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* doc/src/sgml/regress.sgml: Update for new driver script.

Browse Source 
* doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml: ditto.

* src/test/regress/README: Regenerate.

* doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml: Explain how it was done.  Explain how
INSTALL and HISTORY are (now) generated.

* doc/src/sgml/Makefile: Implement HISTORY generation to be analoguous
to INSTALL.
This commit is contained in:
Peter Eisentraut 2000-10-17 15:26:40 +00:00
parent f7b89ac5d9
commit 0db3cb253d
5 changed files with 571 additions and 753 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

35
doc/src/sgml/Makefile
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@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
#
#
# IDENTIFICATION
# $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/Makefile,v 1.23 2000/10/10 22:01:50 momjian Exp $
# $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/Makefile,v 1.24 2000/10/17 15:26:39 petere Exp $
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ -201,21 +201,30 @@ distclean:
cp -p ../graphics/$@ .
# Generation of the INSTALL text file. Not fully automated, but better
# than nothing.
.PHONY: INSTALL
INSTALL: INSTALL.html
#
# Semi-automatic generation of some text files.
#
INSTALL HISTORY: % : %.html
@echo "|";\
echo "| You should now take \`$<', save it as a text file in Netscape,";\
echo "| and put it in place of the existing \`INSTALL' file.";\
echo "| and put it in place of the existing \`$@' file.";\
echo "|"
@rm -f tempfile.html tempfile.sgml
INSTALL.html: tempfile.html
sed -e 's/Chapter 1. *//g' < $< > $@
tempfile.html: tempfile.sgml
jade -d $(HDSL) -V nochunks -t sgml $< > $@
INSTALL.html HISTORY.html: %.html : tempfile_%.html
sed 's/Chapter 1. *//g' $< >$@
tempfile.sgml: standalone-install.sgml installation.sgml
cat $+ > $@
tempfile_INSTALL.html tempfile_HISTORY.html: tempfile_%.html : tempfile_%.sgml
jade -d $(HDSL) -V nochunks -t sgml $< >$@
tempfile_INSTALL.sgml: standalone-install.sgml installation.sgml
cat $+ >$@
tempfile_HISTORY.sgml: release.sgml
( echo '<!doctype chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN">'; \
cat $< ) >$@
.INTERMEDIATE: tempfile_INSTALL.html tempfile_HISTORY.html tempfile_INSTALL.sgml tempfile_HISTORY.sgml

229
doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml
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@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
<!--
$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml,v 1.27 2000/09/29 20:21:33 petere Exp $
$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/docguide.sgml,v 1.28 2000/10/17 15:26:40 petere Exp $
Documentation Guide
Thomas Lockhart
-->
@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ Thomas Lockhart
</row>
<row>
<entry>./INSTALL</entry>
<entry>Installation instructions (text from sgml->rtf->text)</entry>
<entry>Installation instructions</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>./README</entry>
@ -848,6 +848,7 @@ End:
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="doc-build">
<title>Building Documentation</title>
@ -911,9 +912,8 @@ PSTYLE= /home/lockhart/SGML/db143.d/docbook/print
% make install
</programlisting>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="doc-manpages">
<sect2 id="doc-manpages">
<title>Manpages</title>
<para>
@ -966,9 +966,9 @@ $ make man
</para>
</step>
</procedure>
</sect1>
</sect2>
<sect1 id="doc-hardcopy">
<sect2 id="doc-hardcopy">
<title>Hardcopy Generation for v7.0</title>
<para>
@ -995,99 +995,6 @@ $ make man
</para>
-->
<sect2>
<title>Text Hardcopy</title>
<para>
<filename>INSTALL</filename> and <filename>HISTORY</filename> are
updated for each release. For historical reasons, these files are
in plain text, but are derived from the newer
<acronym>SGML</acronym> sources.
