Meson Rerun Failed Tests

Introduction

When developing, you frequently run tests. If a test is failing, your main concern is whether your fix will make that specific test pass. If it does, running all other tests becomes necessary to ensure you haven't introduced new issues. However, if the failing test continues to fail, running all other tests is somewhat pointless since you haven't yet resolved the problem you're working on.

Currently, when you run meson test and encounter a failed test, executing meson test again will start all tests from the beginning. Unfortunately, Meson doesn't have a --rerun-failed option yet, but hopefully it will be introduced in the future.

The proposed command:

# Won't work, since this option doesn't exist (yet)
meson test --rerun-failed

would rerun only the tests that failed in the last run. This allows you to quickly check if your fix addresses the issue without waiting for all preceding tests to run. If the previously failed tests now pass, it could then proceed to run all other tests to ensure overall stability.

If/when Meson adds this functionality, this repository will be deprecated in favor of the official implementation, as that would provide a more integrated and maintainable solution.

Until then, you can use a script to achieve similar functionality.

How it Works

The script:

Analyzes Test Log:
- Reads ./meson-logs/<logbase>.json if it exists
- Extracts failed test names from JSONL entries
Executes Tests:
- Without failed tests: runs full suite
- With failed tests: runs failed tests first
  - If they pass: runs full suite
  - If they fail: exits with error

The script is designed to be a drop-in replacement for meson test, accepting all standard Meson test arguments while adding the failed-test-first optimization.

Prerequisites

Python 3: Ensure Python 3.x is installed on your system.
Meson Build System: Installed and configured for your project.
Meson in PATH: The meson command should be accessible from the command line.

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/meson-rerun-failed-tests.git

Navigate to the directory:
```
cd meson-rerun-failed-tests
```

Install to your user's bin directory:

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp meson-rerun-failed-tests.py ~/.local/bin/meson-rerun-failed-tests
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/meson-rerun-failed-tests

Note: Make sure ~/.local/bin is in your PATH. If it isn't, add this line to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Usage