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NAME

       test_server - This module provides support for test suite authors.

DESCRIPTION

       The  test_server module aids the test suite author by providing various support functions.
       The supported functionality includes:

         * Logging and timestamping

         * Capturing output to stdout

         * Retrieving and flushing the message queue of a process

         * Watchdog timers, process sleep, time measurement and unit conversion

         * Private scratch directory for all test suites

         * Start and stop of slave- or peer nodes

       For more information on how to write test cases and for  examples,  please  see  the  Test
       Server User's Guide.

TEST SUITE SUPPORT FUNCTIONS

       The following functions are supposed to be used inside a test suite.

EXPORTS

       os_type() -> OSType

              Types:

                 OSType = term()
                   This is the same as returned from os:type/0

              This function is equivalent to os:type/0. It is kept for backwards compatibility.

       fail()
       fail(Reason)

              Types:

                 Reason = term()
                   The reason why the test case failed.

              This  will make the test suite fail with a given reason, or with suite_failed if no
              reason was given. Use this function if you want to terminate a test case,  as  this
              will  make  it  easier  to  read the log- and HTML files. Reason will appear in the
              comment field in the HTML log.

       timetrap(Timout) -> Handle

              Types:

                 Timeout = integer() | {hours,H} | {minutes,M} | {seconds,S}
                 H = M = S = integer()
                 Pid = pid()
                   The process that is to be timetrapped (self()by default)

              Sets up a time trap for the current process. An expired timetrap kills the  process
              with  reason  timetrap_timeout.  The  returned handle is to be given as argument to
              timetrap_cancel before the timetrap expires.  If  Timeout  is  an  integer,  it  is
              expected to be milliseconds.

          Note:
              If  the current process is trapping exits, it will not be killed by the exit signal
              with reason timetrap_timeout. If this happens, the process will  be  sent  an  exit
              signal  with  reason kill 10 seconds later which will kill the process. Information
              about the timetrap timeout will in this  case  not  be  found  in  the  test  logs.
              However, the error_logger will be sent a warning.

       timetrap_cancel(Handle) -> ok

              Types:

                 Handle = term()
                   Handle returned from timetrap

              This function cancels a timetrap. This must be done before the timetrap expires.

       timetrap_scale_factor() -> ScaleFactor

              Types:

                 ScaleFactor = integer()

              This  function  returns  the  scale factor by which all timetraps are scaled. It is
              normally 1, but can be greater than 1 if the test_server is running cover, using  a
              larger  amount  of  scheduler  threads than the amount of logical processors on the
              system, running under purify, valgrind or in a debug-compiled emulator.  The  scale
              factor  can  be  used if you need to scale you own timeouts in test cases with same
              factor as the test_server uses.

       sleep(MSecs) -> ok

              Types:

                 MSecs = integer() | float() | infinity
                   The number of milliseconds to sleep

              This function suspends the calling process for at  least  the  supplied  number  of
              milliseconds.  There are two major reasons why you should use this function instead
              of timer:sleep, the first being that the module timer may  be  unavailable  at  the
              time  the  test  suite  is  run, and the second that it also accepts floating point
              numbers.

       adjusted_sleep(MSecs) -> ok

              Types:

                 MSecs = integer() | float() | infinity
                   The default number of milliseconds to sleep

              This function suspends the calling process for at  least  the  supplied  number  of
              milliseconds.  The function behaves the same way as test_server:sleep/1, only MSecs
              will  be  multiplied  by  the  'multiply_timetraps'  value,  if   set,   and   also
              automatically  scaled  up  if  'scale_timetraps'  is  set  to  true (which it is by
              default).

       hours(N) -> MSecs
       minutes(N) -> MSecs
       seconds(N) -> MSecs

              Types:

                 N = integer()
                   Value to convert to milliseconds.

              Theese functions convert N number of hours, minutes or seconds into milliseconds.

              Use this function when you want to test_server:sleep/1 for  a  number  of  seconds,
              minutes or hours(!).

       format(Format) -> ok
       format(Format, Args)
       format(Pri, Format)
       format(Pri, Format, Args)

              Types:

                 Format = string()
                   Format as described for io_:format.
                 Args = list()
                   List of arguments to format.

              Formats  output just like io:format but sends the formatted string to a logfile. If
              the urgency value, Pri, is lower than some threshold value, it will also be written
              to  the test person's console. Default urgency is 50, default threshold for display
              on the console is 1.