</para>
<procedure>
<title>Plain Text Generation</title>
<para>
Both <filename>INSTALL</filename> and
<filename>HISTORY</filename> are generated from existing
<acronym>SGML</acronym> sources. They are extracted from the same
intermediate <acronym>RTF</acronym> file.
</para>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Generate <acronym>RTF</acronym> by typing:
<programlisting>
% cd doc/src/sgml
% make installation.rtf
</programlisting>
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Import <filename>installation.rtf</filename> into
<productname>Applix Words</productname>.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Set the page width and margins.
</para>
<substeps>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Adjust the page width in File.PageSetup to 10 inches.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Select all text.
Adjust the right margin using the ruler to 9.5 inches. This
will give a maximum column width of 79 characters, within the
80 columns upper limit goal.
</para>
</step>
</substeps>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Lop off the parts of the document which are not needed.
</para>
<para>
For <filename>INSTALL</filename>, remove all release notes from
the end of the text, except for those from the current release.
For <filename>HISTORY</filename>, remove all text up to the
release notes, preserving and modifying the title and ToC.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Export the result as "ASCII Layout".
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Using emacs or vi, clean up the tabular information in
<filename>INSTALL</filename>. Remove the "mailto"
<acronym>URLs</acronym> for the porting contributors to shrink
the column heights.
</para>
</step>
</procedure>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Postscript Hardcopy</title>
<para>
Several areas are addressed while generating Postscript
hardcopy, including RTF repair, ToC generation, and page break
@ -1321,10 +1228,134 @@ exit
</para>
</step>
</procedure>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Plain Text Files</title>
<para>
Several files are distributed as plain text, for reading during
the installation process. The <filename>INSTALL</filename> file
corresponds to the chapter in the <citetitle>Administrator's
Guide</citetitle>, with some minor changes to account for the
different context. To recreate the file, change to the directory
<filename>doc/src/sgml</filename> and enter <userinput>gmake
INSTALL</userinput>. This will create a file
<filename>INSTALL.html</filename> that can be saved as text with
<productname>Netscape Navigator</productname> and put into the
place of the existing file. <productname>Netscape</productname>
seems to offer the best quality for <acronym>HTML</acronym> to
text conversions (over <application>lynx</application> and
<application>w3m</application>).
</para>
<para>
The file <filename>HISTORY</filename> can be created similarly,
using the command <userinput>gmake HISTORY</userinput>. The table
of contents should be removed manually from the resulting text
file.
</para>
<para>
Since it does not change very often, the generation of the file
<filename>src/test/regress/README</filename> is not fully
automated. After building the <acronym>HTML</acronym> version of
the <citetitle>Administrator's Guide</citetitle>, convert the
resulting files <filename>regress.htm</filename> and
<filename>regress-platform.htm</filename> to text, using
<productname>Netscape</productname>. Then paste the text files
together and edit them to taste (e.g., remove the navigation
bars, remove the references to other chapters).
</para>
<!--
* This is how you can create text files via RTF and ApplixWare,
* for historical reference.
<procedure>
<title>Plain Text Generation</title>
<para>
Both <filename>INSTALL</filename> and
<filename>HISTORY</filename> are generated from existing
<acronym>SGML</acronym> sources. They are extracted from the same
intermediate <acronym>RTF</acronym> file.
</para>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Generate <acronym>RTF</acronym> by typing:
<programlisting>
% cd doc/src/sgml
% make installation.rtf
</programlisting>
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Import <filename>installation.rtf</filename> into
<productname>Applix Words</productname>.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Set the page width and margins.
</para>
<substeps>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Adjust the page width in File.PageSetup to 10 inches.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Select all text.
Adjust the right margin using the ruler to 9.5 inches. This
will give a maximum column width of 79 characters, within the
80 columns upper limit goal.
</para>
</step>
</substeps>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Lop off the parts of the document which are not needed.
</para>
<para>
For <filename>INSTALL</filename>, remove all release notes from
the end of the text, except for those from the current release.
