Some hand-waving on the problem of configuration and test selection, (as
the two appear to share the issues, an ideal solution would address both).
For any usable environment, a large set of common processes have to be
executed, with a smaller, OS &&/|| CPU specific set omitted. One way to do
this might be to have all possible steps in a common process directory,
with a mechanism to drop the unwanted ones. Any process invoked could
assume that it has the right to run.
A possible scheme might be a directory hierarchy matching the OS/CPU
combination, e.g. Linux/x_86, Linux/i_64, Solaris/Sparc, containing dummy
files whose names match the processes NOT to be run for that environment.
(The precise structure would depend on which combination required the
fewest cases; it's dictated by the data.)
The steps would be:
Identify the environment
Select the list of corresponding exclusions (list the directories)
Eliminate them from the to-do directory's listing
Execute the remaining list
*nix environments can probably do this with standard tools, and Microsoft
copied the filesystem structure closely enough that it shouldn't be a
serious challenge.
Does this sound plausible and portable enough to be worth prototyping?
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