              Typically, the test person don't want to see everything a test suite  outputs,  but
              is  merely  interested in if the test cases succeeded or not, which the test server
              tells him. If he would like to see more, he could  manually  change  the  threshold
              values by using the test_server_ctrl:set_levels/3 function.

       capture_start() -> ok
       capture_stop() -> ok
       capture_get() -> list()

              These  functions  makes  it possible to capture all output to stdout from a process
              started by the test suite. The list of characters captured can be purged  by  using
              capture_get.

       messages_get() -> list()

              This  function  will  empty  and  return  all the messages currently in the calling
              process' message queue.

       timecall(M, F, A) -> {Time, Value}

              Types:

                 M = atom()
                   The name of the module where the function resides.
                 F = atom()
                   The name of the function to call in the module.
                 A = list()
                   The arguments to supply the called function.
                 Time = integer()
                   The number of seconds it took to call the function.
                 Value = term()
                   Value returned from the called function.

              This function measures the time (in seconds) it takes to call a  certain  function.
              The function call is not caught within a catch.

       do_times(N, M, F, A) -> ok
       do_times(N, Fun)

              Types:

                 N = integer()
                   Number of times to call MFA.
                 M = atom()
                   Module name where the function resides.
                 F = atom()
                   Function name to call.
                 A = list()
                   Arguments to M:F.

              Calls MFA or Fun N times. Useful for extensive testing of a sensitive function.

       m_out_of_n(M, N, Fun) -> ok | exit({m_out_of_n_failed, {R,left_to_do}}

              Types:

                 N = integer()
                   Number of times to call the Fun.
                 M = integer()
                   Number of times to require a successful return.

              Repeatedly  evaluates the given function until it succeeds (doesn't crash) M times.
              If, after N times, M successful attempts have not been  accomplished,  the  process
              crashes with reason {m_out_of_n_failed, {R,left_to_do}}, where R indicates how many
              cases that was still to be successfully completed.

              For example:

              m_out_of_n(1,4,fun() -> tricky_test_case() end)
              Tries to run tricky_test_case() up to 4 times, and is happy if it succeeds once.

              m_out_of_n(7,8,fun() -> clock_sanity_check() end)
              Tries running clock_sanity_check() up to 8 times,and allows the  function  to  fail
              once.  This  might  be useful if clock_sanity_check/0 is known to fail if the clock
              crosses an hour boundary during the test (and the up to 8  test  runs  could  never
              cross 2 boundaries)

       call_crash(M, F, A) -> Result
       call_crash(Time, M, F, A) -> Result
       call_crash(Time, Crash, M, F, A) -> Result

              Types:

                 Result = ok | exit(call_crash_timeout) | exit({wrong_crash_reason, Reason})
                 Crash = term()
                   Crash return from the function.
                 Time = integer()
                   Timeout in milliseconds.
                 M = atom()
                   Module name where the function resides.
                 F = atom()
                   Function name to call.
                 A = list()
                   Arguments to M:F.

              Spawns  a new process that calls MFA. The call is considered successful if the call
              crashes with the gives reason (Crash) or any reason if not specified. The call must
              terminate within the given time (default infinity), or it is considered a failure.

       temp_name(Stem) -> Name

              Types:

                 Stem = string()

              Returns  a unique filename starting with Stem with enough extra characters appended
              to make up a unique filename. The filename returned is guaranteed not to  exist  in
              the filesystem at the time of the call.

       break(Comment) -> ok

              Types:

                 Comment = string()

              Comment is a string which will be written in the shell, e.g. explaining what to do.

              This  function  will  cancel all timetraps and pause the execution of the test case
              until the user executes the continue/0 function. It gives the user the  opportunity
              to  interact with the erlang node running the tests, e.g. for debugging purposes or
              for manually executing a part of the test case.

              When the break/1 function is called, the shell will look something like this:

                 --- SEMIAUTOMATIC TESTING ---
                 The test case executes on process <0.51.0>

                 "Here is a comment, it could e.g. instruct to pull out a card"

                 -----------------------------

                 Continue with --> test_server:continue().

              The  user  can  now  interact  with  the  erlang  node,   and   when   ready   call
              test_server:continue().

