Re: Test framework thoughts

[Thomas Gazagnaire <thomas.gazagnaire@xxxxxxxxx>]

> There are a few testing libraries that are easy to incorporate (e.g. oUnit or 
> Kaputt), but I've been wondering if we can just use ocamlbuild to make things 
> much easier.  It supports dynamic build dependencies (much as our CIEL 
> framework also does), so a test can block mid-test and wait for another 
> target to finish. 

> An individual test could be written as a module (say Foo), with a foo.test 
> file that describes any dependencies and parameters, and ocamlbuild could 
> just run them in parallel.  I'm still thinking it through, but wondering if 
> anyone else has any thoughts on this. 

I don't see why using ocamlbuild can really help here. What I have started to 
do in another project is the following :

* The unit-tests of foo.ml are written in foo_test.ml, in keeping the same 
structure (ie. if you have Bar.x inside foo.ml, then you have an easy way to 
register the test "Bar.x"  in foo_test.ml :
module Bar = struct
  let x = Test.group "x" [ test (fun () -> <something which returns bool> ]
  let test = Test.group "Bar" [ x ]
end

* At the end of foo_test.ml, you have something like :
Test.register [ Bar.test ]

* And then elsewhere, you have a main test file which just does : Test.run (). 
The trick is to -linkall all the *_test.ml in the right order when creating the 
test binary. Also, Test.run () catches all the exception that unit-tests can 
raise, and try to run all the possible tests.

For the complex settings to run some of the unit-tests, I guess you need to 
have a library able to set-up correctly you environment, and use register some 
post and pre-hooks if needed.

--
Thomas


> 
> Anil