DejaGnu
*******

This file documents DejaGnu version 1.6.1.

Introduction
************

What is DejaGnu?
================

DejaGnu is a framework for testing other programs, providing a single front-end for all tests. You can think of it as a library of Tcl procedures to help with writing a test harness. A test harness is the infrastructure that is created to test a specific program or tool. Each program can have multiple testsuites, all supported by a single test harness. DejaGnu is written in Expect, which in turn uses Tcl, the Tool command language. There is more information on Tcl at the Tcl/Tk web site (http://www.tcl.tk) and the Expect web site (http://expect.nist.gov).

Julia Menapace first coined the term DejaGnu to describe an earlier testing framework she wrote at Cygnus Support for testing GDB. When we replaced it with the Expect-based framework, it was like DejaGnu all over again.  More importantly, it was also named after my daughter, Deja Snow Savoye, who was a toddler during DejaGnu's beginnings.

DejaGnu offers several advantages for testing:

  * The flexibility and consistency of the DejaGnu framework make it easy to write tests for any program, with either batch-oriented, or interactive programs.

  * DejaGnu provides a layer of abstraction which allows you to write tests that are portable to any host or target where a program must be tested. For instance, a test for GDB can run from any supported host system on any supported target system. DejaGnu runs tests on many single board computers, whose operating software ranges from a simple boot monitor to a real-time OS.

  * All tests have the same output format. This makes it easy to integrate testing into other software development processes. DejaGnu's output is designed to be parsed by other filtering script and it is also human readable.

  * Using Tcl and Expect, it's easy to create wrappers for existing testsuites. By incorporating existing tests under DejaGnu, it's easier to have a single set of report analyse programs..

Running tests requires two things: the testing framework and the testsuites themselves. Tests are usually written in Expect using Tcl, but you can also use a Tcl script to run a testsuite that is not based on Expect. Expect script filenames conventionally use .exp as a suffix. For example, the main implementation of the DejaGnu test driver is in the file runtest.exp.

New in this release
===================

The following major, user-visible changes have been introduced since version 1.5.3.

 1. Support for target communication via SSH has been added.

 2. A large number of very old config and baseboard files have been removed. If you need to resurrect these, you can get them from version 1.5.3.  If you can show that a board is still in use, it can be put back in the distribution.

 3. The --status command line option is now the default. This means that any error in the testsuite Tcl scripts will cause runtest to abort with exit status code 2. The --status option has been removed from the documentation, but will continue to be accepted for backward compatibility.

 4. runtest now exits with exit code 0 if the testsuite "passed", 1 if something unexpected happened (eg, FAIL, XPASS or UNRESOLVED), and 2 if an exception is raised by the Tcl interpreter.

 5. runtest now exits with the standard exit codes of programs that are terminated by the SIGINT, SIGTERM and SIGQUIT signals.

 6. The user-visible utility procedures absolute, psource and slay have been removed.  If a testsuite uses any of these procedures, a copy of the procedure should be made and placed in the lib directory of the testsuite.

 7. Support was added for testing the D compiler.

 8. ~/.dejagnurc is now loaded last, not first. This allows the user to have the ability to override anything in their environment (even the site.exp file specified by $DEJAGNU).

 9. The user-visible utility procedure unsetenv is deprecated and will be removed in the next release.  If a testsuite uses this procedure, a copy should be made and placed in the lib directory of the testsuite.

Design goals
============

DejaGnu grew out of the internal needs of Cygnus Solutions (formerly Cygnus Support). Cygnus maintained and enhanced a variety of free programs in many different environments and needed a testing tool that:

  * was useful to developers while fixing bugs;

  * automated running many tests during a software release process;

  * was portable among a variety of host computers;

  * supported a cross-development environment;

  * permitted testing of interactive programs like GDB; and

  * permitted testing of batch-oriented programs like GCC.

Some of the requirements proved challenging.  For example, interactive programs do not lend themselves very well to automated testing.  But all the requirements are important. For instance, it is imperative to make sure that GDB works as well when cross-debugging as it does in a native configuration.

Probably the greatest challenge was testing in a cross-development environment.  Most cross-development environments are customized by each developer.  Even when buying packaged boards from vendors there are many differences.  The communication interfaces vary from a serial line to Ethernet.  DejaGnu was designed with a modular communication setup, so that each kind of communication can be added as required and supported thereafter.  Once a communication procedure is written, any test can use it.  Currently DejaGnu can use ssh, rsh, rlogin, telnet, tip, and kermit for remote communications.

A POSIX compliant test framework
================================

DejaGnu conforms to the POSIX 1003.3 standard for test frameworks. Rob Savoye was a member of that committee.

POSIX standard 1003.3 defines what a testing framework needs to provide to create a POSIX compliant testsuite. This standard is primarily oriented to checking POSIX conformance, but its requirements also support testing of features not related to POSIX conformance.  POSIX 1003.3 does not specify a particular testing framework, but at this time there is only one other POSIX conforming test framework. TET was created by Unisoft for a consortium comprised of X/Open, Unix International and the Open Software Foundation.

The POSIX documentation refers to assertions.  An assertion is a description of behavior.  For example, if a standard says ``The sun shall shine'', a corresponding assertion might be ``The sun is shining.''  A test based on this assertion would pass or fail depending on whether it is day or night.  It is important to note that the standard being tested is never 1003.3; the standard being tested is some other standard, for which the assertions were written.

As there is no testsuite to verify that testing frameworks are POSIX 1003.3 compliant, this is done by repeatedly reading the standard and experimenting.  One of the main things POSIX 1003.3 does specify is the set of allowed output messages and their definitions.  Four messages are supported for a required feature of POSIX conforming systems and a fifth for a conditional feature. DejaGnu supports all five output messages. In this sense a testsuite that uses exactly these messages can be considered POSIX compliant.  These definitions specify the output of a test case:

PASS
     A test has succeeded.  That is, it demonstrated that the assertion is true.

FAIL
     A test has not succeeded -- the assertion is false.  The FAIL message is based on this test case only.  Other messages are used to indicate a failure of the framework. As with PASS, POSIX tests must return FAIL rather than XFAIL even if a failure was expected.

XFAIL
     POSIX 1003.3 does not incorporate the notion of expected failures, so PASS, instead of XPASS, must also be returned for test cases which were expected to fail and did not.  This means that PASS is in some sense more ambiguous than if XPASS is also used.

UNRESOLVED
     A test produced indeterminate results.  Usually, this means the test executed in an unexpected fashion. This outcome requires a human to go over results to determine if the test should have passed or failed. This message is also used for any test that requires human intervention because it is beyond the abilities of the testing framework.  Any unresolved test should resolved to PASS or FAIL before a test run can be considered finished.

     Note that for POSIX, each assertion must produce a test result code.  If the test isn't actually run, it must produce UNRESOLVED rather than just leaving that test out of the output.  This means that you have to be careful when writing tests to not carelessly use Tcl commands like return---if you alter the flow of control of the Tcl code you must insure that every test still produces some result code.

     Here are some of the ways a test may wind up UNRESOLVED:

  * Execution of a test is interrupted.

  * A test does not produce a clear result. This is usually because there was an ERROR from DejaGnu while processing the test, or because there were three or more WARNING messages. Any WARNING or ERROR messages can invalidate the output of the test.  This usually requires a human to examine the output to determine what really happened -- and to improve the test case.

  * A test depends on a previous test, which has failed.

  * The test was set up incorrectly.

UNTESTED
     A test was not run.  This is a placeholder used when there is no real test case yet.

UNSUPPORTED
     There is no support for the tested case.  This may mean that a conditional feature of an operating system, or of a compiler, is not implemented.  DejaGnu also uses this message when a testing environment (often a ``bare board'' target) lacks basic support for compiling or running the test case.  For example, a test for the system subroutine gethostname would never work on a target board running only a boot monitor.

DejaGnu uses the same output procedures to produce these messages for all testsuites and these procedures are already known to conform to POSIX 1003.3.  For a DejaGnu testsuite to conform to POSIX 1003.3, you must avoid the setup_xfail procedure as described in the PASS section above and you must be careful to return UNRESOLVED where appropriate, as described in the UNRESOLVED section above.

Installation
============

Refer to the INSTALL in the source distribution for detailed installation instructions.  Note that there is no compilation step as with many other GNU packages, as DejaGnu consists of interpreted code only.

Save for its own small testsuite, the DejaGnu distribution does not include any testsuites. Testsuites for the various GNU development tools are included with those packages. After configuring the top-level DejaGnu directory, unpack and configure the test directories for the tools you want to test; then, in each test directory, run make check to build auxiliary programs required by some of the tests, and run the test suites.

Running tests
*************

There are two ways to execute a testsuite. The most common way is when there is existing support in the Makefile of the tool being tested. This usually consists of a check target. The other way is to execute the runtest program directly. To run runtest directly from the command line requires either all of the correct command line options, or a Local config file must be set up correctly.

Running 'make check'
====================

To run tests from an existing collection, first use configure as usual to set up the build directory. Then type make check.  If the check target exists, it usually saves you some trouble. For instance, it can set up any auxiliary programs or other files needed by the tests. The most common file the check target depends on is the site.exp file. The site.exp contains various variables that DejaGnu uses to determine the configuration of the program being tested.

Once you have run make check to build any auxiliary files, you can invoke the test driver runtest directly to repeat the tests. You will also have to execute runtest directly for test collections with no check target in the Makefile.

GNU Automake has built-in support for DejaGnu.  To add DejaGnu support to your generated Makefile.in, just add the keyword dejagnu to the AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable in Makefile.am. This will ensure that the generated Makefile.in has a check target that invokes DejaGnu correctly.

Running runtest
===============

runtest is the test driver for DejaGnu. You can specify two kinds of things on the runtest command line: command line options, and Tcl variables that are passed to the test scripts. The options are listed alphabetically below.

runtest returns one of the following exit codes:

0
     if all tests passed including expected failures and unsupported tests.

1
     if any test failed, passed unexpectedly, or was unresolved.

2
     if Expect encountered any error in the test scripts.

Output States
-------------

runtest flags the outcome of each test as one of these cases. See A POSIX Conforming Test Framework for a discussion of how POSIX specifies the meanings of these cases.

PASS
     The most desirable outcome: the test was expected to succeed and did succeed.

XPASS
     A pleasant kind of failure: a test was expected to fail, but succeeded. This may indicate progress; inspect the test case to determine whether you should amend it to stop expecting failure.

FAIL
     A test failed, although it was expected to succeed.  This may indicate regress; inspect the test case and the failing software to locate the bug.

XFAIL
     A test failed, but it was expected to fail.  This result indicates no change in a known bug.  If a test fails because the operating system where the test runs lacks some facility required by the test, the outcome is UNSUPPORTED instead.

UNRESOLVED
     Output from a test requires manual inspection; the testsuite could not automatically determine the outcome.  For example, your tests can report this outcome is when a test does not complete as expected.

UNTESTED
     A test case is not yet complete, and in particular cannot yet produce a PASS or FAIL. You can also use this outcome in dummy ``tests'' that note explicitly the absence of a real test case for a particular property.

UNSUPPORTED
     A test depends on a conditionally available feature that does not exist (in the configured testing environment).  For example, you can use this outcome to report on a test case that does not work on a particular target because its operating system support does not include a required subroutine.

runtest may also display the following messages:

ERROR
     Indicates a major problem (detected by the test case itself) in running the test. This is usually an unrecoverable error, such as a missing file or loss of communication to the target. (POSIX testsuites should not emit this message; use UNSUPPORTED, UNTESTED, or UNRESOLVED instead, as appropriate.)

