Re: [RFC] Overhaul Autotest's logging

[Akim Demaille]

| 2003-05-22  Paolo Bonzini  <address@hidden>
| 
|         Overhaul Autotest's logging: generate separate log files
|         in testsuite.dir/NNN/testsuite.log, and append them to
|         testsuite.log instead of re-running the test verbosely.
| 
|         * lib/autotest/general.m4 (AT_INIT): Use a single redirected
|         file descriptor, write 0 to at_status_file instead of setting
|         at_status=0, initialize some new variables (at_status_file,
|         at_group_log, at_suite_log, at_tee_pipe).  Remove the cruft
|         to rerun the tests, instead append the at_group_log to the
|         at_suite_log when a test fails.
|         (AT_SETUP): pipe the test case's output into at_tee_pipe,
|         with the AS_MESSAGE_LOG_FD redirected to stdout.
|         (AT_CLEANUP): save the output status in $at_status_file
|         and load it in the testsuite's main shell context.
|         (AT_CHECK): since tests are run with a redirected stdout,
|         and used to be re-run in verbose mode, turn some $at_verbose
|         into echo, and don't redirect the output of testing stdout
|         and stderr.
| 
|         * lib/autotest/autoconf.texi (testsuite Scripts): Update
|         the name of the debugging directory and information about
|         its contents.

Great!  Please, install it, I can't wait trying it!


| This should do Akim's assigned homework.  I don't know what mark it
| might get :-)

According to the French system, that would make a 20/20.  According to
the EPITA system, who loves breaking the rules, outstanding projects
are granted a 42/20 (the mythology of EPITA is largely based on the
hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy :).


| so I'm RFCing. 

My sole and only comment is that you do have too wide comments: 76
cols would be better.  But as the grade reveals, that's a very minor
stylistic issue :)

| Anyway this new design (i.e. having testsuite.dir/NNN/testsuite.log)
| seems quite useful because I was often running the debug scripts
| redirected to such a file.

I agree!  Your change will make Autotest much more useful than before!

| What I am doing is to run with the output descriptors redirected to
| the standard output; then based on the requested verbosity I either
| 'tee' to the logfile or simply append to it.  I did not experience
| problem in the mixing of the contents of the file descriptors, but
| maybe I was simply not looking at the right place (I compared the -v
| -x output of the old and new testsuites for the Fortran test 66,
| which skips on my machines).

That's great!  Nevertheless, we should validate this using some other
architectures, especially Zsh which is somewhat different on this
regard.  I have a Darwin at hand, I'll run the test suite once your
patch installed.  Actually, I think this is the right moment for a
snapshot: Jim still has one issue to fix, and we have our RC.

| As an added bonus, since tests are always run in verbose mode (but
| the verbosity is kept hidden in the group log file), I got rid of
| file descriptor 5 which was for messages to be output in verbose
| mode only.

:)  I couldn't get ./testsuite --embedded-xpacman to work.  Is that on
purpose? :)