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5.7 Debugging a test case

These are the kinds of debugging information available from DejaGnu:

• Output controlled by test scripts themselves, explicitly allowed for by the test author. This kind of debugging output appears in the detailed output recorded in the DejaGnu log file. To do the same for new tests, use the verbose procedure (which in turn uses the Tcl variable ‘verbose’) to control how much output to generate. This will make it easier for other people running the test to debug it if necessary. If ‘verbose’ is zero, there should be no output other than the output from the framework (eg. FAIL). Then, to whatever extent is appropriate for the particular test, allow successively higher values of ‘verbose’ to generate more information. Be kind to other programmers who use your tests – provide plenty of debugging information.
• Output from the internal debugging functions of Tcl and Expect. There is a command line options for each; both forms of debugging output are recorded in the file dbg.log in the current directory.

  Use --debug for information from Expect. It logs how Expect attempts to match the tool output with the patterns specified. This can be very helpful while developing test scripts, since it shows precisely the characters received. Iterating between the latest attempt at a new test script and the corresponding dbg.log can allow you to create the final patterns by “cut and paste”. This is sometimes the best way to write a test case.

• Use --strace to see more detail from Tcl. This logs how Tcl procedure definitions are expanded as they execute. The trace level argument controls the depth of definitions expanded.
• If the value of ‘verbose’ is 3 or greater (runtest -v -v -v), DejaGnu activates the Expect command log_user. This command prints all Expect actions to standard output, to the .log file and, if --debug is given, to dbg.log.