WARNING
     Indicates a possible problem in running the test. Usually warnings correspond to recoverable errors, or display an important message about the following tests.

NOTE
     An informational message about the test case.

Invoking runtest
----------------

This is the full set of command line options that runtest recognizes. Option names may be abbreviated to the shortest unique string.

-a, --all
     Display all test output. By default, runtest shows only the output of tests that produce unexpected results; that is, tests with status FAIL (unexpected failure), XPASS (unexpected success), or ERROR (a severe error in the test case itself). Specify --all to see output for tests with status PASS (success, as expected) XFAIL (failure, as expected), or WARNING (minor error in the test case itself).

--build [triplet]
     triplet is a system triplet of the form cpu-vendor-os. This is the type of machine DejaGnu and the tools to be tested are built on. For a normal cross environment this is the same as the host, but for a Canadian cross, they are different.

-D0, -D1
     Start the internal Tcl debugger. The Tcl debugger supports breakpoints, single stepping, and other common debugging activities. See the document Debugger for Tcl Applications (http://expect.sourceforge.net/doc/tcl-debug.ps) by Don Libes. If you specify -D1, the expect shell stops at a breakpoint as soon as DejaGnu invokes it. If you specify -D0, DejaGnu starts as usual, but you can enter the debugger by sending an interrupt (e.g. by typing Controlc).

--debug
     Turns on the Expect internal debugging output. Debugging output is displayed as part of the runtest output, and logged to a file called dbg.log. The extra debugging output does not appear on standard output, unless the verbose level is greater than 2 (for instance, to see debug output immediately, specify --debug -v -v). The debugging output shows all attempts at matching the test output of the tool with the scripted patterns describing expected output.  The output generated with --strace also goes into dbg.log.

--help
     Prints out a short summary of the runtest options, then exits (even if you specify other options).

--host [triplet]
     triplet is a system triplet of the form cpu-vendor-os. Use this option to override the default string recorded by your configuration's choice of host.  This choice does not change how anything is actually configured unless --build is also specified; it affects only DejaGnu procedures that compare the host string with particular values.  The procedures ishost, istarget, isnative, and setup_xfail are affected by --host. In this usage, host refers to the machine that the tests are to be run on, which may not be the same as the build machine. If --build is also specified, then --host refers to the machine that the tests will be run on, not the machine DejaGnu is run on.

--host_board [name]
     The host board to use.

--ignore [name(s)]
     The name(s) of specific tests to ignore.

--log_dialog
     Emit Expect output to stdout.  The Expect output is usually only written to the .log file. By enabling this option, they are also printed to standard output.

--mail [address(es)]
     Send test results to one or more email addresses.

--objdir [path]
     Use path as the top directory containing any auxiliary compiled test code. The default is '.'.  Use this option to locate pre-compiled test code.  You can normally prepare any auxiliary files needed with make.

--outdir [path]
     Write log files in directory path.  The default is '.', the directory where you start runtest. This option affects only the summary (.sum) and the detailed log files (.log).  The DejaGnu debug log dbg.log always appears (when requested) in the local directory.

--reboot [name]
     Reboot the target board when runtest starts. When running tests on a separate target board, it is safer to reboot the target to be certain of its state.  However, when developing test scripts, rebooting can take a lot of time.

--srcdir [path]
     Use path as the top directory for test scripts to run. runtest looks in this directory for any subdirectory whose name begins with the toolname (specified with --tool). For instance, with --tool gdb, runtest uses tests in subdirectories gdb.* (with the usual shell-like filename expansion).  If you do not use --srcdir, runtest looks for test directories under the current working directory.

--strace [n]
     Turn on internal tracing for expect, to n levels deep. By adjusting the level, you can control the extent to which your output expands multi-level Tcl statements.  This allows you to ignore some levels of case or if statements.  Each procedure call or control structure counts as one ``level''. The output is recorded in the same file, dbg.log, used for output from --debug.

--target [triplet]
     Use this option to override the default setting (native testing). triplet is a system triplet of the form cpu-vendor-os. This option changes the configuration runtest uses for the default tool names, and other setup information.

--target_board [name(s)]
     The list of target boards to run tests on.

--tool [name(s)]
     Specifies which testsuite to run, and what initialization module to use. --tool is used only for these two purposes. It is not used to name the executable program to test. Executable tool names (and paths) are recorded in site.exp and you can override them by specifying Tcl variables on the command line.

     For example, including --tool gcc on the command line runs tests from all test subdirectories whose names match gcc.*, and uses one of the initialization modules named config/*-gcc.exp. To specify the name of the compiler (perhaps as an alternative path to what runtest would use by default), use GCC=path-to-gcc on the runtest command line.

--tool_exec [name]
     The path to the tool executable to test.

--tool_opts [options]
     A list of additional options to pass to the tool.

-v, --verbose
     Turns on more output. Repeating this option increases the amount of output displayed. Level one (-v) is simply test output. Level two (-v -v) shows messages on options, configuration, and process control.  Verbose messages appear in the detailed (*.log) log file, but not in the summary (*.sum) log file.

-V, --version
     Prints out the version numbers of DejaGnu, Expect, and Tcl.

-x, --xml
     Generate XML output. The output file is named after the tool with an .xml extension.

testfile.exp[=arg(s)]
     Specify the names of testsuites to run. By default, runtest runs all tests for the tool, but you can restrict it to particular testsuites by giving the names of the .exp expect scripts that control them. testsuite.exp cannot include directory names, only plain filenames.

     arg(s) specifies a subset of tests in a suite to run. For compiler or assembler tests, which often use a single .exp script covering many different source files, this option allows you to further restrict the tests by listing particular source files to compile. Some tools even support wildcards here.  The wildcards supported depend upon the tool, but typically ?, *, and [chars] are recognized.

tclvar=value
     You can define Tcl variables for use by your test scripts in the same style used with make for environment variables.  For example, runtest GDB=gdb.old defines a variable called GDB; when your scripts refer to $GDB in this run, they use the value gdb.old.

     The default Tcl variables used for most tools are defined in the main DejaGnu Makefile; their values are captured in the site.exp file.

Common Options
--------------

Typically, you don't need to use any command line options.  The --tool option is only required when there is more than one testsuite in the same directory. The default options are in the local site.exp file, created by make site.exp.

For example, if the directory gdb/testsuite contains a collection of DejaGnu tests for GDB, you can run them like this:

     $ cd gdb/testsuite
     $ runtest --tool gdb

The test output follows, then ends with:

     === gdb Summary ===

     # of expected passes 508
     # of expected failures 103
     /usr/latest/bin/gdb version 4.14.4 -nx

You can use the option --srcdir to point to some other directory containing a collection of tests:

     $ runtest --srcdir /devo/gdb/testsuite

By default, runtest prints only the names of the tests it runs, output from any tests that have unexpected results, and a summary showing how many tests passed and how many failed.  To display output from all tests (whether or not they behave as expected), use the -a (all) option.  For more verbose output about processes being run, communication, and so on, use -v (verbose). To see even more output, use multiple -v options.  See Invoking runtest for a more detailed explanation of each runtest option.

Output files
============

DejaGnu always writes two kinds of output files.  Summary output is written to the .sum file, and detailed output is written to the .log file.  The tool name determines the prefix for these files. For example, after running with --tool gdb, the output files will be called gdb.sum and gdb.log. For troubleshooting, a debug log file that logs the operation of Expect is available.  Each of these will be described in turn.

Summary log file
----------------

DejaGnu always produces a summary (.sum) output file. This summary lists the names of all test files run.  For each test file, one line of output from each pass command (showing status PASS or XPASS) or fail command (status FAIL or XFAIL), trailing summary statistics that count passing and failing tests (expected and unexpected), the full pathname of the tool tested, and the version number of the tool.  All possible outcomes, and all errors, are always reflected in the summary output file, regardless of whether or not you specify --all.

If any of your tests use the procedures unresolved, unsupported, or untested, the summary output also tabulates the corresponding outcomes.

For example, after running runtest --tool binutils a summary log file will be written to binutils.sum. Normally, DejaGnu writes this file in your current working directory. Use the --outdir option to select a different output directory.

Sample summary log

     	Test Run By bje on Sat Nov 14 21:04:30 AEDT 2015

     		 === gdb tests ===

     	Running ./gdb.t00/echo.exp ...
     	PASS:   Echo test
     	Running ./gdb.all/help.exp ...
     	PASS:   help add-symbol-file
     	PASS:   help aliases
     	PASS:   help breakpoint "bre" abbreviation
     	FAIL:   help run "r" abbreviation
     	Running ./gdb.t10/crossload.exp ...
     	PASS:   m68k-elf (elf-big) explicit format; loaded
     	XFAIL:  mips-ecoff (ecoff-bigmips) "ptype v_signed_char" signed C types

                     === gdb Summary ===

     	# of expected passes 5
     	# of expected failures 1
     	# of unexpected failures 1
     	/usr/latest/bin/gdb version 4.6.5 -q

Detailed log file
-----------------

DejaGnu also saves a detailed log file (.log), showing any output generated by test cases as well as the summary output. For example, after running runtest --tool binutils, a detailed log file will be written to binutils.log. Normally, DejaGnu writes this file in your current working directory. Use the --outdir option to select a different output directory.

Sample detailed log for g++ tests

     	Test Run By bje on Sat Nov 14 21:07:23 AEDT 2015

                     === g++ tests ===

     	Running ./g++.other/t01-1.exp ...
             PASS:   operate delete

     	Running ./g++.other/t01-2.exp ...
             FAIL:   i960 bug EOF
     	p0000646.C: In function `int  warn_return_1 ()':
     	p0000646.C:109: warning: control reaches end of non-void function
     	p0000646.C: In function `int  warn_return_arg (int)':
     	p0000646.C:117: warning: control reaches end of non-void function
     	p0000646.C: In function `int  warn_return_sum (int, int)':
     	p0000646.C:125: warning: control reaches end of non-void function
     	p0000646.C: In function `struct foo warn_return_foo ()':
     	p0000646.C:132: warning: control reaches end of non-void function
     	Running ./g++.other/t01-4.exp ...
             FAIL:   abort
     	900403_04.C:8: zero width for bit-field `foo'
     	Running ./g++.other/t01-3.exp ...
             FAIL:   segment violation
     	900519_12.C:9: parse error before `;'
     	900519_12.C:12: Segmentation violation
     	/usr/latest/bin/gcc: Internal compiler error: program cc1plus got fatal signal

                     === g++ Summary ===

     	# of expected passes 1
     	# of expected failures 3
     	/usr/latest/bin/g++ version cygnus-2.0.1

Debug log file
--------------

The runtest option --debug creates a file showing the output from Expect in debugging mode. The dbg.log file is created in the current directory.  The log file shows the string sent to the tool being tested by each send command and the pattern it compares with the tool output by each expect command.

The log messages begin with a message of the form:

     	expect: does {tool output} (spawn_id n)
      	   match pattern {expected pattern}?

For every unsuccessful match, Expect issues a no after this message. If other patterns are specified for the same Expect command, they are reflected also, but without the first part of the message (expect... match pattern).

When Expect finds a match, the log for the successful match ends with yes, followed by a record of the Expect variables set to describe a successful match.

