Common Test Release Notes

Common_Test 1.12

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

This update fixes the problem with generic printouts in the html log file not having special characters escaped. Printouts made with io:format/2 and ct:pal/2 will now get special characters escaped automatically. Common Test will not attempt to escape characters printed with ct:log/2 since it is assumed that the user may want to print html tagged data using this function. A new function, ct:log/5, has been added, which offers optional escaping of characters. The latter function may also be used to print text to the log without headers and CSS class wrapping (analogue to io:format/2).

Own Id: OTP-13003 Aux Id: seq13005

Commit 4cf832f1ad163f5b25dd8a6f2d314c169c23c82f erroneously removed logging of open and close of netconf connections. This is now corrected.

Own Id: OTP-13386

The directory to which nodes started with test_server:start_node/3 writes their erl_crash.dump is changed. The crashdumps were earlier written to the directory of test_server.beam, but in later versions of Microsoft Windows this is no longer writable (even for administrators). The framework (common_test) log directory is now used instead.

Own Id: OTP-13388

Improvements and New Features

This update makes it possible to specify multiple instances of the same group or test case in one test specification term in order to repeat execution. Example: {groups, "./", my_SUITE, [my_group, my_group], {cases, all}}, or {cases, "./", my_SUITE, [my_tc, my_tc, my_tc]}.

Own Id: OTP-13241 Aux Id: seq12979

Two new CT hook functions have been added: post_init_per_testcase/4 and pre_end_per_testcase/3. With these hook functions, it is possible to perform arbitrary actions (including modifications of test execution, test state and results) immediately before and after the execution of the test case.

Own Id: OTP-13242 Aux Id: seq12991

The ct_netconfc was earlier very restrictive as to which SSH options the user could set. This is now changed, and any SSH option is now allowed. The netconf client will simply pass on any option, which it does not recognize, to SSH.

Own Id: OTP-13338 Aux Id: seq13053,seq13069

Common_Test 1.11

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The status of an aborted test due to test suite compilation error has changed from 'auto_skipped' to 'failed'. This affects both the textual log file, event handling and CT hook callbacks. The logging of compilation failures has also been improved, especially in the case of multiple test suites failing compilation.

Own Id: OTP-10816

The Test Server source code parser (erl2html2) failed to handle the macro tuple in the syntax tree returned by epp_dodger. This error has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-12740

New options to make it possible to specify ssh_port in a .spec file: [{node_start, [{ssh_port, 9999}]}].

And also to specify additional ssh options like paths to public-key files: [{node_start, [{ssh_opts, [{user_dir, "/home/shrek/e2/"}]}]}].

Own Id: OTP-12809

Improvements and New Features

Earlier there was no way to add optional parameters like default-operation to an edit-config request sent with ct_netconfc:edit_config/3,4, you had to use ct_netconfc:send_rpc/2,3. For simplicity and completion, a new optional argument, OptParams, is now added to the edit_config function.

Own Id: OTP-10446 Aux Id: kunagi-266 [177]

When running OTP tests using the ts interface, it is now possible to specify so called test categories per OTP application. A test category is represented by a CT test specification and defines an arbitrary subset of existing test suites, groups and cases. Examples of test categories are 'smoke' (smoke tests) and 'bench' (benchmarks). (Call ts:help() for more info). Also, functions for reading terms from the current test specification during test, ct:get_testspec_terms/0 and ct:get_testspec_terms/1, have been implemented.

Own Id: OTP-11962

Obsolete scripts and make file operations have been removed and the installation chapter in the Common Test User's Guide has been updated.

Own Id: OTP-12421

The 'keep_alive' interval has been reduced to 8 seconds, which is two seconds shorter than the default 'idle_timeout' value for ct_telnet:expect/3. This way, the telnet server receives a NOP message (which might trigger an action) before the operation times out. Also the TCP option 'nodelay' has been enabled per default for all telnet connections, in order to reduce the risk for communication timeouts.

Own Id: OTP-12678 Aux Id: seq12818

When the ct_run program is executed without any flags, "-dir ." is now used as default start flag. Similarly, the option {dir,"."} is used by ct:run_test/1 if called with an empty list. Also, the help text (ct_run -help) has been updated, as well as the Running Tests chapter in the Common Test User's Guide.

Own Id: OTP-12684 Aux Id: seq12865

Common_Test 1.10

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The tests overview file, index.html, did not always get updated correctly after a new test run. This was because of a bug in the Common Test log cache mechanism which has now been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-11400

When a successful test case returns, Common Test should, according to the documentation, send a tc_done event to the event handlers with Result = ok in the data field. However, Common Test sets Result to the return value of the test case instead. Common Test has been modified now to comply with the documentation.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-12279 Aux Id: seq12737, OTP-12531

A ct_telnet:expect/3 call could never be aborted before an idle_timeout, even if total_timeout had been set to a lower value (i.e. a shorter time). This problem has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-12335

The undocumented return value {skipped,Reason} from config functions and test cases was handled inconsistently. Test cases were e.g. reported as "skipped" to CT Hook functions, but "successful" to event handlers. Now, the above return value is consistently handled the same way as {skip,Reason} and this has also been documented.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-12359 Aux Id: seq12760

The Erlang source code to HTML generator would sometimes fail because epp:parse_erl_form/1 could not find and expand required macros in included header files. The problem has been solved by making sure common_test always passes the full include path to epp. Also, a bug that could cause erl_syntax:revert/1 to fail because of a badly formed syntax tree has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-12419

A missing group option in the ct_run help text has been added.

Own Id: OTP-12433 Aux Id: seq12788

Printouts by means of ct:log/2/3 or ct:pal/2/3 from the hook functions on_tc_fail/2 and on_tc_skip/2 would (quite unexpectedly) end up in the "unexpected i/o" log file instead of in the test case log file. This behaviour has been changed so that now, all printouts (including stdio printouts) from these hook functions will be routed to the test case log file.

Own Id: OTP-12468

ct_netconfc:action/3 will now - if the return type is void - accept an RPC reply on the form {ok,[simple_xml()]}, and in this event return only the atom ok.

Own Id: OTP-12491 Aux Id: seq12797

OTP-11971 erroneously changed the handling of relative paths for incl_dirs specified in the cover spec file. This is now corrected so these are expected to be relative to the directory where the cover spec file itself is stored

Own Id: OTP-12498 Aux Id: OTP-11971

Some test cases have been updated to use ct:sleep/1 instead of timer:sleep/1. The reason being that the sleep times need to be scaled to compensate for slow execution (e.g. when cover is running).

Own Id: OTP-12574

Improvements and New Features

Common Test now exports a function, ct:get_event_mgr_ref/0, that returns the name of the Common Test event manager. This makes it possible to plug in event handlers to the event manager while tests are running (using the gen_event API).

Own Id: OTP-12506 Aux Id: seq12802

When a test case (or configuration function) fails because of an exit signal from a linked process, Common Test previously passed only the reason for process termination to the CT post hook functions and the event handlers (in the tc_done event). This has been changed so that now the tuple {'EXIT',ReasonForProcessTermination} is passed instead. This makes it much easier in the CT post hook functions to distinguish a failure of this sort from other types of errors and from the return value of a successful test case.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-12531 Aux Id: OTP-12279

A new feature has been introduced in ct_telnet:get_data/1 that makes it possible to automatically poll the telnet connection in case an incomplete string (one that has not yet been terminated by a newline) remains in the receive buffer. The polling is controlled by two new telnet config values, which are documented in the ct_telnet reference manual. The polling mechanism is disabled by default (making the get_data/1 function backwards compatible).