For <filename>HISTORY</filename>, remove all text up to the
release notes, preserving and modifying the title and ToC.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Export the result as "ASCII Layout".
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Using emacs or vi, clean up the tabular information in
<filename>INSTALL</filename>. Remove the "mailto"
<acronym>URLs</acronym> for the porting contributors to shrink
the column heights.
</para>
</step>
</procedure>
-->
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="doc-toolsets">
<title>Toolsets</title>

24
doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
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@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
<!-- $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml,v 1.24 2000/10/16 03:25:16 momjian Exp $ -->
<!-- $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml,v 1.25 2000/10/17 15:26:40 petere Exp $ -->
<chapter id="installation">
<title><![%flattext-install-include[<productname>PostgreSQL</> ]]>Installation Instructions</title>
@ -744,20 +744,20 @@ All of PostgreSQL is successfully made. Ready to install.
<para>
If you want to test the newly built server before you install it,
you can run the regression tests at this point. The regression
tests are a test suite to verify that <productname>PostgreSQL</> runs on your machine
in the way the developers expected it to. Type
tests are a test suite to verify that <productname>PostgreSQL</>
runs on your machine in the way the developers expected it
to. Type
<screen>
<userinput>gmake -C src/test/regress all runcheck</userinput>
<!-- XXX How about just `gmake check'? -->
<userinput>gmake check</userinput>
</screen>
It is possible that some tests fail, due to differences in error
message wording or floating point results. The file
<filename>src/test/regress/README</> and
<![%flattext-install-include[the <citetitle>Administrator's Guide</citetitle>]]>
<![%flattext-install-ignore[<xref linkend="regress">]]>
contain detailed
information about interpreting the test results. You can repeat
this test at any later time by issuing the same command.
message wording or floating point results.
<![%flattext-install-include[The file
<filename>src/test/regress/README</> and the
<citetitle>Administrator's Guide</citetitle> contain]]>
<![%flattext-install-ignore[<xref linkend="regress"> contains]]>
detailed information about interpreting the test results. You can
repeat this test at any later time by issuing the same command.
</para>
</step>

668
doc/src/sgml/regress.sgml
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@ -1,481 +1,277 @@
<!-- $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/regress.sgml,v 1.11 2000/10/17 15:26:40 petere Exp $ -->
<chapter id="regress">
<title id="regress-title">Regression Test</title>
<title id="regress-title">Regression Tests</title>
<abstract>
<para>
Regression test instructions and analysis.
Regression test instructions and analysis
</para>
</abstract>
<para>
The PostgreSQL regression tests are a comprehensive set of tests for the
SQL implementation embedded in PostgreSQL. They test standard SQL
operations as well as the extended capabilities of PostgreSQL.
The regression tests are a comprehensive set of tests for the SQL
implementation in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>. They test
standard SQL operations as well as the extended capabilities of
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname>. The test suite was
originally developed by Jolly Chen and Andrew Yu, and was
extensively revised and repackaged by Marc Fournier and Thomas
Lockhart. From <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 6.1 onward
the regression tests are current for every official release.
</para>
<para>
There are two different ways in which the regression tests can be run:
the "sequential" method and the "parallel" method. The sequential method
runs each test script in turn, whereas the parallel method starts up
multiple server processes to run groups of tests in parallel. Parallel
testing gives confidence that interprocess communication and locking
are working correctly. Another key difference is that the sequential
test procedure uses an already-installed postmaster, whereas the
parallel test procedure tests a system that has been built but not yet
installed. (The parallel test script actually does an installation into
a temporary directory and fires up a private postmaster therein.)
The regression test can be run against an already installed and
running server, or using a temporary installation within the build
tree. Furthermore, there is a <quote>parallel</quote> and a
<quote>sequential</quote> mode for running the tests. The
sequential method runs each test script in turn, whereas the
parallel method starts up multiple server processes to run groups
of tests in parallel. Parallel testing gives confidence that
interprocess communication and locking are working correctly. For
historical reasons, the sequential test is usually run against an
existing installation and the parallel method
<quote>stand-alone</quote>, but there are technical reasons for
this.
