Re: [jamboost] Regression test log request

From: David Abrahams (david.abrahams_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-07-10 17:57:49

----- Original Message -----
From: "Beman Dawes" <bdawes_at_[hidden]>

> Is there any chance of getting the current regression test to write a
> message to cout at the start of each test giving the name of the test and
> the toolset name?
>
> By "start" I mean before any other messages related to that test appear.

We have a generalized DAG describing target dependencies. You want a
message to appear when the first target on which some test target is
dependent starts to build. Jam doesn't work that way. The make process
proceeds by recursive descent through the build dependency tree, starting
at the target you requested to build. It proceeds from dependents to their
dependencies. There's no provision for looking back up at all the
dependents of a target. In fact, a target (such as a library) may well have
multiple dependent test targets. When we start to build that target, which
test are we starting?

> What I'm finding is that just knowing if a test failed isn't good enough;
> you have to be able to find out why the test failed. That means parsing
> the cout log information, and that is very hard to do currently because
it
> is so hard to relate some test failures to particular cout log
information.

It's clear to me that we need to look at what features a build system needs
in order to support testing, and we'll need to modify Jam accordingly.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that right now, much less to do
it alone. Because it's clear that some momentum is building behind the
testing system, I'd be willing to help someone else think it through. If
it's not too complicated, we can try to implement it (though this is
probably the hairiest part of the Jam source).

-Dave