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  29 >DejaGnu: The GNU Testing Framework</TH
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  60 ><H1
  61 ><A
  62 NAME="OVERVIEW"
  63 >Chapter 1. Overview</A
  64 ></H1
  65 ><DIV
  66 CLASS="TOC"
  67 ><DL
  68 ><DT
  69 ><B
  70 >Table of Contents</B
  71 ></DT
  72 ><DT
  73 ><A
  74 HREF="overview.html#WHATIS"
  75 >What is DejaGnu ?</A
  76 ></DT
  77 ><DT
  78 ><A
  79 HREF="new.html"
  80 >What's New In This Release</A
  81 ></DT
  82 ><DT
  83 ><A
  84 HREF="designgoals.html"
  85 >Design Goals</A
  86 ></DT
  87 ><DT
  88 ><A
  89 HREF="posix.html"
  90 >A POSIX conforming test framework</A
  91 ></DT
  92 ></DL
  93 ></DIV
  94 ><DIV
  95 CLASS="SECT1"
  96 ><H1
  97 CLASS="SECT1"
  98 ><A
  99 NAME="WHATIS"
 100 >What is DejaGnu ?</A
 101 ></H1
 102 ><P
 103 ><SPAN
 104 CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
 105 >DejaGnu</SPAN
 106 > is a framework for
 107         testing other programs.  Its purpose is to provide a single
 108         front end for all tests. Think of it as a custom library of
 109         Tcl procedures crafted to support writing a test harness. A
 110         <I
 111 CLASS="EMPHASIS"
 112 >Test Harness</I
 113 > is the testing
 114         infrastructure that is created to support a specific program
 115         or tool. Each program can have multiple test suites, all
 116         supported by a single test harness. DejaGnu is written in
 117         <SPAN
 118 CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
 119 >Expect</SPAN
 120 >, which in turn uses
 121         <SPAN
 122 CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
 123 >Tcl</SPAN
 124 > -- Tool command
 125         language. There is more information on Tcl at the <A
 126 HREF="http://www.scriptics.com"
 127 TARGET="_top"
 128 >Scriptics</A
 129 > web site, and the
 130         Expect web site is at <A
 131 HREF="http://expect.nist.gov"
 132 TARGET="_top"
 133 >NIST</A
 134 >.</P
 135 ><P
 136 >DejaGnu offers several advantages for testing:</P
 137 ><P
 138 ></P
 139 ><UL
 140 COMPACT="COMPACT"
 141 ><LI
 142 STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
 143 ><P
 144 >The flexibility and consistency of the DejaGnu
 145         framework make it easy to write tests for any program, with
 146         either batch oriented, or interactive programs.</P
 147 ></LI
 148 ><LI
 149 STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
 150 ><P
 151 >DejaGnu provides a layer of abstraction which
 152         allows you to write tests that are portable to any host or
 153         target where a program must be tested. For instance, a test
 154         for <B
 155 CLASS="COMMAND"
 156 >GDB</B
 157 > can run (from any Unix
 158         based host) on any target architecture that DejaGnu
 159         supports. Currently DejaGnu runs tests on many single board
 160         computers, whose operating software ranges from just a boot
 161         monitor to a full-fledged, Unix-like realtime OS.</P
 162 ></LI
 163 ><LI
 164 STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
 165 ><P
 166 >All tests have the same output format. This
 167         makes it easy to integrate testing into other software
 168         development processes. DejaGnu's output is designed to be
 169         parsed by other filtering script, and it is also human
 170         readable.</P
 171 ></LI
 172 ><LI
 173 STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
 174 ><P
 175 >Using Tcl and expect, it's easy to create wrappers
 176       for existing test suites. By incorporating existing tests under
 177       DejaGnu, it's easier to have a single set of report analyse
 178       programs..</P
 179 ></LI
 180 ></UL
 181 ><P
 182 >Running tests requires two things: the testing framework, and
 183     the test suites themselves. Tests are usually written in
 184     <SPAN
 185 CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
 186 >Expect</SPAN
 187 > using Tcl, but you can also use a
 188     Tcl script to run a test suite that is not based on
 189     <SPAN
 190 CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
 191 >Expect</SPAN
 192 >.
 193     (<SPAN
 194 CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
 195 >expect</SPAN
 196 > script filenames conventionally
 197     use <I
 198 CLASS="EMPHASIS"
 199 >.exp</I
 200 > as a suffix; for example, the main
 201     implementation of the DejaGnu test driver is in the file
 202     <SPAN
 203 CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
 204 >runtest.exp</SPAN
 205 >.)</P
 206 ><P
 207 >Julia Menapace first coined the term ``Deja Gnu'' to describe an
 208     earlier testing framework at Cygnus Support she had written for
 209     <B
 210 CLASS="COMMAND"
 211 >GDB</B
 212 >. When we replaced it with the Expect-based
 213     framework, it was like DejaGnu all over again... But more importantly, it
 214     was also named after my daughter,<A
 215 HREF="mailto:deja@welcomehome.org"
 216 TARGET="_top"
 217 >Deja Snow Savoye</A
 218 > (now 9
 219     years old in Dec of 1998), who was a toddler during DejaGnu's
 220     creation.</P
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