Own Id: OTP-12627

Common_Test 1.9

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The source code to html code generator in Test Server (and Common Test) would fail to generate anchors in the html code for functions with non-expandable macros, resulting in bad html links to such functions. This correction lets the code generator ignore macros that can't be expanded (i.e. not pre-process them), so that correct anchors will always be produced.

Own Id: OTP-11766 Aux Id: seq12556

OTP-11971 erroneously changed the handling of relative paths (import/export files) specified in the cover spec file. This is now corrected so these are expected to be relative to the directory where the cover spec file itself is stored.

Own Id: OTP-12031

Common Test would sometimes crash while trying to print large amounts of SASL reports to log on a computer with a slow file system. This problem (due to an error in IO message buffering in ct_logs) has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-12159

The common_test telnet client, ct_telnet and friends, had some unstable test cases. Some of these were caused by the unix_telnet callback sending an extra newline after sending the password. This caused the sever to send an extra prompt back which confused the tests. The extra newline is no longer sent.

Also, debug printouts and logging from the telnet client is improved, and some test cases are slightly modified in order to stabilize the test.

Own Id: OTP-12329

ct_netconfc did not expect the return value {error,timeout} from ssh_connection:subsystem/4. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-12334

Improvements and New Features

A new option, {newline,boolean()} is added to all functions in ct_telnet that send data (command strings) to the telnet server. By default, ct_telnet adds a newline to all command strings, and by setting the new option to false this behavior is turned off.

Own Id: OTP-12252 Aux Id: seq12730

Distribute autoconf helpers to applications at build time instead of having multiple identical copies committed in the repository.

Own Id: OTP-12348

Common_Test 1.8.1

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Substrings in long telnet messages would sometimes get wrongly reversed. This error has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-11871 Aux Id: seq12581

The basic_html logging mode in Common Test (for compatibility with old browsers) generated HTML code with unbalanced tags. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-11917 Aux Id: seq12598

The mechanism for running code cover analysis with common_test has been improved. Earlier, if a test run consisted of multiple tests, cover would be started and stopped for each test. This would give "intermediate" cover logs available from the "Coverage log" link on the test suite result pages. To accumulate cover data over all tests, the 'export' option had to be used in the cover spec file. This was not well documented, and the functionality was quite confusing.

Using the 'nodes' option in the cover spec file would fail when the test run consisted of multiple tests, since the specified nodes would only be included in the cover analysis of the first test.

The repeated compilation and analysis of the same modules was also very time consuming.

To overcome these problems, ct will now only cover compile and analyze modules once per test run, i.e. once for each cover spec file. The log file is available via a new button on the top level index page. The old "Coverage log" links on the test suite result pages still exist, but they all point to the same log containing the accumulated result.

Own Id: OTP-11971

If multiple tests would run simultaneously on different Erlang nodes, writing their logs to the same directory, then there would often be entries in the all_runs.html log file showing incomplete results (all zeroes) upon completion. This problem was caused by a bug in the Common Test log cache mechanism, which has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-11988 Aux Id: seq12611

Common_Test 1.8

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The error generated if a test case process received an exit from a linked process while executing init_per_testcase/2, was handled incorrectly by Common Test. The problem has been solved, and Common Test now reports this type of error correctly, with proper error reason and exit location as well.

Own Id: OTP-11643

Running a parallel test case group with two or more instances of the same test case would result in identical log file names, and one test case instance would overwrite the log file of another. This problem has been solved.

Own Id: OTP-11644

Application upgrade (appup) files are corrected for the following applications:

asn1, common_test, compiler, crypto, debugger, dialyzer, edoc, eldap, erl_docgen, et, eunit, gs, hipe, inets, observer, odbc, os_mon, otp_mibs, parsetools, percept, public_key, reltool, runtime_tools, ssh, syntax_tools, test_server, tools, typer, webtool, wx, xmerl

A new test utility for testing appup files is added to test_server. This is now used by most applications in OTP.

(Thanks to Tobias Schlager)

Own Id: OTP-11744

The cth_surefire hook would crash in pre_init_per_suite/3 if a previous hook returned {skip,Reason} or {fail,Reason} instead of a Config list. This error has been corrected, and cth_surefire will now simply propagate the received InitData value instead.

Own Id: OTP-11811

Specs of return values are corrected for ct_netconfc:get/2,3, ct_netconfc:get_config/3,4, ct_netconfc:action/2,3, ct_netconfc:send_rpc/2,3 and ct_netconfc:send/2,3.

Own Id: OTP-11834 Aux Id: seq12574

Improvements and New Features

ct_telnet can now log all communication taking place during a telnet session. Previously, only information about ct_telnet operations and commands, as well as explicitly requested data from the server, was logged.

Furthermore, a logging mechanism based on an Error Logger event handler and a dedicated Common Test hook, cth_conn_log, now makes it possible to print data for individual connections to separate log files. Please see the ct_telnet reference manual for more information and examples.

Important note: A new argument, ConnName has been added to the unix_telnet:connect/5 callback function. This forces users that use private ct_telnet callback modules to update their code according to unix_telnet:connect/6. Please see the unix_telnet reference manual and source code module for details.

Own Id: OTP-11440 Aux Id: seq12457

A new timeout option has been introduced for the ct_telnet:expect/3 function. With {total_timeout,Time} it's possible to set a time limit for the complete expect operation. After Time milliseconds, expect/3 returns {error,timeout}. The default value used if total_timeout is not specified, is infinity (i.e. no time limit). Please see the ct_telnet reference manual for more information.

Own Id: OTP-11689

Some function specs are corrected or moved and some edoc comments are corrected in order to allow use of edoc. (Thanks to Pierre Fenoll)

Own Id: OTP-11702

Test case group name information has been added to the data sent with tc_user_skip and tc_auto_skip event messages, as well as the data passed in calls to the CT Hook functions on_tc_skip/3 and on_tc_fail/3. The modification only affects the function name element/argument. This value remains an atom if the test case in question does not belong to a test case group. Otherwise a tuple {FuncName,GroupName} ({atom(),atom()}) is passed instead.

Note that this change may (depending on the patterns used for matching) require modifications of user event handlers and hook modules. Please see the Event Handling chapter in the Common Test User's Guide, and the reference manual for ct_hooks, for details.

Note also that the Test Server framework callback function report/2 has been modified. This change only affects users with test frameworks interfacing Test Server rather than Common Test. See the test_server_ctrl reference manual for details.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-11732 Aux Id: seq12541

If Common Test can't prompt the user to abort or continue the test run when one or more test suites fail to compile, a new option, {abort_if_missing_suites,Bool}, can be used to specify whether it should proceed with the test run, or stop execution. The default value of Bool is false (i.e. to proceed even if suites are missing).

Own Id: OTP-11769

Known Bugs and Problems

common_test: Fix problems reported by Dialyzer.

Own Id: OTP-11525

Common_Test 1.7.4

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Return values from group and testcase info functions are now properly checked, and associated test cases are auto skipped if a return value is invalid.

Own Id: OTP-10631 Aux Id: kunagi-345 [256]

The way Common Test handles skipping of test cases has been updated. In previous versions, returning {skip,Reason} from a configuration function (such as init_per_suite or init_per_group), resulted in all affected test cases getting skipped with status auto_skipped. This was inappropriate, since this status is supposed to be used to inform that Common Test has taken the initiative to skip something (e.g. a test case group if init_per_group failed). Therefore, in this version of Common Test, whenever the user skips a suite, group, or individual test case (by means of a configuration function or test specification term), the affected test cases get the status user_skipped instead.