</para>
<para>
Some properly installed and fully functional PostgreSQL installations
can "fail" some of these regression tests due to artifacts of floating point
representation and time zone support. The tests are currently evaluated
using a simple <application>diff</application> comparison against the
outputs generated on a reference system, so the results are sensitive to
small system differences.
When a test is reported as "failed", always examine the differences
between expected and actual results; you may well find that the differences
are not significant.
To run the regression tests after building but before installation,
type
<screen>
<prompt>$ </prompt><userinput>gmake check</userinput>
</screen>
in the top-level directory. (Or you can change to
<filename>src/test/regress</filename> and run the command there.)
This will first build several auxiliary files, such as
platform-dependent <quote>expected</quote> files and some sample
user-defined trigger functions, and then run the test driver
script. At the end you should see something like
<screen>
<computeroutput>
======================
All 75 tests passed.
======================
</computeroutput>
</screen>
or otherwise a note about what tests failed. See <xref
linkend="regress-evaluation"> below for more.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Because this test method runs a temporary server, it will not work
when you are the root user (the server will not start as root).
If you already did the build as root, you do not have to start all
over. Instead, make the regression test directory writable by
some other user, log in as that user, and restart the tests.
<screen>
<prompt>root# </prompt><userinput>chmod -R a+w src/test/regress</userinput>
<prompt>root# </prompt><userinput>su - joeuser</userinput>
<prompt>joeuser$ </prompt><userinput>gmake check</userinput>
</screen>
(The only possible <quote>security risk</quote> here is that other
users might be able to alter the regression test results behind
your back. Use common sense when managing user permissions.)
</para>
<para>
Alternatively, run the tests after installation.
</para>
</note>
<tip>
<para>
On some systems, the default Bourne-compatible shell
(<filename>/bin/sh</filename>) gets confused when it has to manage
too many child processes in parallel. This may cause the parallel
test run to lock up or fail. In such cases, specify a different
Bourne-compatible shell on the command line, for example:
<informalexample>
<screen>
<prompt>$ </prompt><userinput>gmake SHELL=/bin/ksh check</userinput>
</screen>
</informalexample>
</para>
</tip>
<para>
The regression tests were originally developed by Jolly Chen and Andrew Yu,
and were extensively revised/repackaged by Marc Fournier and Thomas Lockhart.
From <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> v6.1 onward
the regression tests are current for every official release.
To run the tests after installation (see <xref
linkend="installation">), initialize a data area and start the
server, as explained in <xref linkend="runtime">, then type
<screen>
<prompt>$ </prompt><userinput>gmake installcheck</userinput>
</screen>
The server is expected to be running on the local host with the
default port number.
</para>
<sect1 id="regress-environment">
<title>Regression Environment</title>
<sect1 id="regress-evaluation">
<title>Test Evaluation</title>
<para>
The regression testing notes below assume the following (except where noted):
<itemizedlist spacing="compact" mark="bullet">
<listitem>
<para>
Commands are Unix-compatible. See note below.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Defaults are used except where noted.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
User postgres is the <productname>Postgres</productname> superuser.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The source path is /usr/src/pgsql (other paths are possible).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
The runtime path is /usr/local/pgsql (other paths are possible).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
Some properly installed and fully functional
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> installations can
<quote>fail</quote> some of these regression tests due to
artifacts of floating point representation and time zone
support. The tests are currently evaluated using a simple
<application>diff</application> comparison against the outputs
generated on a reference system, so the results are sensitive to
small system differences. When a test is reported as
<quote>failed</quote>, always examine the differences between
expected and actual results; you may well find that the
differences are not significant. Nonetheless, we still strive to
maintain accurate reference files across all supported platforms,
so it can be expected that all tests pass.
