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- <title>Boost Internal Regression Test Suite</title>
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- <h1>Boost Internal Regression Test Suite</h1>
- Boost's internal regression test suite produces the
- <a href="../status/compiler_status.html">compiler status tables</a>.
- <p>Although not ordinarily run by Boost library users, it is documented here for
- the benefit of Boost developers, and for Boost users porting to a new platform.</p>
- <h2>Requirements</h2>
- The test suite has been designed to meet to the following requirements.
- <ul>
- <li>Pure ISO C++, no tools required except a C++ compiler.
- <li>Support for tests which expect an error
- <li>Flexible configuration
- <li>HTML output
- </ul>
- These requirements rule out any script-based approach such as dejagnu
- (requires Tcl and expect) or even shell scripts.
- <h2>Running Regression Tests</h2>
- The implementation is provided in a single source file named
- <a href="../status/regression.cpp">regression.cpp</a>.
- <p>
- You should be able to compile and link this file using whatever C++
- compiler is at your disposition. However, you may need to configure
- both the compiler and the standard library to use "strict" ISO
- compliance mode. Also, you need to extend the search path for include
- files with the main boost directory so that the header file
- <a href="../boost/config.hpp">boost/config.hpp</a>
- can be found. This header file is required to work around compiler
- deficiencies.
- <p>
- You can then start the resulting executable to run regression tests.
- By default, the regression test program reads the file "compiler.cfg"
- in the current directory to determine the list of compilers and their
- invocation syntax. After that, it reads the file "regression.cfg" in
- the current directory to determine the regression tests to run. The
- results of the regression tests are written in an HTML formatted text
- file. This file is by default named "cs-OS.html" in the current
- directory, where "OS" is a placeholder for the name of the operating
- system (e.g., "linux" or "win32").
- <p>
- To generate the
- <a href="../status/compiler_status.html">compiler status tables</a>,
- boost uses the files
- <a href="../status/compiler.cfg">status/compiler.cfg</a>
- and
- <a href="../status/regression.cfg">status/regression.cfg</a>.
- <p>
- The regression test program accepts some command-line options to alter
- its behavior.
- <p>
- <table border="1">
- <tr>
- <td>-h <em>or</em> --help</td>
- <td>prints a help message
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>--config <em>file</em></td>
- <td>Use <em>file</em> instead of "compiler.cfg" as the compiler
- configuration file. This allows for private compiler setups.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>--tests <em>file</em></td>
- <td>Use <em>file</em> instead of "regression.cfg" as the tests
- configuration file. This allows individual libraries to specify
- additional tests not to be published in the main
- <a href="../status/compiler_status.html">compiler status tables</a>.
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>--boost <em>path</em></td>
- <td>Use <em>path</em> as the filesystem path to the main boost
- directory. The default is "..", i.e. the parent directory.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>--output <em>file</em><br>-o <em>file</em></td>
- <td>Write the HTML output to <em>file</em> instead of the default
- "cs-OS.html".</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>--compiler <em>name</em></td>
- <td>Run the tests only with compiler <em>name</em>. The <em>name</em>
- must be defined in the second line of an applicable compiler
- configuration (see below). The default is to run the tests with all
- compilers suitable for the platform.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>--diff</td>
- <td>Read the HTML output file before writing it. In the HTML output,
- highlight differences in test outcomes compared to the previous
- run.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><em>test</em></td>
- <td>Run only the named test. The syntax is the same as in the
- configuration file (see below).</td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- <p>
- When running only a selected test, you must also provide an alternate
- HTML output filename with "--output" so that the full test output is
- not accidentally overwritten.
- <p>
- You should redirect the output (<code>std::cout</code>) and error
- (<code>std::cerr</code>) channels to a suitable log file for later
- inspection.
- <h2>Configuration Files</h2>
- In both configuration files, single-line comments starting with "//"
- at the leftmost column are ignored.
