ACE/TAO's auto_builds expect run_test.pl's to follow some guidelines that are needed to keep the auto_builds from hanging and to make sure the run_test.pl works on all platforms

The run_test must not hang or block.
The run_test must clean up any temporary files when it is done.
The run_test must not require any user input
The run_test should return a non-zero value if the test failed
When an executable can't be spawned the test should directly exit and not wait for a fail to be created by that executable
The processes should support that files names are passed through the commandline

Following is an example

eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
    & eval 'exec perl -S $0 $argv:q'
    if 0;

# -*- perl -*-

use lib "$ENV{ACE_ROOT}/bin";
use PerlACE::TestTarget;

$status = 0;

my $server = PerlACE::TestTarget::create_target (1) || die "Create target 1 failed\n";
my $client = PerlACE::TestTarget::create_target (2) || die "Create target 2 failed\n";

$plain_server_ior = "server.ior";
my $iorbase = "server.ior";
my $server_iorfile = $server->LocalFile ($iorbase);
my $client_iorfile = $client->LocalFile ($iorbase);
$server->DeleteFile($iorbase);
$client->DeleteFile($iorbase);

$SV = $server->CreateProcess ("server", "-ORBdebuglevel $debug_level -o $server_iorfile");
$CL = $client->CreateProcess ("client", "-k file://$client_iorfile");

$server_status = $SV->Spawn ();

if ($server_status != 0) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: server returned $server_status\n";
    exit 1;
}

if ($server->WaitForFileTimed ($iorbase,
                               $server->ProcessStartWaitInterval()) == -1) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: cannot find file <$server_iorfile>\n";
    $SV->Kill (); $SV->TimedWait (1);
    exit 1;
}

if ($server->GetFile ($iorbase) == -1) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: cannot retrieve file <$server_iorfile>\n";
    $SV->Kill (); $SV->TimedWait (1);
    exit 1;
}
if ($client->PutFile ($iorbase) == -1) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: cannot set file <$client_iorfile>\n";
    $SV->Kill (); $SV->TimedWait (1);
    exit 1;
}

$client_status = $CL->SpawnWaitKill ($client->ProcessStartWaitInterval());

if ($client_status != 0) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: client returned $client_status\n";
    $status = 1;
}

$server_status = $SV->WaitKill ($server->ProcessStopWaitInterval());

if ($server_status != 0) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: server returned $server_status\n";
    $status = 1;
}

$server->GetStderrLog();
$client->GetStderrLog();

$server->DeleteFile($server_iorfile);
$client->DeleteFile($client_iorfile);

exit $status;

eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
    & eval 'exec perl -S $0 $argv:q'
    if 0;

This is the standard header stuff. The eval is a trick used to get the perl script to run if it a unix shell treats it as a shell script.

The SVN ID string is the usual one we put in.

use lib "$ENV{ACE_ROOT}/bin";
use PerlACE::TestTarget;

The use lib line is used to tell Perl where the PerlACE modules are. It should NOT be a relative path to the bin directory. This is how it used to be done, but doing so would be incompatible with the "flat" directory layout of ACE+TAO. The correct way is demonstrated above. After the "use lib" line, always use $PerlACE::TAO_ROOT to reference the location of TAO. Use either $ENV{ACE_ROOT} or $PerlACE::ACE_ROOT to reference the location of ACE.

And PerlACE::Run_Test is a module to be used by all run_test.pl's. It does a couple of things, including parsing some common command line arguments (like -Config and -ExeSubDir) and also brings in the PerlACE::Process module.

my $server = PerlACE::TestTarget::create_target (1) || die "Create target 1 failed\n";
my $client = PerlACE::TestTarget::create_target (2) || die "Create target 2 failed\n";

We need to have two targets to run the tst on

my $iorbase = "server.ior";
my $server_iorfile = $server->LocalFile ($iorbase);
my $client_iorfile = $client->LocalFile ($iorbase);
$server->DeleteFile($iorbase);
$client->DeleteFile($iorbase);

Because of the way tests work on chorus, we need to have a fully qualified path to all *.ior and *.conf files. We unlink the file immediately because we use WaitForFileTimed later.

$SV = $server->CreateProcess ("server", "-ORBdebuglevel $debug_level -o $server_iorfile");

The server we have to spawn

$CL = $client->CreateProcess ("client", "-k file://$client_iorfile");

$server_status = $SV->Spawn ();

if ($server_status != 0) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: server returned $server_status\n";
    exit 1;
}

The PerlACE::Process is created with an executable and arguments.

Note: Unlike the old Process module, the process isn't started until one of the Spawn methods is used. We check the result of the spawn, if we couldn't spawn the process we directly exit the script.

if ($server->WaitForFileTimed ($iorbase,
                               $server->ProcessStartWaitInterval()) == -1) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: cannot find file <$server_iorfile>\n";
    $SV->Kill (); $SV->TimedWait (1);
    exit 1;
}

The WaitForFileTimed method waits until the file is created. In this way, we know when to start the client. If no IOR file is used, then you'd need to use Perl's sleep method.

if ($server->GetFile ($iorbase) == -1) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: cannot retrieve file <$server_iorfile>\n";
    $SV->Kill (); $SV->TimedWait (1);
    exit 1;
}
if ($client->PutFile ($iorbase) == -1) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: cannot set file <$client_iorfile>\n";
    $SV->Kill (); $SV->TimedWait (1);
    exit 1;
}

This transfers the file from the server to the client in case that is needed with the used test targets.

$client_status = $CL->SpawnWaitKill ($client->ProcessStartWaitInterval());

if ($client_status != 0) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: client returned $client_status\n";
    $status = 1;
}

Here is an example of starting the client. SpawnWaitKill will start the process and wait for the specified number of seconds for the process to end. If the time limit is reached, it will kill the process and return -1.

The return value of SpawnWaitKill is the return value of the process, unless it timed out. You don't need to check for the timeout, since SpawnWaitKill will print out a timeout error. Instead, just check for != 0.

$server_status = $SV->WaitKill ($server->ProcessStopWaitInterval());

if ($server_status != 0) {
    print STDERR "ERROR: server returned $server_status\n";
    $status = 1;
}

Here is the termination of the server. Servers are usually terminated either by TerminateWaitKill or just WaitKill. TerminateWaitKill is used when the server doesn't shut down itself. WaitKill is used when it does (such as when the client calls a shutdown method). Once again, we check the return status.

$server->GetStderrLog();
$client->GetStderrLog();

$server->DeleteFile($server_iorfile);
$client->DeleteFile($client_iorfile);

exit $status;

This example illustrates how to get the host name within the cross platform test. In your test program add functionality to handle a command line argument to pass the host name of the target. In the run_test.pl script you can use the following code as example.

my $server = PerlACE::TestTarget::create_target (1) || die "Create target 1 failed\n";
my $hostname = $server->HostName();
$SV = $server->CreateProcess ("server", "-ORBEndpoint iiop://$hostname:43210");
$CL = $server->CreateProcess ("client", " -p 43210 -h $hostname");

And finally, we unlink any files that were created and then just exit with $status.