</para>
<para>
Normally, the regression tests should be run as the postgres user since
the 'src/test/regress' directory and sub-directories are owned by the
postgres user. If you run the regression test as another user the
'src/test/regress' directory tree must be writeable by that user.
The actual outputs of the regression tests are in files in the
<filename>src/test/regress/results</filename> directory. The test
script uses <application>diff</application> to compare each output
file against the reference outputs stored in the
<filename>src/test/regress/expected</filename> directory. Any
differences are saved for your inspection in
<filename>src/test/regress/regression.diffs</filename>. (Or you
can run <application>diff</application> yourself, if you prefer.)
</para>
<para>
It was formerly necessary to run the postmaster with system time zone
set to PST, but this is no longer required. You can run the regression
tests under your normal postmaster configuration. The test script will
set the PGTZ environment variable to ensure that timezone-dependent tests
produce the expected results. However, your system must provide
library support for the PST8PDT time zone, or the timezone-dependent
tests will fail.
To verify that your machine does have this support, type
the following:
<programlisting>
setenv TZ PST8PDT
date
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
The "date" command above should have returned the current system time
in the PST8PDT time zone. If the PST8PDT database is not available, then
your system may have returned the time in GMT. If the PST8PDT time zone
is not available, you can set the time zone rules explicitly:
<programlisting>
setenv PGTZ PST8PDT7,M04.01.0,M10.05.03
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
The directory layout for the regression test area is:
<table tocentry="1">
<title>Directory Layout</title>
<titleabbrev>Kerberos</titleabbrev>
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Directory</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>Directory</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>input</entry>
<entry>
Source files that are converted using
<command>make all</command> into
some of the <filename>.sql</filename> files in the
<filename>sql</filename> subdirectory.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>output</entry>
<entry>
Source files that are converted using
<command>make all</command> into
<filename>.out</filename> files in the
<filename>expected</filename> subdirectory.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>sql</entry>
<entry>
<filename>.sql</filename> files used to perform the
regression tests.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>expected</entry>
<entry>
<filename>.out</filename> files that represent what we
<emphasis>expect</emphasis> the results to
look like.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>results</entry>
<entry>
<filename>.out</filename> files that contain what the results
<emphasis>actually</emphasis> look
like. Also used as temporary storage for table copy testing.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>tmp_check</entry>
<entry>
Temporary installation created by parallel testing script.
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="regress-procedure">
<title>Regression Test Procedure</title>
<sect2>
<title>Error message differences</title>
<para>
Commands were tested on RedHat Linux version 4.2 using the bash shell.
Except where noted, they will probably work on most systems. Commands
like <filename>ps</filename> and <filename>tar</filename> vary
wildly on what options you should use on each
platform. <emphasis>Use common sense</emphasis> before typing in these commands.
Some of the regression tests involve intentional invalid input
values. Error messages can come from either the
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> code or from the host
platform system routines. In the latter case, the messages may
vary between platforms, but should reflect similar
information. These differences in messages will result in a
<quote>failed</quote> regression test which can be validated by
inspection.
</para>
</sect2>
<procedure>
<title><productname>Postgres</productname> Regression Test</title>
<sect2>
<title>Date and time differences</title>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Prepare the files needed for the regression test with:
<programlisting>
cd /usr/src/pgsql/src/test/regress
gmake clean
gmake all
</programlisting>
You can skip "gmake clean" if this is the first time you
are running the tests.
</para>
<para>
This step compiles a <acronym>C</acronym>
program with PostgreSQL extension functions into a shared library.
Localized SQL scripts and output-comparison files are also created
for the tests that need them. The localization replaces macros in
the source files with absolute pathnames and user names.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="optional">
<para>
If you intend to use the "sequential" test procedure, which tests
an already-installed postmaster, be sure that the postmaster
is running. If it isn't already running,
start the postmaster in an available window by typing
<programlisting>
postmaster
</programlisting>
or start the postmaster daemon running in the background by typing
<programlisting>
cd
nohup postmaster > regress.log 2>&1 &
</programlisting>
The latter is probably preferable, since the regression test log
will be quite lengthy (60K or so, in
<productname>Postgres</productname> 7.0) and you might want to
review it for clues if things go wrong.