Example debug log file for a GDB test

     	send: sent {break gdbme.c:34\n} to spawn id 6
     	expect: does {} (spawn_id 6) match pattern {Breakpoint.*at.* file
     	gdbme.c, line 34.*\(gdb\) $}? no
     	{.*\(gdb\) $}? no
     	expect: does {} (spawn_id 0) match pattern {return} ? no
     	{\(y or n\) }? no
     	{buffer_full}? no
     	{virtual}? no
     	{memory}? no
     	{exhausted}? no
     	{Undefined}? no
     	{command}? no
     	break gdbme.c:34
     	Breakpoint 8 at 0x23d8: file gdbme.c, line 34.
     	(gdb) expect: does {break gdbme.c:34\r\nBreakpoint 8 at 0x23d8:
     	file gdbme.c, line 34.\r\n(gdb) } (spawn_id 6) match pattern
     	{Breakpoint.*at.* file gdbme.c, line 34.*\(gdb\) $}? yes
     	expect: set expect_out(0,start) {18}
     	expect: set expect_out(0,end) {71}
     	expect: set expect_out(0,string) {Breakpoint 8 at 0x23d8: file
     	gdbme.c, line 34.\r\n(gdb) }
     	epect: set expect_out(spawn_id) {6}
     	expect: set expect_out(buffer) {break gdbme.c:34\r\nBreakpoint 8
     	at 0x23d8: file gdbme.c, line 34.\r\n(gdb) }
             PASS:   70      0       breakpoint line number in file

This example exhibits three properties of Expect and DejaGnu that might be surprising at first glance:

  * Empty output for the first attempted match.  The first set of attempted matches shown ran against the output {} --- that is, no output. Expect begins attempting to match the patterns supplied immediately; often, the first pass is against incomplete output (or completely before all output, as in this case).

  * Interspersed tool output.  The beginning of the log entry for the second attempted match may be hard to spot: this is because the prompt {(gdb) } appears on the same line, just before the expect: that marks the beginning of the log entry.

  * Fail-safe patterns.  Many of the patterns tested are fail-safe patterns provided by GDB testing utilities, to reduce possible indeterminacy.  It is useful to anticipate potential variations caused by extreme system conditions (GDB might issue the message virtual memory exhausted in rare circumstances), or by changes in the tested program (Undefined command is the likeliest outcome if the name of a tested command changes).

     The pattern {return} is a particularly interesting fail-safe to notice; it checks for an unexpected RET prompt.  This may happen, for example, if the tested tool can filter output through a pager.

     These fail-safe patterns (like the debugging log itself) are primarily useful while developing test scripts.  Use the error procedure to make the actions for fail-safe patterns produce messages starting with ERROR on standard output, and in the detailed log file.

Customizing DejaGnu
*******************

The site configuration file, site.exp, captures configuration-dependent values and propagates them to the DejaGnu test environment using Tcl variables.  This ties the DejaGnu test scripts into the configure and make programs. If this file is setup correctly, it is possible to execute a testsuite merely by typing runtest.

DejaGnu supports two site.exp files. The multiple instances of site.exp are loaded in a fixed order. The first file loaded is the local file site.exp, and then the optional global site.exp file as pointed to by the DEJAGNU environment variable.

There is an optional global site.exp, containing configuration values that apply to DejaGnu site-wide.  runtest loads these values first. The global site.exp contains the default values for all targets and hosts supported by DejaGnu. This global file is identified by setting the environment variable DEJAGNU to the name of the file.

Any directory containing a configured testsuite also has a local site.exp, capturing configuration values specific to the tool being tested.  Since runtest loads these values last, the individual test configuration can either rely on and use, or override, any of the global values from the global site.exp file.

You can usually generate or update the testsuite's local site.exp by typing make site.exp in the testsuite directory, after the test suite is configured.

You can also have a file in your home directory called .dejagnurc. This gets loaded after the other config files. Usually this is used for personal stuff, like setting the all_flag so all the output gets printed, or your own verbosity levels. This file is usually restricted to setting command line options.

You can further override the default values in a user-editable section of any site.exp, or by setting variables on the runtest command line.

Global config file
==================

The global configuration file is where all the target specific configuration variables for a site are set. For example, a centralized testing lab where multiple developers have to share an embedded development board. There are settings for both remote hosts and remote targets.  Below is an example of a global configuration file for a Canadian cross environment. A Canadian cross is a toolchain that is built on, runs on, and targets three different system triplets (for example, building a Solaris-hosted MIPS R4000 toolchain on a GNU/Linux system).  All configuration values in the example below are site-specific.

Example global configuration file

     # Make sure we look in the right place for the board description files.
     lappend boards_dir "/nfs/cygint/s1/cygnus/dejagnu/boards"

     verbose "Global config file: target_triplet is $target_triplet" 2
     global target_list

     case "$target_triplet" in {
         { "native" } {
             set target_list "unix"
         }
         { "sparc64-*elf" } {
             set target_list "sparc64-sim"
         }
         { "mips-*elf" } {
             set target_list "mips-sim wilma barney"
         }
         { "mips-lsi-elf" } {
             set target_list "mips-lsi-sim{,soft-float,el}"
         }
     }

In this case, we have support for several cross compilers, that all run on this host. To run DejaGnu tests on tools hosted on operating systems that do not run Expect, DejaGnu can be run on the build machine and connect to the remote host to run all the tests.  As you can see, all one does is set the variable target_list to the list of targets and options to test.

In this example, simple cases like sparc64-elf only require setting the name of the single board configuration file. The mips-elf target is more complicated and sets the list to three target boards. mips-sim is a symbolic name for a simulator ``board'' and wilma and barney are symbolic names for physical boards. Symbolic names are covered in the Adding a new board section. The more complicated example is the entry for mips-lsi-elf. This one runs the tests with multiple iterations using all possible combinations of the --soft-float and the --el (little endian) options.  The braced string includes an initial comma so that the set of combinations includes no options at all. Needless to say, this last target example is mostly specific to compiler testing.

Local config file
=================

It is usually more convenient to keep these manual overrides in the site.exp local to each test directory, rather than in the global site.exp in the installed DejaGnu library. This file is mostly for supplying tool specific info that is required by the testsuite.

All local site.exp files have two sections, separated by comments. The first section is generated by make. It is essentially a collection of Tcl variable definitions based on Makefile environment variables. Since they are generated by make, they contain the values as specified by configure. In particular, this section contains the Makefile variables for host and target configuration data. Do not edit this first section; if you do, your changes will be overwritten the next time you run make.  The first section starts with:

     ## these variables are automatically generated by make ##
     # Do not edit here. If you wish to override these values
     # add them to the last section

In the second section, you can override any default values for all the variables.  The second section can also contain your preferred defaults for all the command line options to runtest. This allows you to easily customize runtest for your preferences in each configured testsuite tree, so that you need not type options repeatedly on the command line.  The second section may also be empty if you do not wish to override any defaults.

The first section ends with this line

     ## All variables above are generated by configure. Do Not Edit ##

You can make any changes under this line. If you wish to redefine a variable in the top section, then just put a duplicate value in this second section. Usually the values defined in this config file are related to the configuration of the test run. This is the ideal place to set the variables host_triplet, build_triplet, target_triplet. All other variables are tool dependent, i.e., for testing a compiler, the value for CC might be set to a freshly built binary, as opposed to one in the user's path.

Here's an example local site.exp file, as used for GCC/G++ testing.

Local Config File

     ## these variables are automatically generated by make ##
     # Do not edit here. If you wish to override these values
     # add them to the last section
     set rootme "/build/devo-builds/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc"
     set host_triplet i686-pc-linux-gnu
     set build_triplet i686-pc-linux-gnu
     set target_triplet i686-pc-linux-gnu
     set target_alias i686-pc-linux-gnu
     set CFLAGS ""
     set CXXFLAGS "-isystem /build/devo-builds/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc/../libio -isystem $srcdir/../libg++/src -isystem $srcdir/../libio -isystem $srcdir/../libstdc++ -isystem $srcdir/../libstdc++/stl -L/build/devo-builds/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc/../libg++ -L/build/devo-builds/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc/../libstdc++"
     append LDFLAGS " -L/build/devo-builds/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc/../ld"
     set tmpdir /build/devo-builds/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc/testsuite
     set srcdir "${srcdir}/testsuite"
     ## All variables above are generated by configure. Do Not Edit ##

This file defines the required fields for a local config file, namely the three system triplets, and the srcdir. It also defines several other Tcl variables that are used exclusively by the GCC testsuite. For most test cases, the CXXFLAGS and LDFLAGS are supplied by DejaGnu itself for cross testing, but to test a compiler, GCC needs to manipulate these itself.

The local site.exp may also set Tcl variables such as test_timeout which can control the amount of time (in seconds) to wait for a remote test to complete. If not specified, test_timeout defaults to 300 seconds.

Board configuration file
========================

The board configuration file is where board-specific configuration details are stored. A board configuration file contains all the higher-level configuration settings. There is a rough inheritance scheme, where it is possible to derive a new board description file from an existing one. There are also collections of custom procedures for common environments. For more information on adding a new board config file, go to the Adding a new board section.

An example board configuration file for a GNU simulator is as follows. set_board_info is a procedure that sets the field name to the specified value. The procedures mentioned in brackets are helper procedures. These are used to find parts of a toolchain required to build an executable image that may reside in various locations. This is mostly of use when the startup code, the standard C libraries, or the toolchain itself is part of your build tree.

Example file

     # This is a list of toolchains that are supported on this board.
     set_board_info target_install {sparc64-elf}

     # Load the generic configuration for this board. This will define any
     # routines needed by the tool to communicate with the board.
     load_generic_config "sim"

     # We need this for find_gcc and *_include_flags/*_link_flags.
     load_base_board_description "basic-sim"

     # Use long64 by default.
     process_multilib_options "long64"

     setup_sim sparc64

     # We only support newlib on this target. We assume that all multilib
     # options have been specified before we get here.

     set_board_info compiler "[find_gcc]"
     set_board_info cflags "[libgloss_include_flags] [newlib_include_flags]"
     set_board_info ldflags "[libgloss_link_flags] [newlib_link_flags]"
     # No linker script.
     set_board_info ldscript ""

     # Used by a few gcc.c-torture testcases to delimit how large the
     # stack can be.
     set_board_info gcc,stack_size 16384
     # The simulator doesn't return exit status and we need to indicate this
     # the standard GCC wrapper will work with this target.
     set_board_info needs_status_wrapper 1
     # We can't pass arguments to programs.
     set_board_info noargs 1

There are five helper procedures used in this example:

  * find_gcc looks for a copy of the GNU compiler in your build tree, or it uses the one in your path. This will also return the proper transformed name for a cross compiler if you whole build tree is configured for one.

  * libgloss_include_flags returns the flags to compile using libgloss, the GNU board support package (BSP).

  * libgloss_link_flags returns the flags to link an executable using libgloss.

  * newlib_include_flags returns the flags to compile using newlib (https://sourceware.org/newlib), a re-entrant standard C library for embedded systems comprising of non-GPL'd code

  * newlib_link_flags returns the flags to link an executable with newlib (https://sourceware.org/newlib).

Remote host testing
===================

DejaGnu also supports running the tests on a remote host. To set this up, the remote host needs an FTP server, and a telnet server. Currently foreign operating systems used as remote hosts are VxWorks, VRTX, DOS/Windows 3.1, MacOS and Windows.

The recommended source for a Windows-based FTP server is to get IIS (either IIS 1 or Personal Web Server) from http://www.microsoft.com.  When you install it, make sure you install the FTP server - it's not selected by default. Go into the IIS manager and change the FTP server so that it does not allow anonymous FTP. Set the home directory to the root directory (i.e. c:\) of a suitable drive. Allow writing via FTP.

It will create an account like IUSR_FOOBAR where foobar is the name of your machine. Go into the user editor and give that account a password that you don't mind hanging around in the clear (i.e. not the same as your admin or personal passwords). Also, add it to all the various permission groups.

