What I mean to test is the bug that (as it turned out) was due to an older version of Perl. The test code is a much trimmed down version of some "real" code and as such may carry some baggage from the original context.

Although I'm pretty new to SQL, my reading of the MySQL and SQLite documentation indicates that the ALL is implied and optional, but that the * or some other select expression is required. In the original code there was a WHERE clause so the ALL was a nod to improved understanding by a neophyte (me). The ALL didn't affect the test nor cause undue visual clutter or confusion so it didn't get taken out.