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NAME

README - Perl Core Test Smoke Suite (1.30)

SYNOPSIS

  $ perl configsmoke.pl
  $ sh smokecurrent.sh

DESCRIPTION

The perl core test smoke suite is a set of scripts and modules that try to run the perl core tests on as many configurations as possible and combine the results into an easy to read report.

The basic cycle looks like:

    fetch_sourcetree
    foreach $config ( @configurations ) {
        make distclean
        ./Configure $config
        make
        make test (and log failures)
    }
    create_report()
    mail_report()

Before you start "smoking" we expect you have tried to build some of the configurations "by hand" to check if your environment is okay.

INSTALLATION

The Test::Smoke suite has been designed to be installed outside of the normal Perl library-tree. It will also run from the directory in which it was un-tar-gzipped, but if you like to keep up to date with Test::Smoke releases, it might be useful to use the standard perl-module installation commands:

    $ perl Makefile.PL
    $ make test
    $ make install

The Makefile.PL program will ask for a directory in which Test::Smoke should be installed (this will set PREFIX, INSTALLSCRIPT and LIB all to that directory).

If you want to automate the Makefile.PL step you need to set two environment variables: $ENV{SMOKE_INSTDIR}='../p5smoke' and $ENV{PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT}='y'

You are now ready to run the configsmoke.pl configuration program:

    $ perl configsmoke.pl

You will have to answer some questions that help create a configuration file for the Test::Smoke suite.

You should check the perlcurrent.cfg build-configurations file and remove options that are not supported for your platform.

Now you are set to go:

    $ sh smokecurrent.sh

If something useful happens, do it every night using a scheduler.

CONFIGURATION

Test::Smoke configuration

You can create configurations by running the configsmoke.pl program. Please see its documentation.

Build configurations

At the moment there are no guidelines of how to change the build-configuration best to fit the needs of perl5-porters while still getting as much smoke out of the test as possible, simply because the needs of perl5-porters change over time:).

This also makes Test::Smoke somewhat volatile, as we aim to please the perl5-porters as much as possible, to help make perl even better, more stable and as thoroughly tested as possible.

Note to MSWin32 users

To make it clear, the perl core test smoke suite treats cygwin and DJGPP as unixy platforms and not as true MSWin32.

To keep in sync with the source-tree, it is recommended you use the rsync program. This currently seems only available with Cygwin <http://www.cygwin.com>. (All the cygwin tools run perfectly well under CMD.EXE, so don't let that stop you.)

Some problems have been reported with older versions of cygwin and the patch program during the [nd]make test stage of Test::Smoke. Don't worry about it if you do not intend to use patch.

Windows 95/98/ME do not seem to be ideal platforms to run Test::Smoke on. COMMAND.COM gives some problems while building perl. (See README.win32.)

We have found some problems with the default windows debugger Dr.Watson. By default Dr.Watson will pop-up when the moral equivalent of a segmentation fault happens, this will make the smoke wait for user input. You can disable this by starting drwtsn32.exe and un-check the Visual Notification and Sound Notification check-boxes and press OK.

There seems to be a problem with Microsoft .NET/Windows XP and segmentation faults, even if drwtsn32 -i is run to set it as the default debugger.

Slow Systems

It can happen that your system is not able to pursue all the tests, either because it is too slow or because some of the configurations are not supported by the system. At first, don't worry, they are detected by the report creation script and shown as such.

After the first run gave you some idea of how long the smoke will run on your system, you can create your own copy of smoke.cfg where you either add new combinations and/or test levels, or delete lines to speed up the run time of Test::Smoke.

Availability and references

Distribution
    http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Smoke/
Archives
Reports
    <daily-build-reports@perl.org> 
        [subscribe: <daily-build-reports-subscribe@perl.org>]
    http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build.reports
    news:nntp.perl.org/perl.daily-build.reports
Smokers
    <daily-build@perl.org> 
        [subscribe: <daily-build-subscribe@perl.org>]
    http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.daily-build
    news:nntp.perl.org/perl.daily-build
Others
  Perl general QA: perl-qa@perl.org
  Development:     perl5-porters@perl.org
The new smoke_db (by Alain Barbet)

Alain Barbet has put a lot of effort in storing the smoke test reports in a database and build a nice WEB-front-end:

    http://www.alianwebserver.com/cgi-bin/smoke_db
TinySmoke db

I also keep a database of smokereports that are created by Test::Smoke 1.17 or higher.

    http://www.test-smoke.org/cgi/tsdb

REVISION

$Id: README 1155 2008-01-03 13:32:28Z abeltje $

COPYRIGHT and LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2001-2004

  * H.Merijn Brand
  * Abe Timmerman

This suite is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, without consulting the author.

(Future) Co-Authors and or contributors should agree to this before submitting patches.

See:

  • http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

  • http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

AUTHOR

The perl core test smoke suite is maintained by Abe Timmerman <abeltje@cpan.org>.

H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@hccnet.nl> in dialogue and consultation with Michael Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>, the Perl QA pumpkin.

Contributors and/or co-authors:

    Configurations and
      nuts and bolts    Nicholas Clark <nick@plum.flirble.org>
    smoke.sh            Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@cc.hut.fi>
    Portability issues  Will Coleda - IMG <wjc@infomg.com>
    Safety              Richard Soderberg <rs@oregonnet.com>
    Win32/MSC5/dmake    Mattia Barbon <mbarbon@dsi.unive.it>,
                        Abe Timmerman <abeltje@cpan.org>
    Cygwin              John Peacock <jpeacock@rowman.com>
    Sharing issues      Blair Zajac <blair@orcaware.com>
    Good ideas          Jos Boumans <kane@dwim.org>
    VMS                 Craig Berry
    SysInfo             Alain Barbet
                        Merijn Brand
                        Alan Burlison
                        Allen Smith
                        David Woolger
                        Campo Wijerman

and all the people having useful suggestions and nits, starting at YAPC::Europe-2.0.01, where Michael talked Merijn into simplifying his own test-suite and sharing it with the community.

The Test::Smoke team.

MISC

As always, have the appropriate amount of fun!

SEE ALSO

ReleaseNotes, FAQ

TODO

  • More test-suite

  • VMS?