This update has meant a few changes that may affect Common Test users in various ways:

The test results and statistics will be affected, which is important to know when running regression tests and comparing results to previous test runs. Users that read or parse the textual log file suite.log will notice that an auto skipped function is now reported as auto_skipped rather than skipped as before. When require fails in an info function (such as suite/0 or group/1), all affected configuration functions and test cases are marked as auto_skipped. If Common Test detects an error in the test suite (such as e.g. an invalid all/0 function), all affected configuration functions and test cases are marked as auto_skipped. If a repeated test run session reaches a deadline with force_stop enabled, all remaining test cases are marked as auto_skipped rather than user_skipped as before. The event messages that Common Test generates during test runs have been affected by this update. For details see OTP-11524.

Own Id: OTP-11305 Aux Id: OTP-11524

Returning {skip, Reason} from a pre_end_per_group/3 user hook function would result in an exit in the Common Test cth_log_redirect hook. This problem has been solved.

Own Id: OTP-11409 Aux Id: seq12446

When the netconf server did not respond to the close-session request, the call to ct_netconfc:close_session/2 would hang forever waiting for the netconf client to terminate. This has been corrected. The client will now always terminate (and take down the connection) if the close-session request times out.

Own Id: OTP-11478

Improvements and New Features

Fix cth_log_redirect.erl to fulfill gen_event behaviour. Thanks to Roberto Aloi.

Own Id: OTP-11401

The first argument of the CT hook callback function on_tc_skip/3 has been modified. When this function is called for init_per_group or end_per_group, the value of the first argument is now {init_per_group,GroupName} or {end_per_group,GroupName}.

Own Id: OTP-11523

The following modifications have been made to the event messages that Common Test sends during test execution:

For the tc_auto_skip event, the value of the Func element has changed from end_per_group to {end_per_group,GroupName}. When require fails in an info function, such as suite/0 or group/1, the init configuration function is now reported as auto_skipped intead of skipped, with the tc_done event. When require fails in an info function because of a configuration name already in use, the tc_done event now reports the error with a tuple (of size 2) tagged failed instead of skipped.

Please see the Event Handling chapter in the Common Test User's Guide for reference.

Own Id: OTP-11524 Aux Id: OTP-11305

Common_Test 1.7.3

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Documentation is added for ct_netconfc:send and ct_netconfc:send_rpc.

Own Id: OTP-11132

ct_netconfc:create_subscription only allowed one XML element inside the 'filter' element. According to RFC5277 it should be allowed to add any number of elements inside the filter, so this is now corrected.

Own Id: OTP-11166

The error handler installed by the Common Test hook cth_log_redirect did not respond to init:stop/1/2. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-11175 Aux Id: seq12356

Calling ct:pal/2 or ct:print/2 when Common Test was not running, would cause an exit. This has been changed and the string is now simply printed to stdout instead.

Own Id: OTP-11176

Fixed problem with the cth_log_redirect hook making calls to an undefined function in ct_logs.

Own Id: OTP-11238

When running tests with the 'repeat' option, the Common Test utility process did not always terminate quickly enough after a test run, causing the start of the next run to fail. A monitor is now used to ensure termination of the utility process after each test run.

Own Id: OTP-11244 Aux Id: seq12396

Test Server installed an error handler (test_server_h) only to be able to write the name of the current test case to stdout whenever it received an error- or progress report. This functionality was not useful and has been removed. The built-in Common Test hook, cth_log_redirect, has instead been improved to now also tag all error- and progress reports in the log with suite-, group-, and/or test case name.

Own Id: OTP-11263 Aux Id: seq12251

Improvements and New Features

A new log, the "Pre- and Post Test I/O Log", has been introduced, which makes it possible to capture error- and progress reports, as well as printouts made with ct:log/2 and ct:pal/2, before and after a test run. (Some minor improvements of the logging system have been made at the same time). Links to the new log are found on the Common Test Framework Log page. The Common Test User's Guide has been updated with information about the new log and also with a new section on how to synchronize external applications with Common Test by means of the CT Hook init and terminate functions.

Own Id: OTP-11272

Common_Test 1.7.2

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

A design flaw in the generic connection handling in Common Test made it impossible to implement a connection handler that could map multiple connection names (i.e. configuration variable aliases) to single connection pids. This problem has been solved.

Own Id: OTP-10126 Aux Id: kunagi-178 [89]

If a telnet connection is hanging, then a call to ct_telnet:close/1 will time out after 5 seconds and the connection process is brutally killed. In some cases the connection would not be unregistered and attempts at opening a new connection with the same name would make common_test try to reuse the same connection since it believed that it was still alive. This has been corrected - a killed connection is now always unregistered.

Own Id: OTP-10648 Aux Id: seq12212

Test performance has been improved by means of a cache for the top level HTML index logs (all_runs.html and index.html, in the logdir directory). This solves problems with slow start up times and test execution times increasing with the number of ct_run directories stored in logdir. The cached index entries are stored in RAM during test execution and are saved to file in logdir (for faster start up times) whenever a test run finishes.

Own Id: OTP-10855

Testing of the test specification functionality has been improved and a couple of minor bugs have been discovered and corrected.

Own Id: OTP-10857

Links to the top level index files in some HTML footers had disappeared. This error has been corrected. Also, a problem with the suite overview log file not being closed properly has been solved.

Own Id: OTP-11046

Common Test would, in case of timetrap error, print a warning in the log if end_per_testcase wasn't implemented in the suite, even though it's an optional function. This printout has been removed.

Own Id: OTP-11052

Improvements and New Features

If it could not be decided which test case a certain log printout belonged to, the common test framework log was earlier used. Such printouts are now instead sent to unexpected_io.log.html in test_server so that there is only one place to look for "missing" printouts.

Own Id: OTP-10494 Aux Id: kunagi-319 [230]

Make cover smarter about finding source from beam.

In particular, search using the source path in module_info if the current heuristic fails.

Own Id: OTP-10902

Add a variant of ct_slave:start/2 that starts a node with specified options on the local host.

Own Id: OTP-10920

Integrate elliptic curve contribution from Andreas Schultz

In order to be able to support elliptic curve cipher suites in SSL/TLS, additions to handle elliptic curve infrastructure has been added to public_key and crypto.

This also has resulted in a rewrite of the crypto API to gain consistency and remove unnecessary overhead. All OTP applications using crypto has been updated to use the new API.

Impact: Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) offers equivalent security with smaller key sizes than other public key algorithms. Smaller key sizes result in savings for power, memory, bandwidth, and computational cost that make ECC especially attractive for constrained environments.

Own Id: OTP-11009

Postscript files no longer needed for the generation of PDF files have been removed.

Own Id: OTP-11016

A link is added from the red error printout in a test case log (for a failed test case) to the full error description at the end of the log. The reason for this is that the error description in the red field is sometimes truncated at 50 characters in order to keep the log as short and easy to read as possible.

Own Id: OTP-11044 Aux Id: seq12304

A new option 'no_prompt_check' is added to ct_telnet:expect/3. If this option is used, ct_telnet will not wait for a prompt or a newline before attempting to match the given pattern.