You'll also need a telnet server. For Windows, go to the Ataman (http://ataman.com) web site, pick up the Ataman Remote Logon Services for Windows, and install it. You can get started on the eval period anyway. Add IUSR_FOOBAR to the list of allowed users, set the HOME directory to be the same as the FTP default directory. Change the Mode prompt to simple.

Now you need to pick a directory name to do all the testing in. For the sake of this example, we'll call it piggy (i.e. c:\piggy). Create this directory.

You'll need a Unix machine. Create a directory for the scripts you'll need. For this example, we'll use /usr/local/swamp/testing. You'll need to have a source tree somewhere, say /usr/src/devo. Now, copy some files from releng's area in SV to your machine:

Remote host setup

     cd /usr/local/swamp/testing
     mkdir boards
     scp darkstar.welcomehome.org:/dejagnu/cst/bin/MkTestDir .
     scp darkstar.welcomehome.org:/dejagnu/site.exp .
     scp darkstar.welcomehome.org:/dejagnu/boards/useless98r2.exp boards/foobar.exp
     export DEJAGNU=/usr/local/swamp/testing/site.exp

You must edit the boards/foobar.exp file to reflect your machine; change the hostname (foobar.com), username (iusr_foobar), password, and ftp_directory (c:/piggy) to match what you selected.

Edit the global  site.exp to reflect your boards directory:

Add The Board Directory

     lappend boards_dir "/usr/local/swamp/testing/boards"

Now run MkTestDir, which is in the contrib directory. The first parameter is the toolchain prefix, the second is the location of your devo tree. If you are testing a cross compiler (ex: you have sh-hms-gcc.exe in your PATH on the PC), do something like this:

Setup Cross Remote Testing

     ./MkTestDir sh-hms /usr/dejagnu/src/devo

If you are testing a native PC compiler (ex: you have gcc.exe in your PATH on the PC), do this:

Setup Native Remote Testing

     ./MkTestDir '' /usr/dejagnu/src/devo

To test the setup, ftp to your PC using the username (iusr_foobar) and password you selected. CD to the test directory. Upload a file to the PC. Now telnet to your PC using the same username and password. CD to the test directory. Make sure the file is there. Type "set" and/or "gcc -v" (or sh-hms-gcc -v) and make sure the default PATH contains the installation you want to test.

Run Test Remotely

     cd /usr/local/swamp/testing
     make  -k -w check RUNTESTFLAGS="--host_board foobar --target_board foobar -v -v" > check.out 2>&1

To run a specific test, use a command like this (for this example, you'd run this from the gcc directory that MkTestDir created):

Run a Test Remotely

     make check RUNTESTFLAGS="--host_board sloth --target_board sloth -v compile.exp=921202-1.c"

Note: if you are testing a cross-compiler, put in the correct target board. You'll also have to download more .exp files and modify them for your local configuration. The -v's are optional.

Config file values
==================

DejaGnu uses a Tcl associative array to hold all the info for each machine. In the case of a Canadian cross, this means host information as well as target information. The named array is called target_info, and it has two indices. The following fields are part of the array.

Command line option variables
-----------------------------

In the user editable second section of the User configuration file you can not only override the configuration variables captured in the first section, but also specify default values for all on the runtest command line options.  Save for --debug, --help, and --version, each command line option has an associated Tcl variable.  Use the Tcl set command to specify a new default value (as for the configuration variables).  The following table describes the correspondence between command line options and variables you can set in site.exp.  Invoking runtest, for explanations of the command-line options.

Option  Tcl variable  Description

-a, --all  all_flag  display all test results if set

--build  build_triplet  system triplet for the build host

--dir  cmdline_dir_to_run  run only tests in the specified directory

--host  host_triplet  system triplet for the host

--host_board  host_board  host board definition to use

--ignore  ignoretests   do not run the specified tests

--log_dialog  log_dialog  emit Expect output to standard output

--outdir  outdir  directory for .sum and .log files

--objdir  objdir  directory for pre-compiled binaries

--reboot  reboot  reboot the target if set to 1

--srcdir  srcdir  directory of test subdirectories

--target  target_triplet  system triplet for the target

--target_board  target_list  list of target boards to run tests on

--tool  tool  name of tool to test (identifies init, test subdirectory)

--tool_exec  TOOL_EXECUTABLE  path to the executable to test

--tool_opts  TOOL_OPTIONS  additional options to pass to the tool

--tool_root_dir  tool_root_dir  tool root directory

-v, --verbose  verbose  verbosity level greater than or equal to 0

Per-user configuration file (.dejagnurc)
----------------------------------------

The per-user configuration file is named .dejagnurc in the user's home directory.  It is used to customize the behaviour of runtest for each user -- typically the user's preference for log verbosity, and for storing any experimental Tcl procedures. An example ~/.dejagnurc file looks like:

Example .dejagnurc

     set all_flag 1
     set RLOGIN /usr/ucb/rlogin
     set RSH /usr/local/sbin/ssh

Here all_flag is set so that I see all the test cases that PASS along with the ones that FAIL. I also set RLOGIN to the BSD (non-Kerberos) version.  I also set RSH to the SSH secure shell, as rsh is mostly used to test Unix machines within a local network.

Extending DejaGnu
*****************

Adding a new testsuite
======================

The testsuite for a new tool should always be located in that tools source directory. DejaGnu require the directory be named testsuite. Under this directory, the test cases go in a subdirectory whose name begins with the tool name. For example, for a tool named gdb, each subdirectory containing testsuites must start with gdb..

Adding a new tool
=================

In general, the best way to learn how to write code, or even prose, is to read something similar.  This principle applies to test cases and to testsuites.  Unfortunately, well-established testsuites have a way of developing their own conventions: as test writers become more experienced with DejaGnu and with Tcl, they accumulate more utilities, and take advantage of more and more features of Expect and Tcl in general.  Inspecting such established testsuites may make the prospect of creating an entirely new testsuite appear overwhelming. Nevertheless, it is straightforward to start a new testsuite.

To help orient you further in this task, here is an outline of the steps to begin building a testsuite for a program example.

Create or select a directory to contain your new collection of tests. Change into that directory (shown here as testsuite):

Create a configure.in file in this directory, to control configuration-dependent choices for your tests.  So far as DejaGnu is concerned, the important thing is to set a value for the variable target_abbrev; this value is the link to the init file you will write soon.  (For simplicity, we assume the environment is Unix, and use unix as the value.)

What else is needed in configure.in depends on the requirements of your tool, your intended test environments, and which configure system you use.  This example is a minimal configure.ac for use with GNU Autoconf.

Sample Makefile.in Fragment
---------------------------

Create Makefile.in (if using Autoconf), or Makefile.am (if using Automake), the source file used by configure to build your Makefile. If you are using GNU Automake.just add the keyword dejagnu to the AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable in your Makefile.am file. This will add all the Makefile support needed to run DejaGnu, and support the make check target.

You also need to include two targets important to DejaGnu: check, to run the tests, and site.exp, to set up the Tcl copies of configuration-dependent values. This is called the Local config file The check target must invoke the runtest program to run the tests.

The site.exp target should usually set up (among other things) the $tool variable for the name of your program. If the local site.exp file is setup correctly, it is possible to execute the tests by merely typing runtest on the command line.

     # Look for a local version of DejaGnu, otherwise use one in the path
     RUNTEST = `if test -f $(top_srcdir)/../dejagnu/runtest; then \
           echo $(top_srcdir) ../dejagnu/runtest; \
         else \
           echo runtest; \
         fi`

     # Flags to pass to runtest
     RUNTESTFLAGS =

     # Execute the tests
     check: site.exp all
             $(RUNTEST) $(RUNTESTFLAGS) --tool ${example} --srcdir $(srcdir)

     # Make the local config file
     site.exp: ./config.status Makefile
     	@echo "Making a new config file..."
             -@rm -f ./tmp?
             @touch site.exp

             -@mv site.exp site.bak
             @echo "## these variables are automatically generated by make ##" > ./tmp0
     	@echo "# Do not edit here. If you wish to override these values" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "# add them to the last section" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set host_os ${host_os}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set host_alias ${host_alias}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set host_cpu ${host_cpu}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set host_vendor ${host_vendor}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set target_os ${target_os}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set target_alias ${target_alias}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set target_cpu ${target_cpu}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set target_vendor ${target_vendor}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set host_triplet ${host_canonical}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set target_triplet ${target_canonical}">>./tmp0
             @echo "set tool binutils" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set srcdir ${srcdir}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set objdir `pwd`" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "set ${examplename} ${example}" >> ./tmp0
             @echo "## All variables above are generated by configure. Do Not Edit ##" >> ./tmp0
             @cat ./tmp0 > site.exp
             @sed < site.bak \
                 -e '1,/^## All variables above are.*##/ d' \
                 >> site.exp
             -@rm -f ./tmp?

Simple tool init file for batch programs
----------------------------------------

Create a directory (under testsuite) called config. Make a tool init file in this directory. Its name must start with the target_abbrev value, or be named default.exp so call it config/unix.exp for our Unix based example. This is the file that contains the target-dependent procedures.  Fortunately, on a native Unix system, most of them do not have to do very much in order for runtest to run.  If the program being tested is not interactive, you can get away with this minimal unix.exp to begin with:

     proc myprog_exit {} {}
     proc myprog_version {} {}

If the program being tested is interactive, however, you might as well define a start routine and invoke it by using a tool init file like this:

Simple tool init file for interactive programs
----------------------------------------------

     proc myprog_exit {} {}
     proc myprog_version {} {}

     proc myprog_start {} {
          global ${examplename}
          spawn ${examplename}
          expect {
     	-re "" {}
          }
     }

     # Start the program running we want to test
     myprog_start

Create a directory whose name begins with your tool's name, to contain tests. For example, if your tool's name is example, then the directories all need to start with example..  Create a sample test file ending in .exp. You can use first-try.exp. To begin with, just write one line of Tcl code to issue a message:

     send_user "Testing: one, two...\n"

Testing A New Tool Config
-------------------------

Back in the testsuite (top level) directory, run configure. Typically you do this while in the build directory. You are now ready to type make check or runtest.  You should see something like this:

     Test Run By bje on Sat Nov 14 15:08:54 AEDT 2015

               === example tests ===

     Running ./example.0/first-try.exp ...
     Testing: one, two...

               === example Summary ===

There is no output in the summary, because so far the example does not call any of the procedures that report a test outcome.

Write some real tests. For an interactive tool, you should probably write a real exit routine in fairly short order. In any case, you should also write a real version routine soon.

Adding a new target
===================

DejaGnu has some additional requirements for target support, beyond the general-purpose provisions of a configure script. DejaGnu must actively communicate with the target, rather than simply generating or managing code for the target architecture.  Therefore, each tool requires an initialization module for each target.  For new targets, you must supply a few Tcl procedures to adapt DejaGnu to the target.

Usually the best way to write a new initialization module is to edit an existing initialization module; some trial and error will be required. If necessary, you can use the --debug option to see what is really going on.

When you code an initialization module, be generous in printing information using the verbose procedure.  In cross-development environments, most of the work is in getting the communications right. Code for communicating via TCP/IP networks or serial lines is available in a DejaGnu library files such as lib/telnet.exp.

If you suspect a communication problem, try running the connection interactively from Expect.  (There are three ways of running Expect as an interactive interpreter.  You can run Expect with no arguments, and control it completely interactively; or you can use expect -i together with other command-line options and arguments; or you can run the command interpreter from any Expect procedure.  Use return to get back to the calling procedure (if any), or return -tcl to make the calling procedure itself return to its caller; use exit or end-of-file to leave Expect altogether.)  Run the program whose name is recorded in $connectmode, with the arguments in $targetname, to establish a connection.  You should at least be able to get a prompt from any target that is physically connected.