<note>
<para>
Do not run <filename>postmaster</filename> from the root account.
</para>
</note>
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
Run the regression tests. For a sequential test, type
<programlisting>
cd /usr/src/pgsql/src/test/regress
gmake runtest
</programlisting>
For a parallel test, type
<programlisting>
cd /usr/src/pgsql/src/test/regress
gmake runcheck
</programlisting>
The sequential test just runs the test scripts using your
already-running postmaster.
The parallel test will perform a complete installation of
<productname>Postgres</productname> into a temporary directory,
start a private postmaster therein, and then run the test scripts.
Finally it will kill the private postmaster (but the temporary
directory isn't removed automatically).
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
You should get on the screen (and also written to file ./regress.out)
a series of statements stating which tests passed and which tests
failed. Please note that it can be normal for some of the tests to
"fail" due to platform-specific variations. See the next section
for details on determining whether a "failure" is significant.
</para>
<para>
Some of the tests, notably "numeric", can take a while, especially
on slower platforms. Have patience.
</para>
</step>
<step performance="required">
<para>
After running the tests and examining the results, type
<programlisting>
cd /usr/src/pgsql/src/test/regress
gmake clean
</programlisting>
to recover the temporary disk space used by the tests.
If you ran a sequential test, also type
<programlisting>
dropdb regression
</programlisting>
</para>
</step>
</procedure>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="regress-analysis">
<title>Regression Analysis</title>
<para>
The actual outputs of the regression tests are in files in the
<filename>./results</filename> directory. The test script
uses <application>diff</application> to compare each output file
against the reference outputs stored in the
<filename>./expected</filename> directory. Any differences are
saved for your inspection in
<filename>./regression.diffs</filename>. (Or you can run
<application>diff</application> yourself, if you prefer.)
</para>
<para>
The files might not compare exactly. The test script will report
any difference as a "failure", but the difference might be due
to small cross-system differences in error message wording,
math library behavior, etc.
"Failures" of this type do not indicate a problem with
<productname>Postgres</productname>.
</para>
<para>
Thus, it is necessary to examine the actual differences for each
"failed" test to determine whether there is really a problem.
The following paragraphs attempt to provide some guidance in
determining whether a difference is significant or not.
Most of the date and time results are dependent on the time zone
environment. The reference files are generated for time zone
PST8PDT (Berkeley, California) and there will be apparent
failures if the tests are not run with that time zone setting.
The regression test driver sets environment variable
<envar>PGTZ</envar> to <literal>PST8PDT</literal> to ensure
proper results. However, your system must provide library
support for the PST8PDT time zone, or the time zone-dependent
tests will fail. To verify that your machine does have this
support, type the following:
<screen>
<prompt>$ </prompt><userinput>env TZ=PST8PDT date</userinput>
</screen>
The command above should have returned the current system time in
the PST8PDT time zone. If the PST8PDT database is not available,
then your system may have returned the time in GMT. If the
PST8PDT time zone is not available, you can set the time zone
rules explicitly:
<programlisting>
PGTZ='PST8PDT7,M04.01.0,M10.05.03'; export PGTZ
</programlisting>
</para>
<sect2>
<title>Error message differences</title>
<para>
Some of the regression tests involve intentional invalid input values.
Error messages can come from either the Postgres code or from the host
platform system routines. In the latter case, the messages may vary
between platforms, but should reflect similar information. These
differences in messages will result in a "failed" regression test which
can be validated by inspection.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Date and time differences</title>
<para>
Most of the date and time results are dependent on timezone environment.
The reference files are generated for timezone PST8PDT (Berkeley,
California) and there will be apparent failures if the tests are not
run with that timezone setting. The regression test driver sets
environment variable PGTZ to PST8PDT to ensure proper results.
