DejaGnu: The GNU Testing Framework
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# Create a minimal project, e.g. calc

In this section you will to start a small project, using the sample application calc, which is part of your DejaGnu distribution

## A simple project without the GNU autotools

The runtest program can be run standalone. All the autoconf/automake support is just cause those programs are commonly used for other GNU applications. The key to running runtest standalone is having the local site.exp file setup correctly, which automake does.

The generated site.exp should like like:

    set tool calc
    set srcdir .
    set objdir /home/dgt/dejagnu.test

## Using autoconf/autoheader/automake

We have to prepare some input file in order to run autocon and automake. There is book “GNU autoconf, automake and libtool” by Garry V. Vaughan, et al. NewRider, ISBN 1-57870-190-2 which describes this process thoroughly.

From the calc example distributed with the DejaGnu documentation you should copy the program file itself (calc.c) and some additional files, which you might examine a little bit close to derive their meanings.

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ cp -r /usr/share/doc/dejagnu/examples/calc/\
    {configure.in,Makefile.am,calc.c,testsuite} .

In Makemake.am note the presence of the AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = dejagnu. This option is needed.

Run aclocal to generate aclocal.m4, which is a collection of macros needed by configure.in

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ aclocal

autoconf is another part of the auto-tools. Run it to generate configure based on information contained in configure.in.

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ autoconf

autoheader is another part of the auto-tools. Run it to generate calc.h.in.

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ autoheader

The Makefile.am of this example was developed as port of the DejaGnu distribution. Adapt Makefile.am for this test. Replace the line “#noinst_PROGRAMS = calc” to “bin_PROGRAMS = calc”. Change the RUNTESTDEFAULTFLAGS from “$$srcdir/testsuite” to “./testsuite”.

Running automake at this point contains a series of warning in its output as shown in the following example:

Example 2. Sample output of automake with missing files

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ automake --add-missing
    automake: configure.in: installing `./install-sh'
    automake: configure.in: installing `./mkinstalldirs'
    automake: configure.in: installing `./missing'
    automake: Makefile.am: installing `./INSTALL'
    automake: Makefile.am: required file `./NEWS' not found
    automake: Makefile.am: required file `./README' not found
    automake: Makefile.am: installing `./COPYING'
    automake: Makefile.am: required file `./AUTHORS' not found
    automake: Makefile.am: required file `./ChangeLog' not found
    configure.in: 4: required file `./calc.h.in' not found
    Makefile.am:6: required directory ./doc does not exist

Create a empty directory doc and empty files INSTALL, NEWS, README, AUTHORS, ChangeLog and COPYING. The default COPYING will point to the GNU Public License (GPL). In a real project it would be time to add some meaningfull text in each file.

Adapt calc to your environment by calling configure.

Example 3. Sample output of configure

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ ./configure
    creating cache ./config.cache
    checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
    checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
    checking whether build environment is sane... yes
    checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... yes
    checking for working aclocal... found
    checking for working autoconf... found
    checking for working automake... found
    checking for working autoheader... found
    checking for working makeinfo... found
    checking for gcc... gcc checking whether the C compiler (gcc ) works... yes
    checking whether the C compiler (gcc ) is a cross-compiler... no
    checking whether we are using GNU C... yes
    checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
    checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
    checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
    checking for stdlib.h... yes
    checking for strcmp... yes
    updating cache ./config.cache
    creating ./config.status
    creating Makefile creating calc.h

If you are familiar with GNU software, this output should not contain any surprise to you. Any errors should be easy to fix for such a simple program.

Build the calc executable:

Example 4. Sample output building calc

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ make
    gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I. -g -O2 -c calc.c
    gcc -g -O2 -o calc calc.o

You prepared a few files and then called some commands. Respecting the right order assures a automatic and correctly compiled calc program. The following example resumes the correct order.

Example 5. Creating the calc program using the GNU autotools

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ aclocal
    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ autoconf
    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ autoheader
    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ automake --add-missing
    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ ./configure
    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ make

Play with calc and verify whether it works correctly. A sample session might look like this:

    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ ./calc
    calc: version
    Version: 1.1
    calc: add 3 4
    7
    calc: multiply 3 4
    12
    calc: multiply 2 4
    12
    calc: quit

Look at the intentional bug that 2 times 4 equals 12.

The tests run by DejaGnu need a file called site.exp, which is automatically generated if we call “make site.exp”. This was the purpose of the “AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = dejagnu” in Makefile.am.

Example 6. Sample output generating a site.exp

    dgt: make site.exp
    dgt:~/dejagnu.test$ make site.exp
    Making a new site.exp file...

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