atf-src/doc/atf.7.in

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.Dd August 28, 2010
.Dt ATF 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ATF
.Nd introduction to the Automated Testing Framework
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Em IMPORTANT: If you are here because you want to know how to run the tests in
.Em Pa __TESTSDIR__ ,
.Em you most likely want to read the
.Em Xr tests 7
.Em manual page instead.
.Pp
The Automated Testing Framework
.Pf ( Nm )
is a collection of libraries and utilities designed to ease unattended
application testing in the hands of developers and end users of a specific
piece of software.
.Pp
As regards developers,
.Nm
provides the necessary means to easily create
test suites composed of multiple test programs, which in turn are a
collection of test cases.
It also attempts to simplify the debugging of problems when these test
cases detect an error by providing as much information as possible
about the failure.
.Pp
As regards users, it simplifies the process of running the test suites and,
in special, encourages end users to run them often: they do not need to
have source trees around nor any other development tools installed to be
able to certify that a given piece of software works on their machine as
advertised.
.Pp
If your operating systems distributes
.Nm ,
it is possible that it provides an introductory
.Xr tests 7
manual page.
You are encouraged to read it now.
.Ss License
.Nm
is distributed under the terms of the TNF License, a 2-clause BSD license.
For more details please see:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Pa __DOCDIR__/COPYING
.Ed
.Ss Components
.Nm
is a highly modular piece of software.
It provides a couple of libraries to ease the implementation of test
programs: one for the C and C++ languages and another one for shell
scripts.
It also includes multiple small utilities that follow the principle of
doing a single thing but doing it right.
This section outlines which these components are.
.Pp
Public utilities:
.Bl -tag -width atfXtestXprogramXXXXX
.It Xr atf-check 1
Executes a command and checks that its exit code, its standard output
and its standard error output match pre-specified expected values.
.It Xr atf-config 1
Queries static configuration information.
.It Xr atf-report 1
Converts the output of
.Nm atf-run
to user-friendly and/or machine-parseable reports.
.It Xr atf-run 1
Automates the execution of a series of test programs and collects their
results in a unified report.
.It Xr atf-sh 1
Shell interpreter for shell-based test programs.
.El
.Pp
Programming interfaces:
.Bl -tag -width atfXtestXprogramXXXXX
.It Xr atf-c-api 3
C programming interface for test programs.
.It Xr atf-c++-api 3
C++ programming interface for test programs.
.It Xr atf-sh-api 3
POSIX shell programming interface for test programs.
.El
.Pp
Other:
.Bl -tag -width atfXtestXprogramXXXXX
.It Xr atf-formats 5
Description of the machine-parseable data formats used by the tools.
.It Xr atf-test-case 4
Generic description of test cases, independent of the language they are
implemented in.
.It Xr atf-test-program 1
Common interface provided by the test programs written using the
.Nm
libraries.
.El
.Ss Recommended reading order
For end users wishing to run tests:
.Bl -enum -compact
.It
.Xr tests 7
(only if provided by your operating system).
.It
.Xr atf-test-program 1
.It
.Xr atf-run 1
.It
.Xr atf-report 1
.It
.Xr atf-config 1
.El
.Pp
For developers wanting to write their own tests:
.Bl -enum -compact
.It
Everything recommended to users.
.It
.Xr atf-test-case 4
.It
.Xr atf-c-api 3
.It
.Xr atf-c++-api 3
.It
.Xr atf-sh-api 3
.It
.Xr atf-sh 1
.It
.Xr atf-check 1
.El
.Pp
For those interested in
.Nm
internals:
.Bl -enum -compact
.It
Everything recommended to users.
.It
Everything recommended to developers.
.It
.Xr atf-formats 5
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr tests 7
.Sh HISTORY
.Nm
started as a Google Summer of Code 2007 project mentored by The NetBSD
Foundation.
Its original goal was to provide a testing framework for The NetBSD
Operating System, but it grew as an independent project because the
framework itself did not need to be tied to a specific operating system.
.Pp
For more details on this subject, please see:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Pa __DOCDIR__/NEWS
.Pa __DOCDIR__/ROADMAP
.Ed
.Sh AUTHORS
For more details on the people that made
.Nm
possible, please see:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Pa __DOCDIR__/AUTHORS
.Ed