PETSc Testing System¶

The PETSc test system consists of

A language contained within the example source files that describes the tests to be run
The test generator (config/gmakegentest.py) that at the make step parses the example source files and generates the makefiles and shell scripts.
The petsc test harness that consists of makefile and shell scripts that runs the executables with several logging and reporting features.

Details on using the harness may be found in the PETSc Users Manual.

PETSc Test Description Language¶

PETSc tests and tutorials contain within their file a simple language to describe tests and subtests required to run executables associated with compilation of that file. The general skeleton of the file is

static char help[] = "A simple MOAB example\n\

...
<source code>
...

/*TEST
   build:
     requires: moab
   testset:
     suffix: 1
     requires: !complex
   testset:
     suffix: 2
     args: -debug -fields v1,v2,v3
     test:
     test:
       args: -foo bar
TEST*/

For our language, a test is associated with the following

A single shell script
A single makefile
A single output file that represents the expected esults

Two or more command tests, usually, one or more mpiexec tests that run the executable, and one or more diff tests to compare output with the expected result.

Our language also supports a testset that specifies either a new test entirely or multiple executable/diff tests within a single test. At the core, the executable/diff test combination will look something like this:

mpiexec -n 1 ../ex1 1> ex1.tmp 2> ex1.err
diff ex1.tmp output/ex1.out 1> diff-ex1.tmp 2> diff-ex1.err

In practice, we want to do various logging and counting by the test harness; as are explained further below. The input language supports simple yet flexible test control, and we begin by describing this language.

Runtime Language Options¶

At the end of each test file, a marked comment block, using YAML, is inserted to describe the test(s) to be run. The elements of the test are done with a set of supported key words that sets up the test.

The goals of the language are to be

as minimal as possible with the simplest test requiring only one keyword,
independent of the filename such that a file can be renamed without rewriting the tests, and
intuitive.

In order to enable the second goal, the basestring of the filename is defined as the filename without the extension; for example, if the filename is ex1.c, then basestring=ex1.

With this background, these keywords are as follows.

testset or test: (Required)
- At the top level either a single test or a test set must be specified. All other keywords are sub-entries of this keyword.
suffix: (Optional; Default: suffix="")
- The test name is given by testname = basestring if the suffix is set to an empty string, and by testname = basestring + "_" + suffix otherwise.
- This can be specified only for top level test nodes.
output_file: (Optional; Default: output_file = "output/" + testname + ".out")
- The output of the test is to be compared with an expected result whose name is given by output_file.
- This file is described relative to the source directory of the source file and should be in the output subdirectory (for example, output/ex1.out)
nsize: (Optional; Default: nsize=1)
- This integer is passed to mpiexec; i.e., mpiexec -n nsize
args: (Optional; Default: "")
- These arguments are passed to the executable.
TODO: (Optional; Default: False)
- Setting this Boolean to True will tell the test to appear in the test harness but report only TODO per the TAP standard.
- A runscript will be generated and can easily be modified by hand to run.
filter: (Optional; Default: "")
- Sometimes only a subset of the output is meant to be tested against the expected result. If this keyword is used, it processes the executable output and puts it into the file to be actually compared with output_file.
- The value of this is the command to be run, for example, grep foo or sort -nr.
- If the filter begins with Error:, then the test is assumed to be testing the stderr output, and the error code and output are set up to be tested.
filter_output: (Optional; Default: "")
- Sometimes filtering the output file is useful for standardizing tests. For example, in order to handle the issues related to parallel output, both the output from the test example and the output file need to be sorted (since sort does not produce the same output on all machines). This works the same as filter to implement this feature
localrunfiles: (Optional; Default: "")
- The tests are run under PETSC_ARCH/tests, but some tests require runtime files that are maintained in the source tree. Files in this (space-delimited) list will be copied over. If you list a directory instead of files, it will copy the entire directory (this is limited currently to a single directory)
- The copying is done by the test generator and not by creating makefile dependencies.
requires: (Optional; Default: "")
- This is a space-delimited list of run requirements (not build requirements; see Build requirements below).
- In general, the language supports and and not constructs using ! => not and , => and.
- MPIUNI should work for all -n 1 examples so this need not be in the requirements list.
- Inputs sometimes require external matrices that are found in the DATAFILES path. For these tests requires: datafilespath can be specifed.
- Packages are indicated with lower-case specification, for example, requires: superlu_dist.
- Any defined variable in petscconf.h can be specified with the defined(...) syntax, for example, defined(PETSC_USE_INFO).
- Any definition of the form PETSC_HAVE_FOO can just use requires: foo similar to how third-party packages are handled.
timeoutfactor: (Optional; Default: "1")
- This parameter allows you to extend the default timeout for an individual test such that the new timeout time is timeout=(default timeout) x (timeoutfactor).
- Tests are limited to a set time that is found at the top of "config/petsc_harness.sh" and can be overwritten by passing in the TIMEOUT argument to gmakefile (see make -f gmakefile help.

