test-lots and test-period fixed

[Derek Atkins]

Quoting Neil Williams <linux at codehelp.co.uk>:

>> > test-lots now runs without a segfault and all I got is this message:
>> > FAILURE engine-stuff test-engine-stuff.c:700 get_random_int_in_range
>> > failed but that doesn't cause the test to fail.
>>
>> I wonder why?  I also wonder why this is failing?
>
> It's just the randomness, I've run the test several times in gnucash and
> cashutil trees and every once in a while one of the random test generators
> triggers this warning from test-engine-stuff.c.

Well, if there is a "random" failure we should really figure out what it is
that's failing.  It could be the RNG failing, or it could be a bug that 
happens
to fail on certain inputs.  That's why random tests are GOOD..  Random tests
are BAD because you can't easily re-run the test and expect the same output
every time..   We should really track down the failure.

One way to do it is to seed the RNG to a known quantity and then run 
the test.. That should get you a reproducible random sequence which 
should make the test
reproducible -- then we can try to track down the failure.

Ignoring it is.... unproductive.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available