Own Id: OTP-11095

Common_Test 1.7

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Severe errors detected by test_server (e.g. if log files directories cannot be created) will now be reported to common_test and noted in the common_test logs.

Own Id: OTP-9769 Aux Id: kunagi-202 [113]

The earlier undocumented cross cover feature for accumulating cover data over multiple tests has now been fixed and documented.

Own Id: OTP-9870 Aux Id: kunagi-206 [117]

If a busy test case generated lots of error messages, cth_log_redirect:post_end_per_testcase would crash with a timeout while waiting for the error logger to finish handling all error reports. The default timer was 5 seconds. This has now been extended to 5 minutes.

Own Id: OTP-10040 Aux Id: kunagi-173 [84]

When a test case failed because of a timetrap time out, the Config data for the case was lost in the following call to end_per_testcase/2, and also in calls to the CT Hook function post_end_per_testcase/4. This problem has been solved and the Config data is now correctly passed to the above functions after a timetrap timeout failure.

Own Id: OTP-10070 Aux Id: kunagi-175 [86]

Some calls to deprecated and removed functions in snmp are removed from ct_snmp.

Own Id: OTP-10088 Aux Id: kunagi-176 [87]

In test_server, the same process would supervise the currently running test case and be group leader (and IO server) for the test case. Furthermore, when running parallel test cases, new temporary supervisor/group leader processes were spawned and the process that was group leader for sequential test cases would not be active. That would lead to several problems:

* Processes started by init_per_suite will inherit the group leader of the init_per_suite process (and that group leader would not process IO requests when parallel test cases was running). If later a parallel test case caused such a processto print using (for example) io:format/2, the calling would hang.

* Similarly, if a process was spawned from a parallel test case, it would inherit the temporary group leader for that parallel test case. If that spawned process later - when the group of parallel tests have finished - attempted to print something, its group leader would be dead and there would be badarg exception.

Those problems have been solved by having group leaders separate from the processes that supervises the test cases, and keeping temporary group leader process for parallel test cases alive until no more process in the system use them as group leaders.

Also, a new unexpected_io.log log file (reachable from the summary page of each test suite) has been introduced. All unexpected IO will be printed into it(for example, IO to a group leader for a parallel test case that has finished).

Own Id: OTP-10101 Aux Id: OTP-10125

Some bugfixes in ct_snmp:

ct_snmp will now use the value of the 'agent_vsns' config variable when setting the 'variables' parameter to snmp application agent configuration. Earlier this had to be done separately - i.e. the supported versions had to be specified twice. Snmp application failed to write notify.conf since ct_snmp gave the notify type as a string instead of an atom. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-10432

Some bugfixes in ct_snmp:

Functions register_users/2, register_agents/2 and register_usm_users/2, and the corresponding unregister_*/1 functions were not executable. These are corrected/rewritten. Function update_usm_users/2 is removed, and an unregister function is added instead. Update can now be done with unregister_usm_users and then register_usm_users. Functions unregister_*/2 are added, so specific users/agents/usm users can be unregistered. Function unload_mibs/1 is added for completeness. Overriding configuration files did not work, since the files were written in priv_dir instead of in the configuration dir (priv_dir/conf). This has been corrected. Arguments to register_usm_users/2 were faulty documented. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-10434 Aux Id: kunagi-264 [175]

Faulty exported specs in common test has been corrected to ct_netconfc:hook_options/0 and inet:hostname/0

Own Id: OTP-10601

The netconf client in common_test did not adjust the window after receiving data. Due to this, the client stopped receiving data after a while. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-10646

Improvements and New Features

It is now possible to let a test specification include other test specifications. Included specs can either be joined with the source spec (and all other joined specs), resulting in one single test run, or they can be executed in separate test runs. Also, a start flag/option, join_specs, has been introduced, to be used in combination with the spec option. With join_specs, Common Test can be told to either join multiple test specifications, or run them separately. Without join_specs, the latter behaviour is default. Note that this is a change compared to earlier versions of Common Test, where specifications could only be joined. More information can be found in the Running Tests chapter in the User's Guide (see the Test Specifications section).

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-9881 Aux Id: kunagi-350 [261]

The ct_slave:start/3 function now supports an {env,[{Var,Value}]} option to extend environment for the slave node.

Own Id: OTP-10469 Aux Id: kunagi-317 [228]

Some examples overflowing the width of PDF pages have been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-10665

Update common test modules to handle unicode:

Use UTF-8 encoding for all HTML files, except the HTML version of the test suite generated with erl2html2:convert, which will have the same encoding as the original test suite (.erl) file. Encode link targets in HTML files with test_server_ctrl:uri_encode/1. Use unicode modifier 't' with ~s when appropriate. Use unicode:characters_to_list and unicode:characters_to_binary for conversion between binaries and strings instead of binary_to_list and list_to_binary.

Own Id: OTP-10783

Known Bugs and Problems

CT drops error reason when groups/0 crashes.

Own Id: OTP-10631 Aux Id: kunagi-345 [256]

Event handler on a ct_master node causes hanging.

Own Id: OTP-10634 Aux Id: kunagi-347 [258]

CT fails to open telnet conn after a timetrap timeout.

Own Id: OTP-10648 Aux Id: seq12212

Common_Test 1.6.3

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The ct:run_test/1 option 'config' only worked with a single config file, not a list of files. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-10495

ct_netconfc:close_session sometimes returned {error,closed} because the ssh connection was closed (from the server side) before the rpc-reply was received by the client. This is normal and can not be helped. It has been corrected so the return will be 'ok' in this case. Other error situations will still give {error,Reason}.

Own Id: OTP-10510 Aux Id: kunagi-320 [231]

ct_netconfc:close_session sometimes returned {error,closed} or (if the connection was named) {error,{process_down,Pid,normal}} because the ssh connection was closed (from the server side) before the rpc-reply was received by the client. This is normal and can not be helped. It has been corrected so the return will be 'ok' in this situation.

Own Id: OTP-10570

Fix bug where ct:require of same name with same config would return name_in_use.

Own Id: OTP-10572

Improvements and New Features

A new test case group search functionality has been implemented that makes Common Test search automatically through the group definitions tree (the return value of groups/0) and create tests for all paths of nested groups that match the specification. It also allows for specifying unique paths to sub groups in order to avoid execution of unwanted tests. This new feature can be used whenever starting a test run by means of the ct_run program, the ct:run_test/1 API function, or a Test Specification. Details can be found in the Test Case Group Execution section in the Running Tests chapter.

Own Id: OTP-10466 Aux Id: kunagi-276 [187]

Known Bugs and Problems

Restore Config data if lost when test case fails.

Own Id: OTP-10070 Aux Id: kunagi-175 [86]

IO server error in test_server.

Own Id: OTP-10125 Aux Id: OTP-10101, kunagi-177 [88]

Faulty connection handling in common_test.

Own Id: OTP-10126 Aux Id: kunagi-178 [89]

Common_Test 1.6.2

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

If a CT hook function caused a crash, this could in some situations cause Common Test to terminate due to an illegal IO operation. This error has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-10050 Aux Id: seq12039

The Common Test documentation states that timetraps are never active during execution of CT hook functions. This was only true for post hook functions, not for pre hook functions. The code for CT hooks has been modified to behave according to the documentation.

Own Id: OTP-10069

If a CT hook function would call the exit/1 or throw/1 BIF (possibly indirectly, e.g. as a result of a timeout in gen_server:call/3), Common Test would hang. This problem has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-10072 Aux Id: seq12053

The documentation has been updated with information about how to deal with chaining of hooks which return fail/skip.

