In current, vanilla upstream (SVN r187, no third party patches), the test network does not appear to work.
I execute
nice -n19 /spare/repo/bitcoin.hacks/bitcoind -testnet -gen -datadir=/garz/bitcoin/test/data -server
and bitcoin immediately exits. debug log shows the following:
Bitcoin version 0.3.15.5 beta
Default data directory /g/g/.bitcoin
Bound to port 18333
Loading addresses...
dbenv.open strLogDir=/garz/bitcoin/test/data/testnet/database strErrorFile=/garz/bitcoin/test/data/testnet/db.log
Loaded 0 addresses
addresses 19ms
Loading block index...
LoadBlockIndex(): hashBestChain=0000000224b1593e3ff1 height=0
block index 377ms
Loading wallet...
nFileVersion = 31504
fGenerateBitcoins = 0
nTransactionFee = 0
addrIncoming = 255.255.255.255:8333
fMinimizeToTray = 0
fMinimizeOnClose = 0
fUseProxy = 0
addrProxy = 127.0.0.1:9050
wallet 2ms
Done loading
mapBlockIndex.size() = 1
nBestHeight = 0
mapKeys.size() = 1
mapPubKeys.size() = 1
mapWallet.size() = 0
mapAddressBook.size() = 1
sending: version (85 bytes)
ThreadRPCServer started
ipv4 eth0: 10.10.20.30
addrLocalHost = 10.10.20.30:18333
ThreadRPCServer exiting
DBFlush(false)
addr.dat refcount=0
addr.dat flush
blkindex.dat refcount=0
blkindex.dat flush
wallet.dat refcount=0
wallet.dat flush
StopNode()
DBFlush(true)
Bitcoin exiting