It was looking in completely the wrong place for the backup and the (test) xapian database. Unfortunately test_begin_subtest hides the relevant errors. --- I found this bug because id:9ee3f2334a117b0a1b88650f44432423cbe95fd7.1383315568.git.jani@nikula.org did _not_ break any tests. Which was puzzling. test/compact | 7 ++++--- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/test/compact b/test/compact index 5bb5cea..afab537 100755 --- a/test/compact +++ b/test/compact @@ -19,10 +19,11 @@ thread:XXX 2001-01-05 [1/1] Notmuch Test Suite; One (inbox tag1 unread) thread:XXX 2001-01-05 [1/1] Notmuch Test Suite; Two (inbox tag1 tag2 unread) thread:XXX 2001-01-05 [1/1] Notmuch Test Suite; Three (inbox tag3 unread)" -test_begin_subtest "Restoring backup" -rm -Rf ${TEST_TMPDIR}/mail/xapian -mv ${TEST_TMPDIR}/mail/xapian.old ${TEST_TMPDIR}/mail/xapian +test_expect_success 'Restoring Backup' \ + 'rm -Rf ${MAIL_DIR}/.notmuch/xapian && + mv ${MAIL_DIR}/xapian.old ${MAIL_DIR}/.notmuch/xapian' +test_begin_subtest "Checking restored backup" output=$(notmuch search \* | notmuch_search_sanitize) test_expect_equal "$output" "\ thread:XXX 2001-01-05 [1/1] Notmuch Test Suite; One (inbox tag1 unread) -- 1.8.4.rc3