              Note   that   this  function  can  not  be  used  if  the  test  is  executed  with
              ts:run/0/1/2/3/4 in batch mode.

       continue() -> ok

              This function must be called in order to continue after  a  test  case  has  called
              break/1.

       run_on_shielded_node(Fun, CArgs) -> term()

              Types:

                 Fun = function() (arity 0)
                   Function to execute on the shielded node.
                 CArg = string()
                   Extra command line arguments to use when starting the shielded node.

              Fun  is executed in a process on a temporarily created hidden node with a proxy for
              communication with the test server node. The node is called a shielded node (should
              have  been  called  a  shield node). If Fun is successfully executed, the result is
              returned. A peer node (see start_node/3) started from the  shielded  node  will  be
              shielded  from test server node, i.e. they will not be aware of each other. This is
              useful when you want to start nodes from earlier OTP releases than the OTP  release
              of the test server node.

              Nodes  from  an  earlier OTP release can normally not be started if the test server
              hasn't been  started  in  compatibility  mode  (see  the  +R  flag  in  the  erl(1)
              documentation)   of   an  earlier  release.  If  a  shielded  node  is  started  in
              compatibility mode of an earlier OTP release than  the  OTP  release  of  the  test
              server node, the shielded node can start nodes of an earlier OTP release.

          Note:
              You  must  make  sure  that  nodes  started  by the shielded node never communicate
              directly with the test server node.

          Note:
              Slave nodes always communicate with the test server node;  therefore,  never  start
              slave nodes from the shielded node, always start peer nodes.

       start_node(Name, Type, Options) -> {ok, Node} | {error, Reason}

              Types:

                 Name = atom() | string()
                   Name of the slavenode to start (as given to -sname or -name)
                 Type = slave | peer
                   The type of node to start.
                 Options = [{atom(), term()]
                   Tuplelist of options

              This  functions  starts  a node, possibly on a remote machine, and guarantees cross
              architecture transparency. Type is set to either slave or peer.

              slave means that the new node  will  have  a  master,  i.e.  the  slave  node  will
              terminate  if  the master terminates, TTY output produced on the slave will be sent
              back to the master node and file I/O is done via the master. The master is normally
              the target node unless the target is itself a slave.

              peer means that the new node is an independent node with no master.

              Options is a tuplelist which can contain one or more of

                {remote, true}:
                  Start  the node on a remote host. If not specified, the node will be started on
                  the local host. Test cases  that  require  a  remote  host  will  fail  with  a
                  reasonable comment if no remote hosts are available at the time they are run.

                {args, Arguments}:
                  Arguments  passed  directly to the node. This is typically a string appended to
                  the command line.

                {wait, false}:
                  Don't wait until the node is up. By default,  this  function  does  not  return
                  until  the  node  is up and running, but this option makes it return as soon as
                  the node start command is given..
                   Only valid for peer nodes

                {fail_on_error, false}:
                  Returns {error, Reason} rather than failing the test case.
                   Only valid for peer nodes. Note that slave nodes always act  as  if  they  had
                  fail_on_error=false

                {erl, ReleaseList}:
                  Use  an  Erlang emulator determined by ReleaseList when starting nodes, instead
                  of the same emulator as the test server is running. ReleaseList is  a  list  of
                  specifiers,  where  a  specifier  is  either  {release,  Rel}, {prog, Prog}, or
                  'this'. Rel is either the name of a release, e.g., "r12b_patched" or  'latest'.
                  'this' means using the same emulator as the test server. Prog is the name of an
                  emulator executable. If the list has more than one  element,  one  of  them  is
                  picked  randomly.  (Only  works on Solaris and Linux, and the test server gives
                  warnings when it notices that nodes are not of the same version as itself.)

                   When   specifying   this   option   to   run   a   previous    release,    use
                  is_release_available/1  function  to test if the given release is available and
                  skip the test case if not.

                   In order to avoid compatibility problems (may not appear right  away),  use  a
                  shielded  node  (see run_on_shielded_node/2) when starting nodes from different
                  OTP releases than the test server.

                {cleanup, false}:
                  Tells the test server not to kill this node if it is still alive after the test
                  case  is completed. This is useful if the same node is to be used by a group of
                  test cases.

                {env, Env}:
                  Env should be a list of tuples {Name, Val},  where  Name  is  the  name  of  an
                  environment  variable,  and Val is the value it is to have in the started node.
                  Both Name and Val must be strings. The one exception  is  Val  being  the  atom
                  false  (in  analogy  with os:getenv/1), which removes the environment variable.
                  Only valid for peer nodes. Not available on VxWorks.

