On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 10:44:57AM +0100, Robert Pluim wrote:

[...]

> > It would be better if the tests did not rely on external connectivity,
> > and did not need to contact google.com gratuitously.
> >
> >     AndyM
> 
> They donʼt contact google.com, they perform DNS lookups on
> google.com. The connectivity tests we have connect to localhost.
> 
> External connectivity is one of the big features of Emacs, it should
> be tested by the test suite.

Agreed. Still, it would be nice if there were alternatives to google
more in resonance with Emacs; perhaps, since (arguably) DNS resolution
of such a behemoth as Google would be more reliable than everyone
else, we might need a couple of alternatives. Gnu.org comes to mind,
but perhaps debian.org, wikipedia.org or archive.org might qualify?

I don't have the chops to assess the ramifications of this -- perhaps
something for a discussio (not necessarily in this thread).

Cheers
-- t