Own Id: OTP-10077 Aux Id: seq12048

When ct_hooks called the id/1 functions of multiple hooks, it would reverse the order of the hooks and call the proceeding init/2 calls in the wrong order. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-10135

The surefire hook now correctly handles autoskipped initialization and test functions.

Own Id: OTP-10158

The ct:get_status/0 function failed to report status if a parallel test case group was running at the time of the call. This has been fixed and the return value for the function has been updated. Please see the ct reference manual for details.

Own Id: OTP-10172

Improvements and New Features

The support for "silent connections" has been updated to include ssh. Also, a silent_connections term has been added to the set of test specification terms.

Own Id: OTP-9625 Aux Id: seq11918

It is now possible to specify an arbitrarily large tuple as the requires config data when using require and ct:get_config. See the ct:get_config and ct:require reference manual pages for details about which keys are allowed.

This change introduces a backwards incompatability in the ct:require/2 interface. Previously when doing ct:require(a_name,{key,subkey}), a_name would be associated with key. This has been changed to that a_name is associated with subkey. This change also effects using require in an suite/group/testcase info function.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-9626 Aux Id: seq11920

The ct_run program now sets the OS process exit status before it ends. Value 0 indicates a successful test result, 1 indicates one or more failed or auto-skipped test cases, and 2 indicates test execution failure.

Own Id: OTP-9865 Aux Id: OTP-10087

It is now possible to sort the HTML tables by clicking on the header elements. In order to reset a sorted table, the browser window should simply be refreshed. This feature requires that the browser supports javascript, and has javascript execution enabled. If the 'ct_run -basic_html' flag is used, no javascript code is included in the generated HTML code.

Own Id: OTP-9896 Aux Id: seq12034, OTP-9835

A netconf client, ct_netconfc, is added to common_test. It supports basic netconf functionality over SSH. In order to allow testing of both success and failure cases, it is intentionally written to allow non-standard behavior.

Own Id: OTP-10025

The test specification term {define,Constant,Value} has been introduced, which makes it possible to replace constant names (atom()) with values (term()) in arbitrary test specification terms. The 'define' makes the (now deprecated) 'alias' term obsolete. More details, including examples, can be found in the Test Specifications chapter in the Common Test User's Guide.

Own Id: OTP-10049

Verbosity levels for log printouts has been added. This makes it possible to specify preferred verbosity for different categories of log printouts, as well as general printouts (such as standard IO), to allow control over which strings get printed and which get ignored. New versions of the Common Test logging functions, ct:log, ct:pal and ct:print, have been introduced, with a new Importance argument added. The Importance value is compared to the verbosity level at runtime. More information can be found in the chapter about Logging in the Common Test User's Guide.

Own Id: OTP-10067 Aux Id: seq12050

The return values of ct:run_test/1 and ct:run_testspec/1 have been changed from an uninformative 'ok' (independent of the test outcome) to a value, {Ok,Failed,{UserSkipped,AutoSkipped}} (all integers), that presents the final test case result, or a value, {error,Reason}, that informs about fatal test execution failure. See details in the reference manual for ct.

Own Id: OTP-10087 Aux Id: OTP-9865

The test specification syntax has been updated with new and missing terms, such as 'define', 'verbosity', 'auto_compile', 'stylesheet', 'silent_connections', 'basic_html' and 'release_shell'. See the Test Specification chapter in the Common Test User's Guide for details.

Own Id: OTP-10089 Aux Id: OTP-10049

It is now possible to pause execution of a test case, by calling the ct:break/1/2 function. Execution is resumed with a call to ct:continue/0/1. Break/continue also works for test cases executing in parallel. See the ct reference manual for details.

Own Id: OTP-10127

It is now possible to send user defined events from a testcase which will be picked up by the installed event handler.

Own Id: OTP-10157

A new start option, release_shell, for ct:run_test/1, has been added, which makes Common Test release the shell process after the test suite compilation phase is finished. For details, see the Running Tests chapter in the User's Guide.

Own Id: OTP-10248 Aux Id: OTP-10127

Common_Test 1.6.1

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Common Test adds the test suite directories to the code path before executing the tests. These directories should also be removed from the code path at the end of the test run, which, prior to this fix, was not performed.

Own Id: OTP-9595

An entry is now created in the index.html file (i.e. the overview file for the test run) for each repeated test during a test run. This was previously not the case. Note that in the top level (logdir) index file, however, only the last test result is listed. For example, given the test spec: [{merge_tests,false},{dirs,"test1"},{dirs,"test1"}]. In the index file for the test run (under Logdir/ct_run.Node.Date.Time), both tests are listed. In the top level index file (under Logdir), only the last test is listed (one has to find the previous results through the all_runs.html file).

Own Id: OTP-9634 Aux Id: seq11924

After a test case timeout or abortion, the end_per_testcase function executes on a new dedicated process. The group leader for this process should be set to the IO server for the test case, which was not done properly. The result of this error was that no warnings about end_per_testcase failing or timing out were ever printed in the test case log. Also, help functions such as e.g. test_server:stop_node/1, attempting to synchronize with the IO server, would hang. The fault has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-9666

The ct:get_status/0 function would cause the calling process to receive 'DOWN' messages if no tests were running at the time of the call. This bug has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9830 Aux Id: seq11975

A deadlock situation could occur if Common Test is forwarding error_handler printouts to Test Server at the same time a new test case is starting. This error has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9894

A link to the ct_run program is now created, as expected, in the installation bin directory (default /usr/local/bin) during 'make install'.

Own Id: OTP-9898

Using the repeat, duration or until option with ct:run_test/1, would cause an infinite loop. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9899

Two or more test cases executing in parallel and printing to screen at the same time with ct:pal/2/3 or ct:print/2/3 could write into each other's "slots" and create a mess of mixed strings. In order to avoid this, only a single IO message is now ever sent per printout call.

Own Id: OTP-9900 Aux Id: OTP-9904

When a test case was killed because of a timetrap timeout, the current location (suite, case and line) was not printed correctly in the log files. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-9930 Aux Id: seq12002

The wrong exit location was printed in the log file when ct:fail/1 or ct_fail/2 was called.

Own Id: OTP-9933 Aux Id: seq12002

Test Server and Common Test would add new error handlers with each test run and fail to remove previously added ones. In the case of Test Server, this would only happen if SASL was not running on the test node. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9941 Aux Id: seq12009

If a test case process was terminated due to an exit signal from a linked process, Test Server failed to report the correct name of the suite and case to the framework. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-9958 Aux Id: OTP-9855

When starting a test with ct_run and adding a directory to the code path using -pa or -pz (preceding -erl_args), Common Test would delete any existing directory in the code path with the same base name (see filename:basename/1) as the directory being added. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9964

If passing two or more directories with the same base name (see filename:basename/1) to Common Test with ct_run -pa, only one of the directories would actually be added.

Own Id: OTP-9975 Aux Id: seq12019

Configuration data required by the group info function was deleted before the call to post_end_per_group, which made it impossible for the hook function to read and use the data in question. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9989

Disabling built-in hooks in a test specification was ignored, this has now been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-10009

Various typographical errors corrected in documentation for common_test, driver, erl_driver and windows installation instructions. (Thanks to Tuncer Ayaz)

Own Id: OTP-10037

Improvements and New Features

A new optional feature has been introduced that enables Common Test to generate priv_dir directory names that are unique for each test case or config function. The name of the option/flag is 'create_priv_dir' and it can be set to value 'auto_per_run' (which is the default, existing, behaviour), or 'auto_per_tc' or 'manual_per_tc'. If 'auto_per_tc' is used, Test Server creates a dedicated priv_dir automatically for each test case (which can be very expensive in case of many and/or repeated cases). If 'manual_per_tc' is used, the user needs to create the priv_dir explicitly by calling the new function ct:make_priv_dir/0.

