The examples directory of the distribution contains an automatic distribution test procedure, which is executed (under Unix-like systems) with:
./examples/selftest
This test takes a few minutes to complete, and should essentially display messages saying that some of the components used in the test instruments are obsolete (but still work).
Additionally, plots from results may be generated automatically from the command
./examples/showtest
which will use by default the PGPLOT plotting back-end (see below). Other back-ends (see Section 6.3) may be specified when setting the MCSTAS_FORMAT environment variable.