5.1 Conventions for using tool names

DejaGnu uses ‘$tool’, the name of the tool under test, to tie together the testing configuration in a straightforward but flexible way. If there is only one testsuite for a particular application, then ‘$tool’ is optional.

‘$tool’ is not used to invoke the tool, since sites that run multiple configurations of a particular tool often call each configuration by a different name. runtest uses the configuration-dependent variables captured in ‘site.exp’ to determine how to call each tool.

runtest uses tool names to find directories containing tests. runtest scans the source directory (specified with --srcdir) for all directories whose names start with the tool name. It is a common practice to put a period after the tool part of the name. For instance, directories that start with ‘g++.’ contain G++ tests. To add a new test, just put it in any directory (create an entirely new directory, if you wish) whose name follows this convention.

A test is any file in an appropriately named subdirectory whose name ends in ‘.exp’ (the conventional way of naming expect scripts). These simple naming conventions make it as simple as possible to install new tests: all you must do is put the test in the right directory.

runtest sorts the tests in each subdirectory by name (using the Tcl lsort command) and runs them in the resulting order.