This file is NOT needed to run the system tests. However, it IS needed if you wish to debug the system tests. In order to run a debug (at least from Eclipse) you need to point to a .php file, and this is the .php file that is executed for all unit or system tests. Personally, I don't see the harm in keeping it, since none of these files gets distributed.

However, it IS needed if you wish to debug the system tests.

@dextercowley Judging from code, this only works when you have XAMPP installed in default location in c:\xampp. It doesn't work if you have it installed on d:\ or in another directory. And probably fails with WAMP. Or do I miss something?
Imho, a better way would be to setup the XAMPP server properly, which is a bit tricky but doable. Like adding PHP to the Windows Path enviroment variable.

What if you don't have windows ? Usually this would be /usr/bin/php or better /usr/bin/env php none of which is meaningful for non-*nix systems...

That said if the purpose is the usage as an entry point when debugging from an IDE, usually the IDE uses the known PHP executable to make the call (even Eclipse), and does no rely on the shebang found in the file, so -- you might also go with the C:\XAMPP stuff if you like 😉 - please correct me if I'm wrong.

It's totally fine with me to remove it from the distro. Obviously,
individual people can add it as needed to their local systems. Mark

On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 6:52 AM, Nikolai Plath notifications@github.comwrote:

What if you don't have windows ? Usually this would be /usr/bin/php or
better /usr/bin/env php none of which is meaningful for non-*nix
systems...

That said if the purpose is the usage as an entry point when debugging
from an IDE, usually the IDE uses the known PHP executable to make the call
(even Eclipse), and does no rely on the shebang found in the file, so --
you might also go with the C:\XAMPP stuff if you like [image: 😉] -
please correct me if I'm wrong.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//pull/3060#issuecomment-34442675
.

What us the status on this @javigomez @dextercowley

This comment was created with the J!Tracker Application at http://issues.joomla.org/.

With the agreement of Mark I think this one is RTC.

The plan of the system testing working group http://volunteers.joomla.org/working-groups/system-tests-working-group is to improve the documentation and resources for all to run the tests in any environment. So we will improve this in the present future.

Thank you @javigomez!