CTest:TestWithoutBuild

Carrying out tests on a machine without building first

This page describes, what can be done to perform tests on a different machine than the one where the software was built.

I created an installer image (BitRock installer in our case) containing the normal deliverables of our software plus the following items:

• Some scripts needed to carry out our tests. This also contains software needed to carry out the tests (Squish)
• A complete CMake installation
• The following CMake-generated files from the build directory:
  • CTestCustom.cmake
  • DartConfiguration.tcl
  • CTestTestfile.cmake
• Post-installation script

The last item is a script, which is run by the installer as a post-install step. This script adjusts all paths in the above CMake files from the build directory to the installation directory. It also adjusts the host name contained in DartConfiguration.tcl, so the results show up in CDash under the correct name. The final step of the post-installation script is to call ctest with the following arguments:

 ctest -T Test -T Submit --track Nightly

For this to work the environment variable CMAKE_ROOT is set to the just-installed CMake share directory in the script.

This causes a simple installation, which can be done automatically via cron or the Windows task planner, to perform the installation, carry out the tests and submit the results to CDash.The only requirement for the test machines is to have standard software installed, we need perl and python for our tests.

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