Additional Specifications¶

In addition to the above keywords, other language features are supported.

for loops: Specifying ! … shared output! or ! … separate output! will create for loops over an enclosed space-delmited list. If the loop causes a different output, then separate output would be used. If the loop does not cause separate output, then the shared (in shorthand notation, !… !) syntax must be used.

For loops are supported within nsize and args. An example is
args: -matload_block_size {{2 3}}
In this case, two execution lines would be addded with two different arguments. Associated diff lines would be added as well automatically.

Here the output for each matloadblocksize is assumed to give the same output so that only one diff file is needed. If the variables produced different output, then the separate output option would be added. In this case, each loop variable and value become a separate script.

See examples below for how it works in practice.

Test Block Examples¶

The following is the simplest test block:

/*TEST test: TEST*/

which is equivalent to

/*TEST testset: test: TEST*/

which is equivalent to

/*TEST testset: TEST*/

If this block is in src/a/b/examples/tutorials/ex1.c, then it will create a_b_tutorials-ex1 test that requires only one processor/thread, with no arguments, and diff the resultant output with src/a/b/examples/tutorials/output/ex1.out.

For Fortran, the equivalent is

!/*TEST ! test: !TEST*/

A more complete example is

/*TEST
  test:
  test:
    suffix: 1
    nsize: 2
    args: -t 2 -pc_type jacobi -ksp_monitor_short -ksp_type gmres
    args: -ksp_gmres_cgs_refinement_type refine_always -s2_ksp_type bcgs
    args: -s2_pc_type jacobi -s2_ksp_monitor_short
    requires: x
TEST*/

This creates two tests. Assuming that this is src/a/b/examples/tutorials/ex1.c, the tests would be a_b_tutorials-ex1 and a_b_tutorials-ex1_1.

Following is an example of how to test a permutuation of arguments against the same output file:

/*TEST
  testset:
    suffix: 19
    requires: datafilespath
    args: -f0 ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/poisson1
    args: -ksp_type cg -pc_type icc -pc_factor_levels 2
    test:
    test:
      args: -mat_type seqsbaij
TEST*/

Assuming that this is ex10.c, there would be two mpiexec/diff invocations in runex10_19.sh.

Here is a similar example, but the permutation of arguments creates different output:

/*TEST
  testset:
    requires: datafilespath
    args: -f0 ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/medium
    args: -ksp_type bicg
    test:
      suffix: 4
      args: -pc_type lu
    test:
      suffix: 5
TEST*/

Assuming that this is ex10.c, two shell scripts will be created: runex10_4.sh and runex10_5.sh.

An example using a for loop is:

/*TEST
  testset:
    suffix: 1
    args:   -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type aij
    requires: datafilespath
  testset:
    suffix: 2
    output_file: output/ex138_1.out
    args: -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small
    args: -mat_type baij -matload_block_size {{2 3}shared output}
    requires: datafilespath
TEST*/

In this example, ex138_2 will invoke runex138_2.sh twice with two different arguments, but both are diffed with the same file.

Following is an example showing the hierarchical nature of the test specification.

/*TEST
  testset:
    suffix:2
    output_file: output/ex138_1.out
    args: -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type baij
    test:
      args: -matload_block_size 2
    test:
      args: -matload_block_size 3
TEST*/

This is functionally equivalent to the for loop shown above.

Here is a more complex example using for loops:

/*TEST
  testset:
    suffix: 19
    requires: datafilespath
    args: -f0 ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/poisson1
    args: -ksp_type cg -pc_type icc
    args: -pc_factor_levels {{0 2 4}separate output}
    test:
    test:
      args: -mat_type seqsbaij
TEST*/

If this is in ex10.c, then the shell scripts generated would be

runex10_19_pc_factor_levels-0.sh
runex10_19_pc_factor_levels-2.sh
runex10_19_pc_factor_levels-4.sh

Each shell script would invoke twice.