- <h3>Compiler Configuration</h3>
- The compiler configuration file can contain descriptions for an
- arbitrary number of compilers. Each compiler is configured by a block
- of six consecutive text lines.
- <ol>
- <li>Name of the operating system for which the entry is applicable
- (e.g., "linux" or "win32").
- <li>Name of the compiler; should be unique within one operating
- system. The name of the compiler should not contain the version
- number, because it is expected that regression tests are always run
- with the most recent compiler version available.
- <li>Name and version number of the compiler. This is printed on
- <code>std::cout</code> prior to running a test with that compiler.
- <li>Command-line invocation of the compiler to compile a single source
- file to an object file.
- <li>Command-line invocation of the compiler to compile a single source
- file to an executable.
- <li>Identification of the compiler for inclusion in the HTML output;
- may contain HTML tags such as <br>.
- </ol>
- The two command-lines are subject to the following substitutions:
- <ul>
- <li>Any string starting with a dollar symbol "$", then containing an
- arbitrary number of underscores, digits, or uppercase letters, is
- replaced by the value of the associated environment variable.
- <li>%include is replaced by the path given by the "--boost" command
- line option (".." by default). This should be used to extend the
- search path of your compiler so that the boost header files are found.
- <li>%source is the name of the source file to be compiled, qualified
- with the path given by the "--boost" command-line option (".." by
- default).
- </ul>
- <h3>Test Configuration</h3>
- The test configuration file can contain descriptions for an arbitrary
- number of tests. Each test is described by a single line. The first
- word (up to the first space) is the type of the test, the next word
- gives the filename of the test relative the directory to be given by the
- "--boost" command-line option. Optionally, additional words are
- passed on as command-line arguments when the test is executed (only
- for types "run" and "run-fail"). In these arguments, "%boost" is
- replaced by the path given by the "--boost" command-line option (".."
- by default).
- <p>
- The following test types are available:
- <ul>
- <li>compile: The given test file should compile successfully.
- Otherwise, the test fails.
- <li>compile-fail: The given test file should not compile successfully,
- but instead the compiler should give an error message. If the test
- does compile successfully, the test fails.
- <li>link: The given test file should compile and link successfully.
- Otherwise, the test fails. In particular, a <code>main</code>
- function must be present in the test file.
- <li>link-fail: The given test file should not compile and link
- successfully. It is not specified whether the compile or the link
- should not succeed. If the test does compile and link successfully,
- the test fails.
- <li>run: The given test file should compile and link successfully.
- After that, the resulting executable is invoked and should return a
- zero exit code. If any of these steps fail, the test fails.
- <li>run-fail: The given test file is compiled, linked, and, if an
- executable was successfully generated, it is invoked. Either
- compiling or linking should fail or the resulting executable should
- return a non-zero exit code. If compiling and linking succeeds and
- the resulting executable returns a zero exit code, the test fails.
- </ul>
- <h2>Adapting for a New Platform</h2>
- In order to adapt the regression test suite for a new platform, a few
- changes to the <a href="../status/regression.cpp">regression.cpp</a>
- are required.
- <ul>
- <li>Add an appropriate check for your platform in
- <code>get_host()</code> and return a unique string identifying the
- platform (this string is used to filter the compile configuration
- file).
- <li>Verify that <code>get_system_configuration()</code> is
- appropriately defined for your platform. For a Unix platform, it most
- likely is. The function may return a verbose HTML string describing
- the platform.
- </ul>
- You also need to configure the compilers available on your platform in
- "compiler.cfg" as described above.
- <p>You may need to add an entry for the compiler to <a href="../boost/config.hpp">boost/config.hpp</a>,
- but only if entries for the compiler is not already present, and the compiler
- doesn't fully conform to the ISO C++ Standard.</p>
- <h2>History</h2>
- <p>The regression.cpp test program was contributed
- by Jens Maurer, generalizing and improving an earlier program by Beman Dawes.</p>
- <hr>
- 2001-01-30<br>
- <a href="../people/jens_maurer.htm">Jens Maurer</a>
- </body>
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