VTK/Dashboard how to

This page documents how to use the VTK dashboard branch in Git. See our table of contents for more information.

Using the dashboard scripts

On Unix-like operating systems The dashboard branch contains a dashboard client helper script. Create a directory for dashboard builds, and inside that create a directory for dashboard scripts, where you'll track this branch. mkdir -p ~/Dashboards/VTKScripts cd ~/Dashboards/VTKScripts git init git remote add -t dashboard origin git://vtk.org/VTK.git git pull origin Update the dashboard branch to get the latest version of this script by simply running git pull Create a file for this machine's specific configuration, and name it accordingly. vim krsdashboard.cmake A sample can be found in the comments at the top of vtk_common.cmake, and might look like this: # Client maintainer: christopher.mullins@kitware.com set(CTEST_SITE "krsdashboard.Kitware") set(CTEST_BUILD_NAME "Release-gcc4.6.3") set(CTEST_CONFIGURATION_TYPE Release) set(CTEST_CMAKE_GENERATOR "Unix Makefiles") include(${CTEST_SCRIPT_DIRECTORY}/vtk_common.cmake)

On Windows We recommend using msysgit for a bash shell in a Windows environment. msysgit provides an msys shell that has the appropriate environment set up for using git and its tools. Once msysgit is installed, you can pretty much follow the same instructions as for Unix. Warning: Windows does not support paths longer than 260 characters so try to keep your dashboard directory close to the base file system. A popular choice is C:/D. There are some important changes in the cmake variables. You will have to change the CTEST_CMAKE_GENERATOR variable, and it is recommended to change the CTEST_BUILD_NAME. One example of such a file is: set(CTEST_SITE "krsdashboard-win.kitware") set(CTEST_BUILD_NAME "VS2010-Release") set(CTEST_CONFIGURATION_TYPE Release) set(CTEST_CMAKE_GENERATOR "Visual Studio 10 Win64") include(${CTEST_SCRIPT_DIRECTORY}/vtk_common.cmake)

When you're done, run the script with the ctest utility.

ctest -S krsdashboard.cmake -V

and find your build in the Nightly section of the VTK CDash page.

Tip: Consider running as a cron job. Add

0 0 * * * /usr/bin/ctest -S /path/to/VTKScripts/krsdashboard.cmake -V > /path/to/Dashboards/Logs/VTK-linux-master-nightly.log 2>&1

to your crontab to run the Nightly dashboard every night at midnight, and log to the specified file.

Making changes to the dashboard scripts

If you find bugs in the hooks themselves or would like to add new features, the can be edited in the usual Git manner.

$ git checkout -b my_topic_branch

Make your edits, test it, and commit the result. Create a patch file with:

$ git format-patch origin/dashboard

And email the results to the developer's mailing list.

Important dashboard script variables

Feel free to set any of these in your custom ctest file.

Variable	Description
dashboard_model	Nightly (default), Continuous, or Experimental
dashboard_disable_loop	For continuous dashboards, disable loop. TODO what does this mean?
dashboard_root_name	Change name of "My Tests" directory, where the source will be checked out and built.
dashboard_source_name	Name of source directory. "VTK" by default.
dashboard_binary_name	Name of build directory. "VTK-build" by default.
dasbhboard_store_name	Name of ExternalData store. "ExternalData" by default.
dashboard_cache	Initial CMakeCache.txt file content.
dashboard_cvs_tag	CVS tag to checkout (ex: VTK-5-6). TODO does this still work?
dashboard_do_coverage	True to enable code coverage checks (ex: gcov)
dashboard_do_memcheck	True to enable memcheck (ex: valgrind)
CTEST_UPDATE_COMMAND	path to svn or git command-line client
CTEST_BUILD_FLAGS	build tool arguments (ex: -j2 for make)
CTEST_DASHBOARD_ROOT	Where to put source and build trees.
CTEST_TEST_CTEST	Whether to run long CTestTest* tests.
CTEST_TEST_TIMEOUT	Per-test timeout length
CTEST_TEST_ARGS	ctest_test args (ex: PARALLEL_LEVEL 4)
CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM	Path to "make" tool to use TODO do we still use this?
VTK_USE_LARGE_DATA	True to enable tests using "large" data