Build Language Options¶

You can specify issues related to the compilation of the source file with the build: block. The language is as follows.

requires: (Optional; Default: "")
- Same as the runtime requirements (for example, can include requires: fftw) but also requirements related to types:
  1. Precision types: single, double, quad, int32
  2. Scalar types: complex (and !complex)
- In addition, TODO is available to allow you to skip the build of this file but still maintain it in the source tree.
depends: (Optional; Default: "")
- List any dependencies required to compile the file

A typical example for compiling for only real numbers is

/*T build: requires: !complex T*/

PETSC Test Harness¶

The goals of the PETSc test harness are threefold.

Provide standard output used by other testing tools
Be as lightweight as possible and easily fit within the PETSc build chain
Provide information on all tests, even those that are not built or run because they do not meet the configuration requirements

Before understanding the test harness, you should first understand the desired requirements for reporting and logging.

Testing the Parsing¶

After inserting the language into the file, you can test the parsing by executing

A dictionary will be pretty-printed. From this dictionary printout, any problems in the parsing are is usually obvious. This python file is used by

in generating the test harness.

Test Output Standards: TAP¶

The PETSc test system is designed to be compliant with the Test Anything Protocal (TAP); see https://testanything.org/tap-specification.html

This is a simple standard designed to allow testing tools to work together easily. There are libraries to enable the output to be used easily, including sharness, which is used by the git team. However, the simplicity of the PETSc tests and TAP specification means that we use our own simple harness given by a single shell script that each file sources: petsc_harness.sh.

As an example, consider this test input:

/*TEST
  test:
    suffix: 2
    output_file: output/ex138.out
    args: -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type {{aij baij sbaij}} -matload_block_size {{2 3}}
    requires: datafilespath
*/TEST

A sample output follows.

ok 1 In mat...tests: "./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type aij -matload_block_size 2"
ok 2 In mat...tests: "Diff of ./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type aij -matload_block_size 2"
ok 3 In mat...tests: "./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type aij -matload_block_size 3"
ok 4 In mat...tests: "Diff of ./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type aij -matload_block_size 3"
ok 5 In mat...tests: "./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type baij -matload_block_size 2"
ok 6 In mat...tests: "Diff of ./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type baij -matload_block_size 2"
...

ok 11 In mat...tests: "./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type saij -matload_block_size 2"
ok 12 In mat...tests: "Diff of ./ex138 -f ${DATAFILESPATH}/matrices/small -mat_type aij -matload_block_size 2"

Test Harness Implementation¶

Most of the requirements for being TAP-compliant lie in the shell scripts, so we focus on that description.

A sample shell script is given the following.

#!/bin/sh
. petsc_harness.sh

petsc_testrun ./ex1 ex1.tmp ex1.err
petsc_testrun 'diff ex1.tmp output/ex1.out' diff-ex1.tmp diff-ex1.err

petsc_testend

petsc_harness.sh is a small shell script that provides the logging and reporting functions petsc_testrun and petsc_testend.

A small sample of the output from the test harness is as follows.

ok 1 ./ex1
ok 2 diff ex1.tmp output/ex1.out
not ok 4 ./ex2
#   ex2: Error: cannot read file
not ok 5 diff ex2.tmp output/ex2.out
ok 7 ./ex3 -f /matrices/small -mat_type aij -matload_block_size 2
ok 8 diff ex3.tmp output/ex3.out
ok 9 ./ex3 -f /matrices/small -mat_type aij -matload_block_size 3
ok 10 diff ex3.tmp output/ex3.out
ok 11 ./ex3 -f /matrices/small -mat_type baij -matload_block_size 2
ok 12 diff ex3.tmp output/ex3.out
ok 13 ./ex3 -f /matrices/small -mat_type baij -matload_block_size 3
ok 14 diff ex3.tmp output/ex3.out
ok 15 ./ex3 -f /matrices/small -mat_type sbaij -matload_block_size 2
ok 16 diff ex3.tmp output/ex3.out
ok 17 ./ex3 -f /matrices/small -mat_type sbaij -matload_block_size 3
ok 18 diff ex3.tmp output/ex3.out
# FAILED   4 5
# failed 2/16 tests; 87.500% ok

For developers, modifying the lines that get written to the file can be done by modifying ${PETSC_DIR}/config/example_template.py.

To modify the test harness, you can modify ${PETSC_DIR}/config/petsc_harness.sh.

Additional Tips¶

To rerun just the reporting use

config/report_tests.py

To see the full options use

config/report_tests.py -h

To see the full timing information for the five most expensive tests use

config/report_tests.py -t 5

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