Own Id: OTP-9659 Aux Id: seq11930

A column for test case group name has been added to the suite overview HTML log file.

Own Id: OTP-9730 Aux Id: seq11952

It is now possible to use the post_end_per_testcase CT hook function to print a comment for a test case in the overview log file, even if the test case gets killed by a timetrap or unknown exit signal, or if the end_per_testcase function times out.

Own Id: OTP-9855 Aux Id: seq11979

The pre- and post CT hook functions are now always called for all configuration functions, even for configuration functions that are not implemented in the test suite.

Own Id: OTP-9880 Aux Id: seq11993

Common Test will now print error information (with a time stamp) in the test case log file immediately when a test case fails. This makes it easier to see when, in time, the fault actually occured, and aid the job of locating relevant trace and debug printouts in the log.

Own Id: OTP-9904 Aux Id: seq11985, OTP-9900

Test Server has been modified to check the SASL errlog_type parameter when receiving an error logger event, so that it doesn't print reports of type that the user has disabled.

Own Id: OTP-9955 Aux Id: seq12013

The test specification term 'skip_groups' was implemented in Common Test v1.6. It was never documented however, which has now been attended to. Please see the Test Specifications chapter in the User's Guide for information.

Own Id: OTP-9972

The Common Test Master has been updated to use a CSS style sheet for the html log files.

Own Id: OTP-9973

If the init_per_group/2 and end_per_group/2 functions are not implemented in the test suite, Common Test calls it's own local init- and end functions - previously named ct_init_per_group/2 and ct_end_per_group/2 - when a group is executed. These functions have been renamed init_per_group/2 and end_per_group/2 respectively. Note that this may affect any user event handler identifying events by the old names.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-9986 Aux Id: OTP-9992

By specifying a user defined function ({M,F,A} or fun) as timetrap value, either by means of an info function or by calling ct:timetrap/1, it is now possible to set a timetrap that will be triggered when the user function returns.

Own Id: OTP-9988 Aux Id: OTP-9501, seq11894

If the optional configuration functions init_per_suite/1 and end_per_suite/1 are not implemented in the test suite, local Common Test versions of these functions are called instead, and will be displayed in the overview log file. Any printouts made by the pre- or post_init_per_suite and pre- or post_end_per_suite hook functions are saved in the log files for these functions.

Own Id: OTP-9992

A hook has been added to common test which outputs surefire XML for usage together with CI tools such as Jenkins. To enable the hook pass '-ct_hooks cth_surefire' to ct_run. See the CTH documentation for more details.

Own Id: OTP-9995

Common_Test 1.6

Improvements and New Features

A Getting Started chapter has been added to the Common Test User's Guide.

Own Id: OTP-9156

The test case group info function has been implemented in Common Test. Before execution of a test case group, a call is now made to TestSuite:group(GroupName). The function returns a list of test properties, e.g. to specify timetrap values, require configuration data, etc (analogue to the test suite- and test case info function). The scope of the properties set by group(GroupName) is all test cases and sub-groups of group GroupName.

Own Id: OTP-9235

Common Test hooks are now in a final supported version. The Common Test hooks allow you to abstract out initialization behaviour that is common to multiple test suites into one place and also extend the behaviour of a suite without changing the suite itself. For more information see the Common Test user's guide.

Own Id: OTP-9449

A new built-in common test hook has been added which captures error_logger and SASL event and prints them in the testcase log. To disable this (and any other built-in hooks) pass 'enable_builtin_hooks false' to common test.

Own Id: OTP-9543

Common Test now calls info functions also for the init/end_per_suite/1 and init/end_per_group/2 configuration functions. These can be used e.g. to set timetraps and require external configuration data relevant only for the configuration functions in question (without affecting properties set for groups and test cases in the suite). The info function for init/end_per_suite(Config) is init/end_per_suite(), and for init/end_per_group(GroupName,Config) it's init/end_per_group(GroupName). Info functions can not be used with init/end_per_testcase(TestCase, Config), since these configuration functions execute on the test case process and will use the same properties as the test case (i.e. properties set by the test case info function, TestCase()).

Own Id: OTP-9569

It's now possible to read the full name of the test case log file during execution. One way to do this is to lookup it up as value of the key tc_logfile in the test case Config list (which means it can also be read by a pre- or post Common Test hook function). The data is also sent with the event #event{name=tc_logfile,data={{Suite,Func},LogFileName}}, and can be read by any installed event handler.

Own Id: OTP-9676 Aux Id: seq11941

The look of the HTML log files generated by Common Test and Test Server has been improved (and made easier to customize) by means of a CSS file.

Own Id: OTP-9706

Functions ct:fail(Format, Args) and ct:comment(Format, Args) have been added in order to make printouts of formatted error and comment strings easier (no need for the user to call io_lib:format/2 explicitly).

Own Id: OTP-9709 Aux Id: seq11951

The order in which ct hooks are executed for cleanup hooks (i.e. *_end_per_* hooks) has been reversed.

*** POTENTIAL INCOMPATIBILITY ***

Own Id: OTP-9774 Aux Id: seq11913

Printouts to stdout may be captured during test case execution. This is useful in order to e.g. read and parse tty printouts from the SUT during test case execution (if necessary, say, to determine the outcome of the test). The capturing session is started with ct:capture_start/0, and stopped with ct:capture_stop/0. The list of buffered strings is read and purged with ct:capture_get/0/1. It's possible to filter out printouts made with ct:log/2/3 and ct:pal/2/3 from the captured list of strings. This is done by calling capture_get/1 with a list of log categories to exclude.

Own Id: OTP-9775

The syntax for specifying test case groups in the all/0 list has been extended to include execution properties for both groups and sub-groups. The properties specified in all/0 for a group overrides the properties specified in the group declaration (in groups/0). The main purpose of this extension is to make it possible to run the same set of tests, but with different properties, without having to declare copies of the group in question. Also, the same syntax may be used in test specifications in order to change properties of groups at the time of execution, without having to edit the test suite. Please see the User's Guide for details and examples.

Own Id: OTP-9809 Aux Id: OTP-9235

Known Bugs and Problems

Fix problems in CT/TS due to line numbers in exceptions.

Own Id: OTP-9203

Common_Test 1.5.5

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

An error in how comments are colored in the test suite overview html log file has been corrected. As result, a new framework callback function, format_comment/1, has been introduced.

Own Id: OTP-9237

Automatically generated init- and end-configuration functions for test case groups caused incorrect execution order of test cases. This has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-9369

If multiple directories were specified with the 'logdir' flag/option, Common Test would crash. This has been fixed so that an error is properly reported instead.

Own Id: OTP-9370

If ct:log/2 was called with bad arguments, this could cause the Common Test IO handling process to crash. This fault has been corrected.

Own Id: OTP-9371 Aux Id: OTP-8933

A bug has been fixed that made Test Server call the end_tc/3 framework function with an incorrect module name as first argument.

