Automated Testing Framework (atf)
                        The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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Introduction
============

ATF uses the GNU Automake, GNU Autoconf and GNU Libtool utilities as its
build system.  These are used only when compiling the application from the
source code package.  If you want to install ATF from a binary package, you
do not need to read this document.

For the impatient:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ make check
Gain root privileges
# make install
Drop root privileges
$ make installcheck

Or alternatively, install as a regular user into your home directory:

$ ./configure --prefix ~/local
$ make
$ make check
$ make install
$ make installcheck


Dependencies
============

To build and use ATF successfully you need:

* A standards-compliant C/C++ complier.  For example, GNU GCC 2.95 will not
  work.
* A POSIX shell interpreter.
* A make(1) utility.

If you are building ATF from the code on the repository, you will also need
the following tools.  The versions listed here are the ones used to build
the files bundled in the last formal release, but these are not strictly
required.  Newer ones will most likely work and, maybe, some slightly older
ones:

* GNU autoconf 2.61
* GNU automake 1.10.1
* GNU libtool 1.5.24 (1.1220.2.455 2007/06/24 02:13:29)


Regenerating the build system
=============================

If you are building ATF from code extracted from the repository, you must
first regenerate the files used by the build system.  You will also need to
do this if you modify one of configure.ac or Makefile.am.  To do this,
simply run:

$ autoreconf -is

For formal releases, no extra steps are needed.


General build procedure
=======================

To build and install the source package, you must follow these steps:

1. Configure the sources to adapt to your operating system.  This is done
   using the 'configure' script located on the sources' top directory, and
   it is usually invoked without arguments unless you want to change the
   installation prefix.  More details on this procedure are given on a
   later section.

2. Build the sources to generate the binaries and scripts.  Simply run
   'make' on the sources' top directory after configuring them.  No
   problems should arise.

3. Check that the programs built in the previous step work before
   installing them.  Run 'make check' for this.  Any serious problems will
   pop up here.  (Be aware that on, some systems, GNU Libtool will break
   these checks.  If you get some failures, try reconfiguring the project
   providing the '--disable-fast-install' flag to 'configure' and then
   rebuild and recheck.

4. Install the program by running 'make install'.  You may need to become
   root to issue this step.

5. Issue any manual installation steps that may be required.  These are
   described later in their own section.

6. Check that the installed programs work by running 'make installcheck'.
   You do not need to be root to do this, even though some checks will not
   be run otherwise.


Configuration flags
===================

The most common, standard flags given to 'configure' are:

* Flag: --prefix=directory
  Possible values: Any path
  Default: /usr/local

  Specifies where the program (binaries and all associated files) will be
  installed.

* Flag: --sysconfdir=directory
  Possible values: Any path
  Default: /usr/local/etc

  Specifies where the installed programs will look for configuration files.
  '/atf' will be appended to the given path unless ATF_CONFSUBDIR is
  redefined as explained later on.

* Flag: --help

  Shows information about all available flags and exits immediately,
  without running any configuration tasks.

The following flags are specific to ATF's 'configure' script:

* Variable: ATF_CONFSUBDIR
  Possible values: empty, a relative path.
  Default: atf.

  Specifies the subdirectory of the configuration directory (given by the
  --sysconfdir argument) under which ATF will search for its configuration
  files.

* Variable: ATF_WORKDIR
  Possible values: empty, an absolute path.
  Default: /tmp or /var/tmp, depending on availability.

  Specifies the directory that ATF will use to place its temporary files
  and work directories for test cases.  This is just a default and can
  be overriden at run time.

* Flag: --enable-developer
  Possible values: yes, no
  Default: Depends on the version number.  Stable versions define this
           to 'no' while all others have it set to 'yes'.

  Enables several features useful for development, such as the inclusion
  of debugging symbols in all objects or the enabling of warnings during
  compilation.

* Flag: --enable-unstable-shared
  Possible values: yes, no
  Default: no.

  Forces the building of shared libraries in addition to static ones.
  The build of shared libraries is currently disabled because their ABIs
  and APIs are unstable and subject to change.  This flag is provided for
  development purposes only and will be removed once the libraries are
  stable enough.


Post-installation steps
=======================

After installing ATF, you have to register the DTDs it provides into the
system-wide XML catalog.  See the comments at the top of the files in
${datadir}/share/xml/atf to see the correct public identifiers.  This
directory will typically be /usr/local/share/xml/atf or /usr/share/xml/atf.
Failure to do so will lead to further errors when processing the XML
files generated by atf-report.


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