A new target, "check", has been added to Makefile for 2.6.  It runs some
tests on the source code that are intended to check there's nothing
wrong before preparing a patch. 
http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Makefile.pre.in?rev=61528&view=markup

Unfortunately, GNU coding standards have cemented in many people's minds
that "check" is the target for self-tests, e.g. "make clean all check
install".  http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Standard-Targets

I realise Python doesn't fall under those coding standards, but none the
less it is confusing to people to re-use a standard target name for a
different use.  In the past, Python had no "check" target so people
spotted their mistake, investigated, and found the "test" target.

Please consider renaming this new "check" target, e.g. to "prepatch", to
avoid this confusion when 2.6 is released.  Perhaps a "check" target can
be added as a synonym for "test" at the same time?