[webkit-dev] run-webkit-tests question; hashes when comparing ref test output

[Darin Adler]

I noticed that when running tests I get messages like this:

    svg/css/svg-resource-fragment-identifier-img-src.html -> ref test hashes didn't match but diff passed

I understand that we can have hash mismatches in actual checked in images (expected.png files), and there, at least, I believe the fix might be to regenerate the image. But for a ref test I am really unclear on this. And further, I think it’s distracting to get messages like this unless you are specifically working on the testing infrastructure.

Why should the average WebKit engineer care about this? Does this reflect a real performance problem when running tests? If so, who would fix it and what would that person do?

— Darin