.. _sec_runningtests:

Running PETSc Tests
-------------------

Quick start with the tests
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For testing builds, the general invocation from the ``PETSC_DIR`` is:

.. code-block:: bash

   make [-j <n>] -f gmakefile test PETSC_ARCH=<PETSC_ARCH>

For testing ``./configure`` that used the ``--prefix`` option, the
general invocation from the installation (prefix) directory is:

.. code-block:: bash

   make [-j <n>] -f share/petsc/examples/gmakefile test

For a full list of options, use

.. code-block:: bash

   make -f gmakefile help-test

Understanding test output and more information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As discussed in :any:`sec_runningtests`, users should set
``PETSC_DIR`` and ``PETSC_ARCH`` before running the tests, or can
provide them on the command line as below.

To check if the libraries are working do:

.. code-block:: bash

   make PETSC_DIR=<PETSC_DIR> PETSC_ARCH=<PETSC_ARCH> test

A comprehensive set of tests can be run with

.. code-block:: bash

   make PETSC_DIR=<PETSC_DIR> PETSC_ARCH=<PETSC_ARCH> alltests

or

.. code-block:: bash

   make [-j <n>] -f gmakefile test PETSC_ARCH=<PETSC_ARCH>

Depending on your machine’s configuration running the full test suite
(above) can take from a few minutes to a couple hours. Note that
currently we do not have a mechanism for automatically running the test
suite on batch computer systems except to obtain an interactive compute
node (via the batch system) and run the tests on that node (this assumes
that the compilers are available on the interactive compute nodes.

The test reporting system classifies them according to the Test Anywhere
Protocal (TAP) [11]_. In brief, the categories are

-  ``ok`` The test passed.

-  ``not ok`` The test failed.

-  ``not ok #SKIP`` The test was skipped, usually because build
   requirements were not met (for example, an external solver library
   was required, but PETSc was not ``./configure`` for that library.)
   compiled against it).

-  ``ok #TODO`` The test is under development by the developers.

The tests are a series of shell scripts, generated by information
contained within the test source file, that are invoked by the makefile
system. The tests are run in ``${PETSC_DIR}/${PETSC_ARCH}/tests`` with
the same directory as the source tree underneath. For testing installs,
the default location is ``${PREFIX_DIR}/tests`` but this can be changed
with the ``TESTDIR`` location. (See :any:`sec_directory`). A
label is used to denote where it can be found within the source tree.
For example, test ``vec_vec_tutorials-ex6``, which can be run e.g. with

.. code-block:: bash

   make -f gmakefile test search='vec_vec_tutorials-ex6'

(see the discussion of ``search`` below), denotes the shell script:

.. code-block:: bash

   ${PETSC_DIR}/${PETSC_ARCH}/tests/vec/vec/tutorials/runex6.sh

These shell scripts can be run independently in those directories, and
take arguments to show the commands run, change arguments, etc. Use the
``-h`` option to the shell script to see these options.

Often, you want to run only a subset of tests. Our makefiles use
``gmake``\ ’s wildcard syntax. In this syntax, ``%`` is a wild card
character and is passed in using the ``search`` argument. Two wildcard
characters cannot be used in a search, so the ``searchin`` argument is
used to provide the equivalent of ``%pattern%`` search. The default
examples have default arguments, and we often wish to test examples with
various arguments; we use the ``argsearch`` argument for these searches.
Like ``searchin``, it does not use wildcards, but rather whether the
string is within the arguments.

Some examples are:

.. code-block:: bash

   make -f gmakefile test search='ts%'                      # Run all TS examples
   make -f gmakefile test searchin='tutorials'              # Run all tutorials
   make -f gmakefile test search='ts%' searchin='tutorials' # Run all TS tutorials
   make -f gmakefile test argsearch='cuda'                  # Run examples with cuda in arguments
   make -f gmakefile test test-fail='1'
   make -f gmakefile test query='requires' queryval='*MPI_PROCESS_SHARED_MEMORY*'

It is useful before invoking the tests to see what targets will be run.
The ``print-test`` target helps with this:

.. code-block:: bash

   make -f gmakefile print-test argsearch='cuda'

To see all of the test targets which would be run, this command can be
used:

.. code-block:: bash

   make -f gmakefile print-test

For testing in install directories, some examples are:

.. code-block:: bash

   cd ${PREFIX_DIR}; make -f share/petsc/examples/gmakefile.test test TESTDIR=mytests

or

.. code-block:: bash

   cd ${PREFIX_DIR}/share/petsc/examples; make -f gmakefile test TESTDIR=$PWD/mytests

where the latter is needed to make have it run in the local directory
instead of ``$PREFIX_DIR``.

To learn more about the test system details, one can look at the
`the PETSc developers documentation <https://docs.petsc.org/en/latest/developers>`__.

.. [11]
   See https://testanything.org/tap-specification.html