Adding a new board
==================

Adding a new board consists of creating a new board configuration file. Examples are in dejagnu/baseboards. Usually to make a new board file, it's easiest to copy an existing one. It is also possible to have your file be based on a baseboard file with only one or two changes needed. Typically, this can be as simple as just changing the linker script. Once the new baseboard file is done, add it to the boards_DATA list in the dejagnu/baseboards/Makefile.am, and regenerate the Makefile.in using automake. Then just rebuild and install DejaGnu. You can test it by:

There is a crude inheritance scheme going on with board files, so you can include one board file into another, The two main procedures used to do this are load_generic_config and load_base_board_description. The generic config file contains other procedures used for a certain class of target. The board description file is where the board specific settings go. Commonly there are similar target environments with just different processors.

Testing a New Board Configuration File

     make check RUNTESTFLAGS="--target_board=newboardfile".

Here's an example of a board config file. There are several helper procedures used in this example. A helper procedure is one that look for a tool of files in commonly installed locations. These are mostly used when testing in the build tree, because the executables to be tested are in the same tree as the new dejagnu files. The helper procedures are the ones in square braces [], which is the Tcl execution characters.

Example Board Configuration File

     # Load the generic configuration for this board. This will define a basic
     # set of routines needed by the tool to communicate with the board.
     load_generic_config "sim"

     # basic-sim.exp is a basic description for the standard Cygnus simulator.
     load_base_board_description "basic-sim"

     # The compiler used to build for this board. This has *nothing* to do
     # with what compiler is tested if we're testing gcc.
     set_board_info compiler "[find_gcc]"

     # We only support newlib on this target.
     # However, we include libgloss so we can find the linker scripts.
     set_board_info cflags "[newlib_include_flags] [libgloss_include_flags]"
     set_board_info ldflags "[newlib_link_flags]"

     # No linker script for this board.
     set_board_info ldscript "-Tsim.ld"

     # The simulator doesn't return exit statuses and we need to indicate this.
     set_board_info needs_status_wrapper 1

     # Can't pass arguments to this target.
     set_board_info noargs 1

     # No signals.
     set_board_info gdb,nosignals 1

     # And it can't call functions.
     set_board_info gdb,cannot_call_functions 1

Board configuration file values
===============================

The following fields are in the board_info array.  These are set by the set_board_info procedure (or add_board_info procedure for appending to lists). Both procedures take a field name and a value for the field (or is added to the field), respectively.  Some common board info fields are shown below.

Field   Example value   Description

compiler  "[find_gcc]"  The path to the compiler to use.

cflags  "-mca"  Compilation flags for the compiler.

ldflags  "[libgloss_link_flags] [newlib_link_flags]"  Linking flags for the compiler.

ldscript  "-Wl,-Tidt.ld"  The linker script to use when cross compiling.

libs  "-lgcc"  Any additional libraries to link in.

shell_prompt  "cygmon>"  The command prompt of the remote shell.

hex_startaddr  "0xa0020000"  The Starting address as a string.

start_addr  0xa0008000  The starting address as a value.

startaddr  "a0020000"

exit_statuses_bad  1  Whether there is an accurate exit status.

reboot_delay  10  The delay between power off and power on.

unreliable  1  Whether communication with the board is unreliable.

sim  [find_sim]  The path to the simulator to use.

objcopy  $tempfil  The path to the objcopy program.

support_libs  "${prefix_dir}/i386-coff/"  Support libraries needed for cross compiling.

addl_link_flags  "-N"  Additional link flags, rarely used.

remotedir  "/tmp/runtest.[pid]"  Directory on the remote target in which executables are downloaded and executed.

These fields are used by the GCC and GDB tests, and are mostly only useful to somewhat trying to debug a new board file for one of these tools. Many of these are used only by a few testcases, and their purpose is esoteric. These are listed with sample values as a guide to better guessing if you need to change any of these.

Board Info Fields For GCC & GDB

Field  Sample Value  Description

strip  $tempfile  Strip the executable of symbols.

gdb_load_offset  "0x40050000"

gdb_protocol  "remote"  The GDB debugging protocol to use.

gdb_sect_offset  "0x41000000";

gdb_stub_ldscript  "-Wl,-Teva-stub.ld"  The linker script to use with a GDB stub.

gdb,noargs  1  Whether the target can take command line arguments.

gdb,nosignals  1  Whether there are signals on the target.

gdb,short_int  1

gdb,target_sim_options  "-sparclite"  Special options to pass to the simulator.

gdb,timeout  540  Timeout value to use for remote communication.

gdb_init_command  "set mipsfpu none"  A single command to send to GDB before the program being
debugged is started.

gdb_init_commands  "print/x \$fsr = 0x0"  Same as gdb_init_command, except
that this is a list, more commands can be added.

gdb_load_offset  "0x12020000"

gdb_opts  "--command gdbinit"

gdb_prompt  "\\(gdb960\\)"  The prompt GDB is using.

gdb_run_command  "jump start"

gdb_stub_offset  "0x12010000"

use_gdb_stub  1  Whether to use a GDB stub.

wrap_m68k_aout  1

gcc,no_label_values  1

gcc,no_trampolines  1

gcc,no_varargs  1

gcc,stack_size  16384  Stack size to use with some GCC testcases.

ieee_multilib_flags  "-mieee"

is_simulator  1

needs_status_wrapper  1

no_double  1

no_long_long  1

noargs  1

target_install  {sh-hms}

Writing a test case
===================

The easiest way to prepare a new test case is to base it on an existing one for a similar situation.  There are two major categories of tests: batch-oriented and interactive.  Batch-oriented tests are usually easier to write.

The GCC tests are a good example of batch-oriented tests.  All GCC tests consist primarily of a call to a single common procedure, since all the tests either have no output, or only have a few warning messages when successfully compiled.  Any non-warning output constitutes a test failure.  All the C code needed is kept in the test directory.  The test driver, written in Tcl, need only get a listing of all the C files in the directory, and compile them all using a generic procedure. This procedure and a few others supporting for these tests are kept in the library module lib/c-torture.exp of the GCC testsuite. Most tests of this kind use very few Expect features, and are coded almost purely in Tcl.

Writing the complete suite of C tests, then, consisted of these steps:

  * Copying all the C code into the test directory.  These tests were based on the C-torture test created by Torbjorn Granlund (on behalf of the Free Software Foundation) for GCC development.

  * Writing (and debugging) the generic Tcl procedures for compilation.

  * Writing the simple test driver: its main task is to search the directory (using the Tcl procedure glob for filename expansion with wildcards) and call a Tcl procedure with each filename.  It also checks for a few errors from the testing procedure.

Testing interactive programs is intrinsically more complex.  Tests for most interactive programs require some trial and error before they are complete.

However, some interactive programs can be tested in a simple fashion reminiscent of batch tests.  For example, prior to the creation of DejaGnu, the GDB distribution already included a wide-ranging testing procedure.  This procedure was very robust, and had already undergone much more debugging and error checking than many recent DejaGnu test cases.  Accordingly, the best approach was simply to encapsulate the existing GDB tests, for reporting purposes. Thereafter, new GDB tests built up a family of Tcl procedures specialized for GDB testing.

Hints on writing a test case
----------------------------

It is safest to write patterns that match all the output generated by the tested program; this is called closure.  If a pattern does not match the entire output, any output that remains will be examined by the next expect command. In this situation, the precise boundary that determines which expect command sees what is very sensitive to timing between the Expect task and the task running the tested tool.  As a result, the test may sometimes appear to work, but is likely to have unpredictable results. (This problem is particularly likely for interactive tools, but can also affect batch tools---especially for tests that take a long time to finish.) The best way to ensure closure is to use the -re option for the expect command to write the pattern as a full regular expressions; then you can match the end of output using a $.  It is also a good idea to write patterns that match all available output by using .*\ after the text of interest; this will also match any intervening blank lines.  Sometimes an alternative is to match end of line using \r or \n, but this is usually too dependent on terminal settings.

Always escape punctuation, such as ( or ", in your patterns; for example, write \(.  If you forget to escape punctuation, you will usually see an error message like:

     extra characters after close-quote

If you have trouble understanding why a pattern does not match the program output, try using the --debug option to runtest, and examine the debug log carefully.

Be careful not to neglect output generated by setup rather than by the interesting parts of a test case.  For example, while testing GDB, I issue a send set height 0\n command.  The purpose is simply to make sure GDB never calls a paging program.  The set height command in GDB does not generate any output; but running any command makes GDB issue a new (gdb)  prompt.  If there were no expect command to match this prompt, the output (gdb) begins the text seen by the next expect command---which might make that pattern fail to match.

To preserve basic sanity, I also recommended that no test ever pass if there was any kind of problem in the test case.  To take an extreme case, tests that pass even when the tool will not spawn are misleading. Ideally, a test in this sort of situation should not fail either. Instead, print an error message by calling one of the DejaGnu procedures error or warning.

Debugging a test case
=====================

These are the kinds of debugging information available from DejaGnu:

  * Output controlled by test scripts themselves, explicitly allowed for by the test author.  This kind of debugging output appears in the detailed output recorded in the DejaGnu log file.  To do the same for new tests, use the verbose procedure (which in turn uses the Tcl variable verbose) to control how much output to generate.  This will make it easier for other people running the test to debug it if necessary. If verbose is zero, there should be no output other than the output from the framework (eg. FAIL).  Then, to whatever extent is appropriate for the particular test, allow successively higher values of verbose to generate more information.  Be kind to other programmers who use your tests -- provide plenty of debugging information.

  * Output from the internal debugging functions of Tcl and Expect. There is a command line options for each; both forms of debugging output are recorded in the file dbg.log in the current directory.

     Use --debug for information from Expect. It logs how Expect attempts to match the tool output with the patterns specified. This can be very helpful while developing test scripts, since it shows precisely the characters received.  Iterating between the latest attempt at a new test script and the corresponding dbg.log can allow you to create the final patterns by ``cut and paste''.  This is sometimes the best way to write a test case.

  * Use --strace to see more detail from Tcl. This logs how Tcl procedure definitions are expanded as they execute. The trace level argument controls the depth of definitions expanded.

  * If the value of verbose is 3 or greater (runtest -v -v -v), DejaGnu activates the Expect command log_user.  This command prints all Expect actions to standard output, to the .log file and, if --debug is given, to dbg.log.

Adding a test case to a testsuite
=================================

There are two slightly different ways to add a test case. One is to add the test case to an existing directory. The other is to create a new directory to hold your test. The existing test directories represent several styles of testing, all of which are slightly different. Examine the testsuite subdirectories for the tool of interest to see which approach is most suitable.

Adding a GCC test may be very simple: just add the source file to any test directory beginning with gcc. and it will be tested on the next test run.

Adding a test by creating a new directory involves:

 1. Create the new directory. All subdirectory names begin with the name of the tool to test; e.g. G++ tests might be in a directory called g++.other. There can be multiple testsuite subdirectories with the same tool name prefix.

 2. Add the new test case to the directory, as above.

Test case special variables
===========================

There are special variables that contain other information from DejaGnu. Your test cases can inspect these variables, as well as the variables saved in site.exp. These variables should never be changed.

$prms_id
     The bug tracking system (eg. PRMS/GNATS) number identifying a corresponding bug report (0 if you do not specify it).

$bug_id
     An optional bug ID, perhaps a bug identification number from another organization (0 if you do not specify it).

