Various tests, particularly the client program tests under src/bin, use the Perl TAP tools and are run using the Perl testing program prove. You can pass command-line options to prove by setting the make variable PROVE_FLAGS, for example:

make -C src/bin check PROVE_FLAGS='--timer'

See the manual page of prove for more information.

The make variable PROVE_TESTS can be used to define a whitespace-separated list of paths relative to the Makefile invoking prove to run the specified subset of tests instead of the default t/*.pl. For example:

make check PROVE_TESTS='t/001_test1.pl t/003_test3.pl'

The TAP tests require the Perl module IPC::Run. This module is available from CPAN or an operating system package. They also require PostgreSQL to be configured with the option --enable-tap-tests.

Generically speaking, the TAP tests will test the executables in a previously-installed installation tree if you say make installcheck, or will build a new local installation tree from current sources if you say make check. In either case they will initialize a local instance (data directory) and transiently run a server in it. Some of these tests run more than one server. Thus, these tests can be fairly resource-intensive.

It's important to realize that the TAP tests will start test server(s) even when you say make installcheck; this is unlike the traditional non-TAP testing infrastructure, which expects to use an already-running test server in that case. Some PostgreSQL subdirectories contain both traditional-style and TAP-style tests, meaning that make installcheck will produce a mix of results from temporary servers and the already-running test server.