</para>
<para>
Some of the queries in the "timestamp" test will fail if you run
the test on the day of a daylight-savings time changeover, or the
day before or after one. These queries assume that the intervals
between midnight yesterday, midnight today and midnight tomorrow are
exactly twenty-four hours ... which is wrong if daylight-savings time
went into or out of effect meanwhile.
</para>
<para>
There appear to be some systems which do not accept the
recommended syntax for explicitly setting the local time zone
rules; you may need to use a different <envar>PGTZ</envar>
setting on such machines.
</para>
<para>
There appear to be some systems which do not accept the recommended syntax
for explicitly setting the local time zone rules; you may need to use
a different PGTZ setting on such machines.
</para>
<para>
Some systems using older time zone libraries fail to apply
daylight-savings corrections to dates before 1970, causing
pre-1970 PDT times to be displayed in PST instead. This will
result in localized differences in the test results.
</para>
<para>
Some of the queries in the <quote>timestamp</quote> test will
fail if you run the test on the day of a daylight-savings time
changeover, or the day before or after one. These queries assume
that the intervals between midnight yesterday, midnight today and
midnight tomorrow are exactly twenty-four hours -- which is wrong
if daylight-savings time went into or out of effect meanwhile.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Floating point differences</title>
<para>
Some of the tests involve computing 64-bit (<type>double
precision</type>) numbers from table columns. Differences in
results involving mathematical functions of <type>double
precision</type> columns have been observed. The float8 and
geometry tests are particularly prone to small differences across
platforms, or even with different compiler optimization options.
Human eyeball comparison is needed to determine the real
significance of these differences which are usually 10 places to
the right of the decimal point.
</para>
<para>
Some systems using older timezone libraries fail to apply daylight-savings
corrections to pre-1970 dates, causing pre-1970 PDT times to be displayed
in PST instead. This will result in localized differences in the test
results.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
Some systems signal errors from <function>pow()</function> and
<function>exp()</function> differently from the mechanism
expected by the current <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
code.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Floating point differences</title>
<sect2>
<title>Polygon differences</title>
<para>
Some of the tests involve computing 64-bit (<type>float8</type>) numbers from table
columns. Differences in results involving mathematical functions of
<type>float8</type> columns have been observed. The float8
and geometry tests are particularly prone to small differences
across platforms.
Human eyeball comparison is needed to determine the real significance
of these differences which are usually 10 places to the right of
the decimal point.
</para>
<para>
Several of the tests involve operations on geographic data about
the Oakland/Berkeley, CA street map. The map data is expressed as
polygons whose vertices are represented as pairs of <type>double
precision</type> numbers (decimal latitude and
longitude). Initially, some tables are created and loaded with
geographic data, then some views are created which join two
tables using the polygon intersection operator
(<literal>##</literal>), then a select is done on the view.
</para>
<para>
Some systems signal errors from pow() and exp() differently from
the mechanism expected by the current Postgres code.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
When comparing the results from different platforms, differences
occur in the 2nd or 3rd place to the right of the decimal
point. The SQL statements where these problems occur are the
following:
<programlisting>
SELECT * from street;
SELECT * from iexit;
</programlisting>
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Polygon differences</title>
<sect2>
<title>The <quote>random</quote> test</title>
<para>
Several of the tests involve operations on geographic date about the
Oakland/Berkley CA street map. The map data is expressed as polygons
whose vertices are represented as pairs of <type>float8</type> numbers (decimal
latitude and longitude). Initially, some tables are created and
loaded with geographic data, then some views are created which join
two tables using the polygon intersection operator (##), then a select
is done on the view.
When comparing the results from different platforms, differences occur
in the 2nd or 3rd place to the right of the decimal point. The SQL
statements where these problems occur are the following:
<programlisting>
QUERY: SELECT * from street;
QUERY: SELECT * from iexit;
</programlisting>
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Random differences</title>
<para>
There is at least one case in the "random" test script that is
intended to produce
random results. This causes random to fail the regression test
once in a while (perhaps once in every five to ten trials).
