2.1. The runtest command

Central to DejaGnu is the runtest command. It takes the general form:

runtest [options] [test]

The most important options when getting started are as follows.

--tool toolname

The naming of this option is confusing. It is the name of the group of tests being carried out. This might be the name of a tool (for example or1ksim), but it might equally be an indicator of a type of test (for example unit).

The toolname is important, because it is used to construct the names of other entities: the directories where tests may be found and the name of a tool specific configuration file.

--srcdir dir

This specifies a path where directories of tests may be found. A directory containing tool specific configuration files (lib) is also found in this directory.

The actual names of the directories containing tests must be prefixed by the name of the tool, and by convention end with the suffix .tests.

Thus for the tool or1ksim, the tests might appear in directories named or1ksim.tests or or1ksim-profiling.tests.

--outdir dir

This specifies a directory where all the output logs will be placed.

--target_board board

This is one of the hidden options, only shown with runtest ‑‑help. It specifies board(s) on which the tests should be run. This also controls which board specific configuration file(s) will be used (see Section 2.4).

If no test is specified, runtest will run all the tests it can find, which match the specified toolname. Otherwise it will run only the test specified.

	Note
	Options may also be set in configuration files (see Section 2.4). Where an option is set both on the command line and in a configuration file, the command line will take precedence.

	Caution
	There are a number of options which are not documented in the manual. You can see all of the options by running runtest --help