$subdir
     The subdirectory for the current test case.

$exec_output
     This is the output from a ${tool}_load command. This only applies to tools like GCC and GAS which produce an object file that must in turn be executed to complete a test.

$comp_output
     This is the output from a ${tool}_start command.  This is conventionally used for batch-oriented programs, like GCC and GAS, that may produce interesting output (warnings, errors) without further interaction.

$expect_out(buffer)
     The output from the last command. This is an internal variable set by Expect. More information can be found in the Expect manual.

Unit testing
************

What is unit testing?
=====================

Most regression testing as done by DejaGnu is system testing: the complete application is tested all at once. Unit testing is for testing single files, or small libraries. In this case, each file is linked with a test case in C or C++, and each function or class and method is tested in turn, with the test case having to check private data or global variables to see if the function or method worked.

This works particularly well for testing APIs and at level where it is easier to debug them, than by needing to trace through the entire application. Also if there is a specification for the API to be tested, the testcase can also function as a compliance test.

The dejagnu.h header file
=========================

DejaGnu uses a single header file, dejagnu.h to assist in unit testing. As this file also produces its one test state output, it can be run stand-alone, which is very useful for testing on embedded systems. This header file has a C and C++ API for the test states, with simple totals, and standardized output. Because the output has been standardized, DejaGnu can be made to work with this test case, without writing almost any Tcl. The library module, dejagnu.exp, will look for the output messages, and then merge them into DejaGnu's.

C unit testing API
==================

All of the functions that take a msg parameter use a C char * that is the message to be displayed. There currently is no support for variable length arguments.

  * pass prints a message for a successful test completion.

          pass(msg);

  * fail prints a message for an unsuccessful test completion.

          fail(msg);

  * untested prints a message for an test case that isn't run for some technical reason.

          untested(msg);

  * unresolved prints a message for an test case that is run, but there is no clear result. These output states require a human to look over the results to determine what happened.

          unresolved(msg);

  * totals prints out the total numbers of all the test state outputs.

          totals();

C++ unit testing API
====================

All of the methods that take a msg parameter use a C char * or STL string, that is the message to be displayed. There currently is no support for variable length arguments.

  * pass prints a message for a successful test completion.

          TestState::pass(msg);

     fail prints a message for an unsuccessful test completion.

          TestState::fail(msg);

     untested prints a message for an test case that isn't run for some reason.

          TestState::untested(msg);

  * unresolved prints a message for an test case that is run, but there is no clear result. These output states require a human to look over the results to determine what happened.

          TestState::unresolved(msg);

  * totals prints out the total numbers of all the test state outputs.

          TestState::totals;

Reference
*********

Builtin Procedures
==================

DejaGnu provides these Tcl procedures.

Core Internal Procedures
------------------------

open_logs Procedure
...................

Open the output logs.

     open_logs

close_logs Procedure
....................

Close the output logs.

     close_logs

isbuild Procedure
.................

Tests for a particular build host environment.  If the currently configured host matches the argument string, the result is 1; otherwise the result is 0.  host must be a full three-part configure host name; in particular, you may not use the shorter nicknames supported by configure (but you can use wildcard characters, using shell syntax, to specify sets of names). If it is passed a NULL string, then it returns the name of the build canonical configuration.

     isbuild{pattern}

pattern

is_remote Procedure
...................

Is board remote? Return a non-zero value, if so.

     is_remote { board }

is3way Procedure
................

Tests for a Canadian cross. This is when the tests will be run on a remotely hosted cross-compiler. If it is a Canadian cross, then the result is 1; otherwise 0.

     is3way

ishost Procedure
................

Tests for a particular host environment.  If the currently configured host matches the argument string, the result is 1; otherwise the result is 0. host must be a full three-part configure host name; in particular, you may not use the shorter nicknames supported by configure (but you can use wildcard characters, using shell syntax, to specify sets of names).

     ishost{pattern}

istarget Procedure
..................

Tests for a particular target environment.  If the currently configured target matches the argument string, the result is 1 ; otherwise the result is 0.  target must be a full three-part configure target name; in particular, you may not use the shorter nicknames supported by configure (but you can use wildcard characters, using shell syntax, to specify sets of names). If it is passed a NULL string, then it returns the name of the build canonical configuration.

     istarget { args }

isnative Procedure
..................

Tests whether the current configuration has the same host and target. When it runs in a native configuration this procedure returns a 1; otherwise it returns a 0.

     isnative

log_and_exit Procedure
......................

     log_and_exit

log_summary Procedure
.....................

     log_summary{args}

args

setup_xfail Procedure
.....................

Declares that the test is expected to fail on a particular set of configurations.  The config argument must be a list of full three-part configure target name; in particular, you may not use the shorter nicknames supported by configure (but you can use the common shell wildcard characters to specify sets of names).  The bugid argument is optional, and used only in the logging file output; use it as a link to a bug-tracking system such as GNATS.

Once you use setup_xfail, the fail and pass procedures produce the messages XFAIL and XPASS respectively, allowing you to distinguish expected failures (and unexpected success!) from other test outcomes.

     Warning

     Warning you must clear the expected failure after using setup_xfail in a test case.  Any call to pass or fail clears the expected failure implicitly; if the test has some other outcome, e.g. an error, you can call clear_xfail to clear the expected failure explicitly.  Otherwise, the expected-failure declaration applies to whatever test runs next, leading to surprising results.

     setup_xfail{config bugid}

config
     The config triplet to trigger whether this is an unexpected or expect failure.

bugid
     The optional bugid, used to tie this test case to a bug tracking system.

pass Procedure
..............

Declares a test to have passed. pass writes in the log files a message beginning with PASS (or XPASS, if failure was expected), appending the argument string.

     pass { message }

message
     The message to use in the PASS result.

fail Procedure
..............

Declares a test to have failed.  fail writes in the log files a message beginning with FAIL (or XFAIL, if failure was expected), appending the argument string.

     fail { message }

string
     The message to use in the FAIL result.

xpass Procedure
...............

Declares a test to have passed when it was expected to fail. xpass writes in the log files a message beginning with XPASS (or XFAIL, if failure was expected), appending the argument string.

     xpass { message }

message
     The message to use in the XPASS result.

xfail Procedure
...............

Declares a test to have expectedly failed. xfail writes in the log files a message beginning with XFAIL (or PASS, if success was expected), appending the message argument.

     xpass { message }

set_warning_threshold Procedure
...............................

Sets the value of warning_threshold. A value of 0 disables it: calls to warning will not turn a PASS or FAIL into an UNRESOLVED.

     set_warning_threshold{threshold}

threshold
     This is the value of the new warning threshold.

get_warning_threshold Procedure
...............................

Returns the current value of {warning_threshold. The default value is 3. This value controls how many warning procedures can be called before becoming UNRESOLVED.

     get_warning_threshold

warning Procedure
.................

Declares detection of a minor error in the test case itself. warning writes in the log files a message beginning with WARNING, appending the argument string.  Use warning rather than perror for cases (such as communication failure to be followed by a retry) where the test case can recover from the error. If the optional number is supplied, then this is used to set the internal count of warnings to that value.

As a side effect, warning_threshold or more calls to warning in a single test case also changes the effect of the next pass or fail command: the test outcome becomes UNRESOLVED since an automatic PASS or FAIL may not be trustworthy after many warnings.  If the optional numeric value is 0, then there are no further side effects to calling this function, and the following test outcome doesn't become UNRESOLVED. This can be used for errors with no known side effects.

     warning { messsage number }

message
     The warning message.

number
     The optional number to set the error counter. This is only used to fake out the counter when using the xfail procedure to control when it flips the output over to UNRESOLVED state.

perror Procedure
................

Declares a severe error in the testing framework itself. perror writes in the log files a message beginning with ERROR, appending the argument string.

As a side effect, perror also changes the effect of the next pass or fail command: the test outcome becomes UNRESOLVED, since an automatic PASS or FAIL cannot be trusted after a severe error in the test framework.  If the optional numeric value is 0, then there are no further side effects to calling this function, and the following test outcome doesn't become UNRESOLVED. This can be used for errors with no known side effects.

     perror { message number }

message
     The message to be logged.

number
     The optional number to set the error counter. This is only used to fake out the counter when using the xfail procedure to control when it flips the output over to UNRESOLVED state.

note Procedure
..............

Appends an informational message to the log file. note writes in the log files a message beginning with NOTE, appending the argument string.  Use note sparingly. The verbose should be used for most such messages, but in cases where a message is needed in the log file regardless of the verbosity level use note.

     note { string }

string
     The string to use for this note.

untested Procedure
..................

Declares a test was not run. untested writes in the log file a message beginning with UNTESTED, appending the argument string. For example, you might use this in a dummy test whose only role is to record that a test does not yet exist for some feature.

     untested { message }

message
     The message to use.

unresolved Procedure
....................

Declares a test to have an unresolved outcome. unresolved writes in the log file a message beginning with UNRESOLVED, appending the argument string.  This usually means the test did not execute as expected, and a human being must go over results to determine if it passed or failed (and to improve the test case).

     unresolved { message }

string
     The message to use.

unsupported Procedure
.....................

Declares that a test case depends on some facility that does not exist in the testing environment. unsupported writes in the log file a message beginning with UNSUPPORTED, appending the argument string.

     unsupported { message }

message
     The message to use.

transform Procedure
...................

Generates a string for the name of a tool as it was configured and installed, given its native name (as the argument toolname). This makes the assumption that all tools are installed using the same naming conventions: For example, for a cross compiler supporting the m68k-vxworks configuration, the result of transform gcc is m68k-vxworks-gcc.

     transform{toolname}

toolname
     The name of the cross-development program to transform.

check_conditional_xfail Procedure
.................................

This procedure adds a conditional xfail, based on compiler options used to create a test case executable. If an include options is found in the compiler flags, and it's the right architecture, it'll trigger an XFAIL. Otherwise it'll produce an ordinary FAIL. You can also specify flags to exclude. This makes a result be a FAIL, even if the included options are found. To set the conditional, set the variable compiler_conditional_xfail_data to the fields

     "[message string] [targets list] [includes list] [excludes list]"

(descriptions below). This is the checked at pass/fail decision time, so there is no need to call the procedure yourself, unless you wish to know if it gets triggered. After a pass/fail, the variable is reset, so it doesn't effect other tests. It returns 1 if the conditional is true, or 0 if the conditional is false.

     check_conditional_xfail{message targets includes excludes}

message
     This is the message to print with the normal test result.

targets
     This is a string with the list targets to activate this conditional on.

includes
     This is a list of sets of options to search for in the compiler options to activate this conditional.  If the list of sets of options is empty or if any set of the options matches, then this conditional is true. (It may be useful to specify an empty list of include sets if the conditional is always true unless one of the exclude sets matches.)

excludes
     This is a list of sets of options to search for in the compiler options to activate this conditional. If any set of the options matches, (regardless of whether any of the include sets match) then this conditional is de-activated.

Specifying the conditional xfail data

     	  set compiler_conditional_xfail_data { \
     	       "I sure wish I knew why this was hosed" \
                    "sparc*-sun*-* *-pc-*-*" \
                    {"-Wall -v" "-O3"} \
                    {"-O1" "-Map"} \
               }

What this does is it matches only for these two targets if "-Wall -v" or  "-O3" is set, but neither "-O1" or "-Map" is set. For a set to match, the options specified are searched for independently of each other, so a "-Wall -v" matches either "-Wall -v" or "-v -Wall". A space separates the options in the string. Glob-style regular expressions are also permitted.

clear_xfail Procedure
.....................