                {start_cover, false}:
                  By default the test server will start cover on all nodes when the test  is  run
                  with  code  coverage analysis. To make sure cover is not started on a new node,
                  set this option to false. This can be necessary if the connection to  the  node
                  at some point will be broken but the node is expected to stay alive. The reason
                  is that a remote cover node can not continue to  run  without  its  main  node.
                  Another  solution would be to explicitly stop cover on the node before breaking
                  the connection, but in some situations (if old code  resides  in  one  or  more
                  processes) this is not possible.

       stop_node(NodeName) -> bool()

              Types:

                 NodeName = term()
                   Name of the node to stop

              This functions stops a node previously started with start_node/3. Use this function
              to stop any node you start, or the test server will produce a  warning  message  in
              the  test  logs,  and  kill  the nodes automatically unless it was started with the
              {cleanup, false} option.

       is_commercial() -> bool()

              This function test whether the emulator is  commercially  supported  emulator.  The
              tests  for a commercially supported emulator could be more stringent (for instance,
              a commercial release should always contain documentation for all applications).

       is_release_available(Release) -> bool()

              Types:

                 Release = string() | atom()
                   Release to test for

              This  function  test  whether  the  release  given  by   Release   (for   instance,
              "r12b_patched")  is  available  on  the computer that the test_server controller is
              running on. Typically, you should skip the test case if not.

              Caution: This function may not be called from the suite clause of a test  case,  as
              the test_server will deadlock.

       is_native(Mod) -> bool()

              Types:

                 Mod = atom()
                   A module name

              Checks whether the module is natively compiled or not

       app_test(App) -> ok | test_server:fail()
       app_test(App,Mode)

              Types:

                 App = term()
                   The name of the application to test
                 Mode = pedantic | tolerant
                   Default is pedantic

              Checks an applications .app file for obvious errors. The following is checked:

                * required fields

                * that all modules specified actually exists

                * that all requires applications exists

                * that no module included in the application has export_all

                * that  all  modules  in  the  ebin/ dir is included (If Mode==tolerant this only
                  produces a warning, as all modules does not have to be included)

       comment(Comment) -> ok

              Types:

                 Comment = string()

              The given String will occur in the comment field of the table on  the  HTML  result
              page.  If called several times, only the last comment is printed. comment/1 is also
              overwritten by the return value {comment,Comment} from a test  case  or  by  fail/1
              (which prints Reason as a comment).

TEST SUITE EXPORTS

       The following functions must be exported from a test suite module.

EXPORTS

       all(suite) -> TestSpec | {skip, Comment}

              Types:

                 TestSpec = list()
                 Comment = string()
                   This comment will be printed on the HTML result page

              This  function  must  return  the test specification for the test suite module. The
              syntax of a test specification is described in the Test Server User's Guide.

       init_per_suite(Config0) -> Config1 | {skip, Comment}

              Types:

                 Config0 = Config1 = [tuple()]
                 Comment = string()
                   Describes why the suite is skipped

              This function is called before all other test cases in the  suite.  Config  is  the
              configuration  which  can be modified here. Whatever is returned from this function
              is given as Config to the test cases.

              If this function fails, all test cases in the suite will be skipped.

       end_per_suite(Config) -> void()

              Types:

                 Config = [tuple()]

              This function is called after the last test case in the suite, and can be  used  to
              clean up whatever the test cases have done. The return value is ignored.

       init_per_testcase(Case, Config0) -> Config1 | {skip, Comment}

              Types:

                 Case = atom()
                 Config0 = Config1 = [tuple()]
                 Comment = string()
                   Describes why the test case is skipped

              This function is called before each test case. The Case argument is the name of the
              test case, and Config is the configuration which can be modified here. Whatever  is
              returned from this function is given as Config to the test case.

       end_per_testcase(Case, Config) -> void()

              Types:

                 Case = atom()
                 Config = [tuple()]

              This  function is called after each test case, and can be used to clean up whatever
              the test case has done. The return value is ignored.

       Case(doc) -> [Decription]
       Case(suite) -> [] | TestSpec | {skip, Comment}
       Case(Config) -> {skip, Comment} | {comment, Comment} | Ok

              Types:

                 Description = string()
                   Short description of the test case
                 TestSpec = list()
                 Comment = string()
                   This comment will be printed on the HTML result page
                 Ok = term()
                 Config = [tuple()]
                   Elements from the Config parameter can be read with  the  ?config  macro,  see
                   section about test suite support macros

              The  documentation  clause  (argument  doc) can be used for automatic generation of
              test documentation or test descriptions.

