine by me.  Let's hear from other Linux users:  is the mechanism useless to
you?  Counterproductive?  I've got nothing new to say about it.  I haven't
seen a specific suggestion for what you'd *like* to do here, apart from what
appear to be rhetorical devices.

> ...
> So should we add test_bz2 to expected skips on Windows, as somebody
> might not have bz2 libraries in his build environment?

Until this hypothetical becomes a reality, no.  If it does, perhaps.

> ...
> There are certainly modules which will never work on certain systems;
> in those cases, the mechanism works as designed. In general, you need
> to know much more than just the system name to determine whether
> skipping a test is expected.

Perhaps "skip expected" should be split into "skip expected" and "no fuckin'
clue" <wink>.  A system that gives users no guidance about which skips are
expected isn't attractive either (we've already done that; it didn't work;
if the current system could be improved for the systems you run on, please
feel free to improve it).