Cancel an expected failure (previously declared with setup_xfail) for a particular set of configurations.  The config argument is a list of configuration target names.  It is only necessary to call clear_xfail if a test case ends without calling either pass or fail, after calling setup_xfail.

     clear_xfail{config}

config
     The system triplets to clear.

verbose Procedure
.................

Test cases can use this function to issue helpful messages depending on the number of -v/--verbose options passed to runtest on the command line.  It prints string if the value of the variable verbose is higher than or equal to the optional loglevel. The default log level is 1.  Use the optional -log argument to cause string to always be added to the log file, even if it won't be printed. Use the optional -x argument to log the test results into a parsable XML file.  Use the optional -n argument to print string without a trailing newline.  Use the optional -- argument if string begins with "-".

     verbose{-log -x -n -r string loglevel}

-x

-log

-n

--

string

number

load_lib Procedure
..................

Loads a DejaGnu library file by searching the default fixed paths built into DejaGnu. If DejaGnu has been installed, it looks in a path starting with the installed library directory.  If you are running DejaGnu directly from a source directory, without first running make install, this path defaults to the current directory.  In either case, it then looks in the current directory for a directory called lib.  If there are duplicate definitions, the last one loaded takes precedence over the earlier ones.

     load_lib{filespec}

filespec
     The name of the DejaGnu library file to load.

The global variable libdirs, handled as a list, is appended to the default fixed paths built into DejaGnu.

Additional search directories for load_lib

     # append a non-standard search path
     	    global libdirs
     	    lappend libdirs $srcdir/../../gcc/testsuite/lib
     	    # now loading $srcdir/../../gcc/testsuite/lib/foo.exp works
     	    load_lib foo.exp

Procedures For Remote Communication
-----------------------------------

lib/remote.exp defines procedures for establishing and managing communications. Each of these procedures tries to establish the connection up to three times before returning. Warnings (if retries will continue) or errors (if the attempt is abandoned) report on communication failures.  The result for any of these procedures is either -1, when the connection cannot be established, or the spawn ID returned by the Expect command spawn.

It use the value of the connect field in the target_info array (was connectmode as the type of connection to make. Current supported connection types are ssh, tip, kermit, telnet, rsh, and rlogin. If the --reboot option was used on the runtest command line, then the target is rebooted before the connection is made.

call_remote Procedure
.....................

     call_remote{type proc dest args}

proc

dest

args

check_for_board_status Procedure
................................

     check_for_board_status{variable}

variable

file_on_build Procedure
.......................

     file_on_build{op file args}

op

file

args

file_on_host Procedure
......................

     file_on_host{op file args}

op

file

args

local_exec Procedure
....................

     local_exec{commandline inp outp timeout}

inp

outp

timeout

remote_binary Procedure
.......................

     remote_binary{host}

host

remote_close Procedure
......................

     remote_close{shellid}

shellid
     This is the value returned by a call to remote_open. This closes the connection to the target so resources can be used by others. This parameter can be left off if the fileid field in the target_info array is set.

remote_download Procedure
.........................

     remote_download{dest file args}

dest

file

args

remote_exec Procedure
.....................

     remote_exec{hostname program args}

hostname

program

args

remote_expect Procedure
.......................

     remote_expect{board timeout args}

board

timeout

args

remote_file Procedure
.....................

     remote_file{dest args}

dest

args

remote_ld Procedure
...................

     remote_ld{dest prog}

dest

prog

remote_load Procedure
.....................

     remote_load{dest prog args}

dest

prog

args

remote_open Procedure
.....................

     remote_open{type}

type
     This is passed host or target. Host or target refers to whether it is a connection to a remote target, or a remote host. This opens the connection to the desired target or host using the default values in the configuration system. It returns that spawn_id of the process that manages the connection. This value can be used in Expect or exp_send statements, or passed to other procedures that need the connection process's id. This also sets the fileid field in the target_info array.

remote_pop_conn Procedure
.........................

     remote_pop_conn{host}

host

remote_push_conn Procedure
..........................

     remote_push_conn{host}

host

remote_raw_binary Procedure
...........................

     remote_raw_binary{host}

host

remote_raw_close Procedure
..........................

     remote_raw_close{host}

host

remote_raw_file Procedure
.........................

     remote_raw_file{dest args}

dest

args

remote_raw_ld Procedure
.......................

     remote_raw_ld{dest prog}

dest

prog

remote_raw_load Procedure
.........................

     remote_raw_load{dest prog args}

dest

prog

args

remote_raw_open Procedure
.........................

     remote_raw_open{args}

args

remote_raw_send Procedure
.........................

     remote_raw_send{dest string}

dest

string

remote_raw_spawn Procedure
..........................

     remote_raw_spawn{dest commandline}

dest

commandline

remote_raw_transmit Procedure
.............................

     remote_raw_transmit{dest file}

dest

file

remote_raw_wait Procedure
.........................

     remote_raw_wait{dest timeout}

dest

timeout

remote_reboot Procedure
.......................

Return value of this function depends on actual implementation of reboot that will be used, in practice it is expected that remote_reboot returns 1 on success and 0 on failure.

     remote_reboot{host}

host

remote_send Procedure
.....................

     remote_send{dest string}

dest

string

remote_spawn Procedure
......................

     remote_spawn{dest commandline args}

dest

commandline

args

remote_swap_conn Procedure
..........................

     remote_swap_conn{host}

remote_transmit Procedure
.........................

     remote_transmit{dest file}

dest

file

remote_upload Procedure
.......................

     remote_upload{dest srcfile arg}

dest

srcfile

arg

remote_wait Procedure
.....................

     remote_wait{dest timeout}

dest

timeout

standard_close Procedure
........................

     standard_close{host}

host

standard_download Procedure
...........................

     standard_download{dest file destfile}

dest

file

destfile

standard_exec Procedure
.......................

     standard_exec{hostname args}

hostname

args

standard_file Procedure
.......................

     standard_file{dest op args}

standard_load Procedure
.......................

     standard_load{dest prog args}

dest

prog

args

standard_reboot Procedure
.........................

It looks like that this procedure is never called, instead ${board}_reboot defined in base-config.exp will be used because it has higher priority and base-config.exp is always imported by runtest.

     standard_reboot{host}

host

standard_send Procedure
.......................

     standard_send{dest string}

dest

string

standard_spawn Procedure
........................

     standard_spawn{dest commandline}

dest

commandline

standard_transmit Procedure
...........................

     standard_transmit{dest file}

dest

file

standard_upload Procedure
.........................

     standard_upload{dest srcfile destfile}

dest

srcfile

destfile

standard_wait Procedure
.......................

     standard_wait{dest timeout}

dest

timeout

unix_clean_filename Procedure
.............................

     unix_clean_filename{dest file}

dest

file

Procedures For Using Utilities to Connect
-----------------------------------------

telnet Procedure
................

     telnet{hostname port}

     rlogin{hostname}

rsh Procedure
.............

     rsh{hostname}

hostname
     This refers to the IP address or name (for example, an entry in /etc/hosts) for this target. The procedure names reflect the Unix utility used to establish a connection. The optional port is used to specify the IP port number. The value of the netport field in the target_info array is used. (was $netport) This value has two parts, the hostname and the port number, separated by a :. If host or target is used in the hostname field, than the config array is used for all information.

tip Procedure
.............

     tip{port}

port
     Connect using the Unix utility tip. Portmust be a name from the tip configuration file /etc/remote. Often, this is called hardwire, or something like ttya. This file holds all the configuration data for the serial port. The value of the serial field in the target_info array is used. (was $serialport) If host or target is used in the port field, than the config array is used for all information. the config array is used for all information.

kermit Procedure
................

     kermit{port bps}

port
     Connect using the program kermit. Port is the device name, e.g. /dev/ttyb.

bps
     bps is the line speed to use (in its per second) for the connection. The value of the serial field in the target_info array is used.  (was $serialport) If host or target is used in the port field, than the config array is used for all information. the config array is used for all information.

kermit_open Procedure
.....................

     kermit_open{dest args}

dest

args

kermit_command Procedure
........................

     kermit_command{dest args}

dest

args

kermit_send Procedure
.....................

     kermit_send{dest string args}

dest

string

args

kermit_transmit Procedure
.........................

     kermit_transmit{dest file args}

dest

file

args

telnet_open Procedure
.....................

     telnet_open{hostname args}

hostname

args

telnet_binary Procedure
.......................

     telnet_binary{hostname}

hostname

telnet_transmit Procedure
.........................

     telnet_transmit{dest file args}

dest

file

args

tip_open Procedure
..................

     tip_open{hostname}

hostname

rlogin_open Procedure
.....................

     rlogin_open{arg}

arg

rlogin_spawn Procedure
......................

     rlogin_spawn{dest cmdline}

dest

cmdline

rsh_open Procedure
..................

     rsh_open{hostname}

hostname

rsh_download Procedure
......................

     rsh_download{desthost srcfile destfile}

desthost

srcfile

destfile

rsh_upload Procedure
....................

     rsh_upload{desthost srcfile destfile}

desthost

srcfile

destfile

rsh_exec Procedure
..................

     rsh_exec{boardname cmd args}

boardname

cmd

args

ssh_close procedure
...................

     ssh_close {desthost}

desthost

ssh_exec procedure
..................

     ssh_exec{boardname program pargs inp outp}

boardname

program

pargs

inp

outp

ssh_download procedure
......................

     ssh_download{desthost srcfile destfile}

desthost

srcfile

destfile

ssh_upload procedure
....................

     ssh_upload{desthost srcfile destfile}

desthost

srcfile

destfile

ftp_open Procedure
..................

     ftp_open{host}

host

ftp_upload Procedure
....................

     ftp_upload{host remotefile localfile}

host

remotefile

localfile

ftp_download Procedure
......................

     ftp_download{host localfile remotefile}

host

localfile

remotefile

ftp_close Procedure
...................

     ftp_close{host}

host

tip_download Procedure
......................

     tip_download{spawnid file}

spawnid
     Download file to the process spawnid (the value returned when the connection was established), using the ~put command under tip.  Most often used for single board computers that require downloading programs in ASCII S-records.  Returns 1 if an error occurs, 0 otherwise.

file
     This is the filename to download.

Procedures For Target Boards
----------------------------

default_link Procedure
......................

     default_link{board objects destfile flags}

board

objects

destfile

flags

default_target_assemble Procedure
.................................

     default_target_assemble{source destfile flags}

source

destfile

flags

default_target_compile Procedure
................................

     default_target_compile{source destfile type options}

source

destfile

type

options

pop_config Procedure
....................

     pop_config{type}

type

prune_warnings Procedure
........................

     prune_warnings{text}

text

push_build Procedure
....................

     push_build{name}

name

push_config Procedure
.....................

     push_config{type name}

type

name

reboot_target Procedure
.......................

Reboot the target.

     reboot_target

target_assemble Procedure
.........................

     target_assemble{source destfile flags}

source

destfile

flags

target_compile Procedure
........................

     target_compile{source destfile type options}

source

destfile

type

options

Target Database Procedures
--------------------------

board_info Procedure
....................

     board_info{machine op args}

machine

op

args

host_info Procedure
...................

     host_info{op args}

op

args

set_board_info Procedure
........................

This checks if board_info array's field entry has been set already and if not, then sets it to value.

     set_board_info{entry value}

entry
     The name of a board_info field to operate on.

value
     The value to set the field to.

add_board_info Procedure
........................

This treats board_info array's field entry as a TCL list and adds value at the end.

     add_board_info{entry value}

entry
     The name of a board_info field to operate on.

value
     The value to add to the field.

set_currtarget_info Procedure
.............................

     set_currtarget_info{entry value}

entry

value

target_info Procedure
.....................

     target_info{op args}

op

args

unset_board_info Procedure
..........................