Own Id: OTP-9379 Aux Id: seq11863

If a timetrap timeout occured during execution of of a function in a lib module (i.e. a function called directly or indirectly from a test case), the Suite argument in the end_tc/3 framework callback function would not correctly contain the name of the test suite, but the lib module. (This would only happen if the lib module was compiled with ct.hrl included). This error has been solved.

Own Id: OTP-9398

Corrections of the vts mode. It will now report errors (about e.g. incorrect config files) instead of crashing or hanging. Furthermore, the requirement that the test directory name must have a "_test" suffix has been removed. Also, a workaround has been implemented for the limitation that the file browser (in many web browsers) will only return the basic file name, not the full directory path (which made it impossible to have config files in other directories than the main test directory).

Own Id: OTP-9429

Add a proplist() type

Recently I was adding specs to an API and found that there is no canonical proplist() type defined. (Thanks to Ryan Zezeski)

Own Id: OTP-9499

It is now possible to use the 'step' flag/option to run the debugger for test suites that contain test case groups. This previously caused Common Test to crash. If 'step config' is specified, breakpoints are now also automatically set on init_per_group and end_per_group. Note that breakpoints are always set automatically on test case functions and this is true also for grouped cases.

Own Id: OTP-9518 Aux Id: OTP-8933

The test index page was not refreshed at the start of each test suite which made it impossible to follow test execution by means of refreshing the browser window (no links to follow). This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9520 Aux Id: OTP-8933

If a test suite would start with a test case group defined without the init_per_group/2 and end_per_group/2 function, init_per_suite/1 would not execute initially and logging of the test run would fail. This error has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9584

The "Missing Suites" link from the top level index page was incorrect and has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-9592

Improvements and New Features

Various corrections and updates to improve the handling and reporting of errors.

Own Id: OTP-8933

The dir and suite start option can now be used in combination. E.g. executing my_SUITE in directory my_tests can either be specified as "ct_run -suite my_tests/my_SUITE" or as "ct_run -dir my_tests -suite my_SUITE". Furthermore, the specification: ct:run_test([{suite,["./my_SUITE"]},{testcase,t1}]) is now interpreted as ct:run_test([{suite,"./my_SUITE"},{testcase,t1}]), i.e. only testcase t1 in test suite my_SUITE - not all cases - will be executed.

Own Id: OTP-9155

A new option, 'logopts', has been introduced, to make it possible to modify some aspects of the logging behaviour in Common Test (or Test Server). For example, whenever an io printout is made, test_server adds newline (\n) to the end of the output string. This may not always be a preferred action and can therefore be disabled by means of "ct_run ... -logopts no_nl" (or ct:run_test([..., {logopts,[no_nl]}])). A new framework callback function, get_logopts/0, has been introduced (see the ct_framework module for details).

Own Id: OTP-9372 Aux Id: OTP-9396

A new option, 'logopts', has been introduced, to make it possible to modify some aspects of the logging behaviour in Common Test (or Test Server). For example, if the html version of the test suite source code should not be generated during the test run (and consequently be unavailable in the log file system), the feature may be disabled by means of "ct_run ... -logopts no_src" (or ct:run_test([..., {logopts,[no_src]}])). A new framework callback function, get_logopts/0, has been introduced (see the ct_framework module for details).

Own Id: OTP-9396 Aux Id: seq11869, OTP-9372

CT Hooks can now be assigned a priority. The priority of a CTH determines when it should execute in relation to other CTHs. The CTH with the lowest priority will be executed first, CTHs with equal priority will be executed in the order which they were installed.

Own Id: OTP-9445

It is now possible to use a tuple {M,F,A}, or a fun, as timetrap specification in the suite info function or test case info functions. The function must return a valid timeout value, as documented in the common_test man page and in the User's Guide.

Own Id: OTP-9501 Aux Id: seq11894

Own Id: OTP-9543

Common Test now has the possibility to have built-in hooks which are started by default when any test is run. To disable built-in hooks pass 'enable_builtin_hooks false' to common test. See the common test hooks documentation for more details.

Own Id: OTP-9564

Common_Test 1.5

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

Process calls using monitors in Common Test would not clear the inbox of remaining DOWN messages. This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-8621 Aux Id: seq11560

Improvements and New Features

It is now possible for the user to provide specific callback modules that handle test configuration data, so that data on arbitray form can be accessed (e.g. by reading files or by communicating with a configuration server process). Two default callback modules have been introduced in Common Test: ct_config_plain and ct_config_xml. The former is used to handle the traditional Common Test configuration files (with terms on key-value tuple form) and the latter to handle configuration data on XML representation.

Own Id: OTP-8485

It is now possible to execute test suites that are not necessarily available on the local file system, but have been loaded on the test node in advance (e.g. sent as binaries from a remote node and loaded by RPC). A requirement is that the no_auto_compile (or {auto_compile,false}) parameter has been set.

Own Id: OTP-8490 Aux Id: seq11500

Test Server will now call the end_per_testcase/2 function even if the test case has been terminated explicitly (with abort_current_testcase/1), or after a timetrap timeout. Under these circumstances the return value of end_per_testcase is completely ignored. Therefore the function will not be able to change the reason for test case termination by returning {fail,Reason}, nor will it be able to save data with {save_config,Data}.

Own Id: OTP-8500 Aux Id: seq11521

It is now possible to use the test specification term 'init' to start Common Test nodes automatically, as well as have initial function calls evaluated on the nodes. A default callback module for the 'init' term, ct_slave, has been introduced to enable Common Test Master to perform host login and node startup operations over ssh.

Own Id: OTP-8570

The run_test script has been replaced by a program (with the same name) which can be executed without explicit installation. The start flags are the same as for the legacy start script.

Own Id: OTP-8650

Previously, a repeat property of a test case group specified the number of times the group should be repeated after the main test run. I.e. {repeat,N} would case the group to execute 1+N times. To be consistent with the behaviour of the run_test repeat option, this has been changed. N now specifies the absolute number of executions instead.

Own Id: OTP-8689 Aux Id: seq11502

With the run_test -erl_args option, it's possible to divide the options on the run_test command line into ones that Common Test should process (those preceding -erl_args, and ones it should ignore (those succeeding -erl_args). Options preceding -erl_args that Common Test doesn't recognize are also ignored (i.e. the same behaviour as earlier versions of Common Test).

Own Id: OTP-8690 Aux Id: OTP-8650

Directories added with -pa or -pz in the pre-erl_args part of the run_test command line will be converted from relative to absolute, this to avoid problems loading user modules when Common Test switches working directory during the test run.

Own Id: OTP-8691 Aux Id: OTP-8650

The timetrap handling has been made more user controllable by means of new start options and new ct interface functions. With the 'multiply_timetraps' start option, it's possible to specify a value which all timetrap timeout values get multiplied by. This is useful e.g. to extend the timetraps temporarily while running cover or trace. The 'scale_timetraps' start option switches on or off the Test Server timetrap scaling feature (which tries to detect if the tests may benefit from extended timetraps, e.g. due to running certain test tools, and performs the scaling automatically). Furthermore, the ct:timetrap/1 function has been introduced, which makes it possible to set/reset timetraps during test execution. Also, a ct:sleep/1 function is now available, which takes the timetrap parameters into account when calculating the time to suspend the process.

Own Id: OTP-8693

A new run_test start option, event_handler_init, has been added that takes a start argument which gets passed to the init function of the event handler.