              The specification clause (argument spec) shall  return  an  empty  list,  the  test
              specification   for  the  test  case  or  {skip,Comment}.  The  syntax  of  a  test
              specification is described in the Test Server User's Guide.

              The execution clause (argument Config) is only called if the  specification  clause
              returns  an  empty  list. The execution clause is the real test case. Here you must
              call the functions you want to test, and do whatever you need to check the  result.
              If  something  fails,  make  sure  the process crashes or call test_server:fail/0/1
              (which also will cause the process to crash).

              You can return {skip,Comment} if you decide not to run the  test  case  after  all,
              e.g. if it is not applicable on this platform.

              You  can  return  {comment,Comment}  if  you  wish to print some information in the
              'Comment' field on the HTML result page.

              If the execution clause returns anything else, it is considered a  success,  unless
              it  is  {'EXIT',Reason}  or {'EXIT',Pid,Reason} which can't be distinguished from a
              crash, and thus will be considered a failure.

              A conf test case is a group of test cases with an init and a cleanup function.  The
              init and cleanup functions are also test cases, but they have special rules:

                * They do not need a specification clause.

                * They must always have the execution clause.

                * They   must   return  the  Config  parameter,  a  modified  version  of  it  or
                  {skip,Comment} from the execution clause.

                * The cleanup function may  also  return  a  tuple  {return_group_result,Status},
                  which  is used to return the status of the conf case to Test Server and/or to a
                  conf case on a higher level. (Status = ok | skipped | failed).

                * init_per_testcase and end_per_testcase are not called before  and  after  these
                  functions.

TEST SUITE LINE NUMBERS

       If a test case fails, the test server can report the exact line number at which it failed.
       There are two ways of doing this,  either  by  using  the  line  macro  or  by  using  the
       test_server_line parse transform.

       The  line  macro  is  described under TEST SUITE SUPPORT MACROS below. The line macro will
       only report the last line executed when a test case failed.

       The  test_server_line  parse  transform  is  activated   by   including   the   headerfile
       test_server_line.hrl  in  the  test  suite.  When  doing  this,  it  is important that the
       test_server_line module is in the code path of the erlang node compiling the  test  suite.
       The parse transform will report a history of a maximum of 10 lines when a test case fails.
       Consecutive lines in the same function are not shown.

       The attribute -no_lines(FuncList). can be used in  the  test  suite  to  exclude  specific
       functions from the parse transform. This is necessary e.g. for functions that are executed
       on old (i.e. <R10B) OTP releases. FuncList = [{Func,Arity}].

       If both the line macro and the parse transform is used  in  the  same  module,  the  parse
       transform will overrule the macro.

TEST SUITE SUPPORT MACROS

       There  are some macros defined in the test_server.hrl that are quite useful for test suite
       programmers:

       The line macro, is quite essential when writing test  cases.  It  tells  the  test  server
       exactly  what line of code that is being executed, so that it can report this line back if
       the test case fails. Use this macro at the beginning of every test case line of code.

       The config macro, is used to retrieve information from the Config  variable  sent  to  all
       test  cases.  It  is  used  with  two  arguments,  where  the  first  is  the  name of the
       configuration variable you wish to  retrieve,  and  the  second  is  the  Config  variable
       supplied to the test case from the test server.

       Possible configuration variables include:

         * data_dir - Data file directory.

         * priv_dir - Scratch file directory.

         * nodes - Nodes specified in the spec file

         * nodenames - Generated nodenames.

         * Whatever added by conf test cases or init_per_testcase/2

       Examples  of  the line and config macros can be seen in the Examples chapter in the user's
       guide.

       If the line_trace macro is defined, you will get a timestamp (erlang:now()) in your  minor
       log  for  each  line  macro  in your suite. This way you can at any time see which line is
       currently being executed, and when the line was called.

       The line_trace macro can also be used together with the test_server_line  parse  transform
       described  above.  A timestamp will then be written for each line in the suite, except for
       functions stated in the -no_lines attribute.

       The line_trace macro can e.g. be defined as a compile option, like this:
       erlc -W -Dline_trace my_SUITE.erl