document how to manually run the actions tests

README.md

@@ -9,3 +9,36 @@ specifically for testing such as
 
 They are designed to run using Forgejo releases and development
 versions compiled from designated repositories.
+
+## Hacking
+
+### Local testing
+
+To run and debug workflows from `actions/example-*`, from
+the root of the source directory, with docker and forgejo-curl.sh
+installed, mimic what `.forgejo/workflows/actions.yml` does. There
+may be some manual tweaking (such as creating temporary directories)
+because the tests run as root, but they do not need to run as root.
+
+* `forgejo-curl.sh logout`
+* `forgejo.sh setup root admin1234 codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo 1.21`
+* `firefox http://$(cat forgejo-ip):3000`
+* `forgejo-runner.sh setup`
+* `export example=pull-request`
+* `export EXAMPLE_DIR=$(pwd)/actions/example-$example`
+* `$EXAMPLE_DIR/setup.sh` # if it exists
+* `$EXAMPLE_DIR/run.sh` or
+* `forgejo-test-helper.sh run_workflow actions/example-$example http://root:admin1234@$(cat forgejo-ip):3000 root example-$example setup-forgejo $(cat forgejo-token)`
+* `forgejo-runner.sh teardown`
+* `forgejo.sh teardown`
+
+### Remote testing
+
+To reduce the runtime the following variables can be set to control
+the number of cases run by the
+[actions](.forgejo/workflows/actions.yml) tests. If set to
+**none** they are not run at all for that version of Forgejo. If
+it does not exist, all tests are run.
+
+* `V1_21_TESTS`
+* `V1_20_TESTS`