Own Id: OTP-8694

Common_Test 1.4.7

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

The auto compilation feature of Common Test did not recognize if a header file included in a test suite was modified (if the dir start flag/option was used). This has been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-8396 Aux Id: seq11488, OTP-8311

Improvements and New Features

The tc_status value in the Config list for a test case that has failed because of a timetrap timeout, has changed from {tc_status,timeout} to {tc_status,timetrap_timeout}.

Own Id: OTP-8302

The documentation is now possible to build in an open source environment after a number of bugs are fixed and some features are added in the documentation build process.

- The arity calculation is updated.

- The module prefix used in the function names for bif's are removed in the generated links so the links will look like "http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.html#append_element-2" instead of "http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/erlang.html#erlang:append_element-2".

- Enhanced the menu positioning in the html documentation when a new page is loaded.

- A number of corrections in the generation of man pages (thanks to Sergei Golovan)

- The legal notice is taken from the xml book file so OTP's build process can be used for non OTP applications.

Own Id: OTP-8343

It is now possible to include the ct.hrl using the -include_lib directive. (Thanks to Fred Hebert.)

Own Id: OTP-8379

The telnet client in Common Test sent [IAC,DO,NOP] to the server in attempt to keep the connection alive. This is not a valid sequence according to the standard, and some telnet servers would terminate the connection because of it. The client has been changed to send [IAC,NOP] every 10 secs instead, which should be a valid sequence. The client does not negotiate this type of "keep alive" message with the server, and if it causes problems, the user may disable the keep alive feature by adding {keep_alive,false} to the telnet configuration data for the server/connection. Please see the ct_telnet and unix_telnet manual pages for details.

Own Id: OTP-8450 Aux Id: OTP-8311

Common_Test 1.4.6

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

If the init_per_testcase/2 function fails, the test case now gets marked and counted as auto skipped, not user skipped (which would previously happen).

Own Id: OTP-8289

Improvements and New Features

The documentation is now built with open source tools (xsltproc and fop) that exists on most platforms. One visible change is that the frames are removed.

Own Id: OTP-8201

For a failed test case, the tc_done event is supposed to report info on the form {failed,Error}. Only Error was reported, however, which has now been fixed.

Own Id: OTP-8235 Aux Id: seq-11414

It is now possible to fail a test case from the end_per_testcase/2 function, by returning {fail,Reason}.

Own Id: OTP-8284

It is now possible to fail a test case by having the end_tc/3 framework function return {fail,Reason} for the test case.

Own Id: OTP-8285

The test_server framework API (e.g. the end_tc/3 function) has been modified. See the test_server_ctrl documentation for details.

Own Id: OTP-8286 Aux Id: OTP-8285, OTP-8287

Various updates of the test events have been implemented. The data field for some events, such as tc_done and tc_auto_skip has been modified to make pattern matching on the data easier and more consistent. Also the order in which some events are received has been altered. E.g. the tc_auto_skip event for a test case now comes after the tc_done for the failed configuration function (not before) which makes more sense. Note that no new events have been added and that the event record remains unchanged.

Own Id: OTP-8287 Aux Id: OTP-8235

The marquee used for test names on the all_runs.html page has been removed on request. Note that the test name field has the full text string in a title tag, which is displayed when hovering the mouse pointer over it (i.e. if the web browser supports title tags).

Own Id: OTP-8288

It is now possible to refresh the top level index files in an arbitrary log directory by specifying a {refresh_logs,LogDir} tuple in the ct:run_test/1 options list. Also the -refresh_logs flag for the run_test script has been extended to take an optional LogDir argument, i.e. -refresh_logs [LogDir]. If no LogDir is specified, current working directory is assumed, unless the log directory is set with the -logdir flag.

Own Id: OTP-8290

It was previously required that test suites were located under a test object (or OTP application) sub-directory named "test" (or under a directory named "<testobject>_test"). This has been changed so that Common Test now looks for suites primarily in a test sub-directory only if the directory exists. Otherwise it will assume the suites are stored in the same directory the user specifies with e.g. the 'dir' start flag/option.

Own Id: OTP-8294

Common_Test 1.4

Improvements and New Features

A support client module for SSH and SFTP, ct_ssh, has been introduced in Common Test.

Own Id: OTP-7838

Test case groups have been introduced. With this feature it's possible to execute groups (possibly nested) of test cases, each group wrapped with a call to function init_per_group/2 and end_per_group/2. Group definitions are done by means of the new call-back function groups/0, which should return a list of definitions. A group definition contains a name tag, a list of properties and a list of test cases (including possible nested group definitions). The properties make it possible to execute test cases in parallel, in sequence and in shuffled order. It is also possible to repeat test cases according to different criterias. The properties can be combined, making it possible to e.g. repeat a conf case a certain number of times and execute the test cases in different (random) order every time. Available properties are: parallel, sequence, shuffle, repeat, repeat_until_all_ok, repeat_until_any_ok, repeat_until_any_fail and repeat_until_all_fail. Please see the Common Test User's Guide for details.

Own Id: OTP-7839 Aux Id: OTP-7511

It is now possible to use DES3 encrypted configuration files with Common Test.

Own Id: OTP-7842 Aux Id: OTP-7838

In previous versions of Common Test, only one FTP connection could be opened per configuration target name. This has been updated so that multiple connections may be opened. The possibility to use named connections is still supported.

Own Id: OTP-7853 Aux Id: OTP-7838

The Erlang mode for Emacs has been updated with new and modified skeletons for Common Test and TS. Syntax for test case groups in Common Test (and conf cases with properties in TS) has been added and a new minimal Common Test suite skeleton has been introduced.

Own Id: OTP-7856

Common_Test 1.3.5

Fixed Bugs and Malfunctions

If the Erlang runtime system was started without access to an erlang shell (e.g. -noshell), compilation errors would cause a crash in the Common Test application. Without access to a shell, Common Test can not prompt the user to choose to continue or abort the test session, but must assume that the session should proceed.

Own Id: OTP-7749 Aux Id: seq11175, seq11180

Improvements and New Features

It is now possible for the Common Test user to disable the auto-compile feature. This is done by specifying the run_test flag -no_auto_compile, or the ct:run_test/1 option {auto_compile,false}.

Own Id: OTP-7663

A new function, ct:get_config/3, has been added to Common Test that makes it possible to - if a particular config variable has been defined in multiple config files - return all matching values for the variable. The order of the elements in the returned list is the same as the specified order of the config files.

Own Id: OTP-7758 Aux Id: seq11158

Because a telnet connection was always identified by a config variable alias, it was impossible to open multiple connections using the same telnet host data entry in the config file. This limitation has been removed by making it possible to associate a connection with handle value only (i.e. multiple connections may be opened using the same config variable). See ct_telnet:open/4 for details.

Own Id: OTP-7781

A new syntax for defining default config data values has been introduced. In previous versions of Common Test, to define and access a default value for a config variable (in the suite info- or test case info function), an alias name had to be used. With the new syntax you may define default values without reference to aliases, like this: {default_config,VarName,DefaultValue}. Please see the User's Guide for more info.

Own Id: OTP-7782

In previous versions of Common Test, whenever a config variable got associated with a name (by means of a require statement), the config variable name was replaced with the new name. This introduced unwanted dependencies between test cases (e.g. if one test case would introduce a new name, the following test cases could no longer access the config data by means of the original variable). This functionality has now been updated so that when new names are introduced with require, they become aliases (references) instead of replacements. Hence, config data elements can always, at any time, be accessed by means of the original config variable names.

Own Id: OTP-7783