This checks if board_info array's field entry has been set and if so, then removes it.

     unset_board_info{entry}

entry
     The name of a board_info field to operate on.

unset_currtarget_info Procedure
...............................

     unset_currtarget_info{entry}

entry

push_target Procedure
.....................

This makes the target named name be the current target connection. The value of name is an index into the target_info array and is set in the global config file.

     push_target{name}

name
     The name of the target to make current connection.

pop_target Procedure
....................

This unsets the current target connection.

     pop_target

list_targets Procedure
......................

This lists all the supported targets for this architecture.

     list_targets

push_host Procedure
...................

This makes the host named name be the current remote host connection. The value of name is an index into the target_info array and is set in the global config file.

     push_host{name}

name

pop_host Procedure
..................

This unsets the current host connection.

     pop_host

compile Procedure
.................

This invokes the compiler as set by CC to compile the file file. The default options for many cross compilation targets are guessed by DejaGnu, and these options can be added to by passing in more parameters as arguments to compile. Optionally, this will also use the value of the cflags field in the target config array. If the host is not the same as the build machines, then then compiler is run on the remote host using execute_anywhere.

     compile{file}

file

archive Procedure
.................

This produces an archive file. Any parameters passed to archive are used in addition to the default flags. Optionally, this will also use the value of the arflags field in the target config array. If the host is not the same as the build machines, then then archiver is run on the remote host using execute_anywhere.

     archive{file}

file

ranlib Procedure
................

This generates an index for the archive file for systems that aren't POSIX yet. Any parameters passed to ranlib are used in for the flags.

     ranlib{file}

file

execute_anywhere Procedure
..........................

This executes the cmdline on the proper host. This should be used as a replacement for the Tcl command exec as this version utilizes the target config info to execute this command on the build machine or a remote host. All config information for the remote host must be setup to have this command work. If this is a Canadian cross (where we test a cross compiler that runs on a different host then where DejaGnu is running) then a connection is made to the remote host and the command is executed there. It returns either REMOTERROR (for an error) or the output produced when the command was executed. This is used for running the tool to be tested, not a test case.

     execute_anywhere{cmdline}

cmdline

Platform Dependent Procedures
-----------------------------

Each combination of target and tool requires some target-dependent procedures.  The names of these procedures have a common form: the tool name, followed by an underscore _, and finally a suffix describing the procedure's purpose.  For example, a procedure to extract the version from GDB is called gdb_version.

runtest itself calls only two of these procedures, ${tool}_exit and ${tool}_version; these procedures use no arguments.

The other two procedures, ${tool}_start and ${tool}_load, are only called by the test suites themselves (or by testsuite-specific initialization code); they may take arguments or not, depending on the conventions used within each testsuite.

The usual convention for return codes from any of these procedures (although it is not required by runtest) is to return 0 if the procedure succeeded, 1 if it failed, and -1 if there was a communication error.

${tool}_start Procedure
.......................

Starts a particular tool.  For an interactive tool, ${tool}_start starts and initializes the tool, leaving the tool up and running for the test cases; an example is gdb_start, the start function for GDB. For a batch-oriented tool, ${tool}_start is optional; the recommended convention is to let ${tool}_start run the tool, leaving the output in a variable called comp_output.  Test scripts can then analyze $comp_output to determine the test results.  An example of this second kind of start function is gcc_start, the start function for GCC.

DejaGnu itself does not call ${tool}_start.  The initialization module ${tool}_init.exp must call ${tool}_start for interactive tools; for batch-oriented tools, each individual test script calls ${tool}_start (or makes other arrangements to run the tool).

     ${tool}_start

${tool}_load Procedure
......................

Loads something into a tool. For an interactive tool, this conditions the tool for a particular test case; for example, gdb_load loads a new executable file into the debugger. For batch-oriented tools, ${tool}_load may do nothing---though, for example, the GCC support uses gcc_load to load and run a binary on the target environment.  Conventionally, ${tool}_load leaves the output of any program it runs in a variable called $exec_output. Writing ${tool}_load can be the most complex part of extending DejaGnu to a new tool or a new target, if it requires much communication coding or file downloading. Test scripts call ${tool}_load.

     ${tool}_load

${tool}_exit Procedure
......................

Cleans up (if necessary) before DejaGnu exits. For interactive tools, this usually ends the interactive session.  You can also use ${tool}_exit to remove any temporary files left over from the tests. runtest calls ${tool}_exit.

     ${tool}_exit

${tool}_version Procedure
.........................

Prints the version label and number for ${tool}.  This is called by the DejaGnu procedure that prints the final summary report. The output should consist of the full path name used for the tested tool, and its version number.

     ${tool}_version

Utility Procedures
------------------

getdirs Procedure
.................

Returns a list of all the directories in the single directory a single directory that match an optional pattern.

     getdirs{rootdir pattern}

args

pattern
     If you do not specify pattern, Getdirs assumes a default pattern of *. You may use the common shell wildcard characters in the pattern. If no directories match the pattern, then a NULL string is returned.

find Procedure
..............

Search for files whose names match pattern (using shell wildcard characters for filename expansion).  Search subdirectories recursively, starting at rootdir. The result is the list of files whose names match; if no files match, the result is empty.  Filenames in the result include all intervening subdirectory names. If no files match the pattern, then a NULL string is returned.

     find{rootdir pattern}

rootdir
     The top level directory to search the search from.

pattern
     A csh "glob" style regular expression representing the files to find.

which Procedure
...............

Searches the execution path for an executable file binary, like the BSD which utility.  This procedure uses the shell environment variable PATH. It returns 0 if the binary is not in the path, or if there is no PATH environment variable. If binary is in the path, it returns the full path to binary.

     which{file}

binary
     The executable program or shell script to look for.

grep Procedure
..............

Search the file called filename (a fully specified path) for lines that contain a match for regular expression regexp. The result is a list of all the lines that match.  If no lines match, the result is an empty string.  Specify regexp using the standard regular expression style used by the Unix utility program grep.

Use the optional third argument line to start lines in the result with the line number in filename.  (This argument is simply an option flag; type it just as shown --line.)

     grep{filename regexp --line}

filename
     The file to search.

regexp
     The Unix style regular expression (as used by the grep Unix utility) to search for.

--line
     Prefix the line number to each line where the regexp matches.

prune Procedure
...............

This procedure is deprecated and will be removed in the next release of DejaGnu.  If a testsuite uses this procedure, a copy of the procedure should be made and placed in the lib directory of the testsuite.

runtest_file_p Procedure
........................

Search runtests for testcase and return 1 if found, 0 if not. runtests is a list of two elements.  The first is a copy of what was on the right side of the = if

     foo.exp="..."

was specified, or an empty string if no such argument is present. The second is the pathname of the current testcase under consideration. This is used by tools like compilers where each testcase is a file.

     runtest_file_p{runtests testcase}

runtests
     The list of patterns to compare against.

testcase
     The test case filename.

diff Procedure
..............

Compares the two files and returns a 1 if they match, or a 0 if they don't. If verbose is set, then it'll print the differences to the screen.

     diff{file_1 file_2}

file_1
     The first file to compare.

file_2
     The second file to compare.

setenv Procedure
................

Sets the environment variable var to the value val.

     setenv{var val}

var
     The environment variable to set.

val
     The value to set the variable to.

unsetenv Procedure
..................

Unsets the environment variable var.

     unsetenv{var}

var
     The environment variable to unset.

getenv Procedure
................

Returns the value of var in the environment if it exists, otherwise it returns NULL.

     getenv{var}

var
     The environment variable to get the value of.

prune_system_crud Procedure
...........................

For system system, delete text the host or target operating system might issue that will interfere with pattern matching of program output in text.  An example is the message that is printed if a shared library is out of date.

     prune_system_crud{system test}

system
     The system error messages to look for to screen out.

text
     The Tcl variable containing the text.

Libgloss, a free board support package (BSP)
--------------------------------------------

Libgloss is a free BSP (Board Support Package) commonly used with GCC and G++ to produce a fully linked executable image for an embedded systems.

libgloss_link_flags Procedure
.............................

     libgloss_link_flags{args}

args

libgloss_include_flags Procedure
................................

     libgloss_include_flags{args}

args

newlib_link_flags Procedure
...........................

     newlib_link_flags{args}

args

newlib_include_flags Procedure
..............................

     newlib_include_flags{args}

args

libio_include_flags Procedure
.............................

     libio_include_flags{args}

args

libio_link_flags Procedure
..........................

     libio_link_flags{args}

args

g++_include_flags Procedure
...........................

     g++_include_flags{args}

args

g++_link_flags Procedure
........................

     g++_link_flags{args}

args

libstdc++_include_flags Procedure
.................................

     libstdc++_include_flags{args}

args

libstdc++_link_flags Procedure
..............................

     libstdc++_link_flags{args}

args

get_multilibs Procedure
.......................

     get_multilibs{args}

args

find_binutils_prog Procedure
............................

     find_binutils_prog{name}

name

find_gcc Procedure
..................

     find_gcc

find_gcj Procedure
..................

     find_gcj

find_g++ Procedure
..................

     find_g++

find_g77 Procedure
..................

     find_g77

find_gfortran Procedure
.......................

     find_gfortran

process_multilib_options Procedure
..................................

     process_multilib_options{args}

args

add_multilib_option Procedure
.............................

     add_multilib_option{args}

args

find_gas Procedure
..................

     find_gas

find_ld Procedure
.................

     find_ld

build_wrapper Procedure
.......................

     build_wrapper{gluefile}

gluefile

winsup_include_flags Procedure
..............................

     winsup_include_flags{args}

args

winsup_link_flags Procedure
...........................

     winsup_link_flags{args}

args

Procedures for debugging your scripts
-------------------------------------

lib/debugger.exp defines the following procedures:

dumpvars Procedure
..................

This takes a csh style regular expression (glob rules) and prints the values of the global variable names that match.  It is abbreviated as dv.

     dumpvars{vars}

vars
     The variables to dump.

dumplocals Procedure
....................

This takes a csh style regular expression (glob rules) and prints the values of the local variable names that match. It is abbreviated as dl.

     dumplocals{args}

args

dumprocs Procedure
..................

This takes a csh style regular expression (glob rules) and prints the body of all procs that match. It is abbreviated as dp.

     dumprocs{pattern}

pattern
     The csh "glob" style pattern to look for.

dumpwatch Procedure
...................

This takes a csh style regular expression (glob rules) and prints all the watchpoints. It is abbreviated as dw.

     dumpwatch{pattern}

pattern
     The csh "glob" style pattern to look for.

watcharray Procedure
....................

     watcharray{element type}

type
     The csh "glob" style pattern to look for.

watchvar Procedure
..................

     watchvar{var type}

watchunset Procedure
....................

This breaks program execution when the variable var is unset. It is abbreviated as wu.

     watchunset{arg}

args

watchwrite Procedure
....................

This breaks program execution when the variable var is written. It is abbreviated as ww.

     watchwrite{var}

var
     The variable to watch.

watchread Procedure
...................

This breaks program execution when the variable var is read. It is abbreviated as wr.

     watchread{var}

var
     The variable to watch.

watchdel Procedure
..................

This deletes a watchpoint from the watch list. It is abbreviated as wd.

     watchdel{args}

args

print Procedure
...............

This prints the value of the variable var. It is abbreviated as p.

     print{var}

var

quit Procedure
..............

This makes runtest exit. It is abbreviated as q.

     quit