Bug 1370266

Description of problem
======================

I need to compare test state before/after a call to function that contains asserts, but the test (static file checker) may easily contain hundreds of other asserts earlier in the same phase.  Semantic of rlGetTestState and rlGetPhaseState is perfect but the design is unfortunate; they just won't work for values higher than 254.

beakerlib(1) (as of beakerlib-1.11-1.fc23) says:

> rlGetTestState
>
> Returns number of failed asserts in so far, 255 if there are more then 255 failures.
>
>     rlGetTestState
>
> rlGetPhaseState
>
> Returns number of failed asserts in current phase so far, 255 if there are more then 255
> failures.
>
>     rlGetPhaseState

(That's what you get when you abuse exit status.)


Proposal
========

I'm pretty sure those numbers are available;  there should be a supported way to get them.  Possibilities that come in mind:

 *  Tweak the above two to print the value to stdout instead of abusing
    exit status.

    Changing them directly could break something that relies on them being
    stdout-silent.  (But are they? I haven't checked.)  Introducing option
    could be easy althought better solution exist.

 *  Introduce their proper versions.

 *  Introduce a generic meta-info getter (`rlGet`):

     *  printing values to stdout,

     *  using ES properly, ie. to propagate error conditions,

     *  able to print also other useful info (can't think of anything
        as useful as fail number, but I'm sure something could be
        thrown in)