Typing
<programlisting>
diff results/random.out expected/random.out
</programlisting>
should produce only one or a few lines of differences. You need
not worry unless the random test always fails in repeated attempts.
(On the other hand, if the random test is <emphasis>never</emphasis>
reported to fail even in many trials of the regress tests, you
probably <emphasis>should</emphasis> worry.)
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The "expected" files</title>
<para>
The <filename>./expected/*.out</filename> files were adapted from the original monolithic
<filename>expected.input</filename> file provided by Jolly Chen et al. Newer versions of these
files generated on various development machines have been substituted after
careful (?) inspection. Many of the development machines are running a
Unix OS variant (FreeBSD, Linux, etc) on Ix86 hardware.
The original <filename>expected.input</filename> file was created on a SPARC Solaris 2.4
system using the <filename>postgres5-1.02a5.tar.gz</filename> source tree. It was compared
with a file created on an I386 Solaris 2.4 system and the differences
were only in the floating point polygons in the 3rd digit to the right
of the decimal point.
The original <filename>sample.regress.out</filename> file was from the postgres-1.01 release
constructed by Jolly Chen. It may
have been created on a DEC ALPHA machine as the <filename>Makefile.global</filename>
in the postgres-1.01 release has PORTNAME=alpha.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
There is at least one case in the <quote>random</quote> test
script that is intended to produce random results. This causes
random to fail the regression test once in a while (perhaps once
in every five to ten trials). Typing
<programlisting>
diff results/random.out expected/random.out
</programlisting>
should produce only one or a few lines of differences. You need
not worry unless the random test always fails in repeated
attempts. (On the other hand, if the random test is
<emphasis>never</emphasis> reported to fail even in many trials
of the regress tests, you probably <emphasis>should</emphasis>
worry.)
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<!-- We might want to move the following section into the developer's guide. -->
<sect1 id="regress-platform">
<title>Platform-specific comparison files</title>

368
src/test/regress/README
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@ -1,241 +1,223 @@
REGRESSION TESTS
Introduction
The regression tests are a comprehensive set of tests for the SQL
implementation in PostgreSQL. They test standard SQL operations as
well as the extended capabilities of PostgreSQL. The test suite was
originally developed by Jolly Chen and Andrew Yu, and was extensively
revised and repackaged by Marc Fournier and Thomas Lockhart. From
PostgreSQL 6.1 onward the regression tests are current for every
official release.
The PostgreSQL regression tests are a comprehensive set of tests for the
SQL implementation embedded in PostgreSQL. They test standard SQL
operations as well as the extended capabilities of PostgreSQL.
The regression test can be run against an already installed and
running server, or using a temporary installation within the build
tree. Furthermore, there is a "parallel" and a "sequential" mode for
running the tests. The sequential method runs each test script in
turn, whereas the parallel method starts up multiple server processes
to run groups of tests in parallel. Parallel testing gives confidence
that interprocess communication and locking are working correctly. For
historical reasons, the sequential test is usually run against an
existing installation and the parallel method "stand-alone", but there
are technical reasons for this.
The regression tests were originally developed by Jolly Chen and Andrew Yu,
and were extensively revised/repackaged by Marc Fournier and Thomas Lockhart.
From PostgreSQL v6.1 onward the regression tests are current for every
official release.
To run the regression tests after building but before installation,
type
Some properly installed and fully functional PostgreSQL installations
can fail some of these regression tests due to artifacts of floating point
representation and time zone support. The current tests are evaluated
using a simple "diff" algorithm, and are sensitive to small system
differences. For apparently failed tests, examining the differences
may reveal that the differences are not significant.
$ gmake check
Preparation
in the top-level directory. (Or you can change to src/test/regress and
run the command there.) This will first build several auxiliary files,
such as platform-dependent "expected" files and some sample
user-defined trigger functions, and then run the test driver
script. At the end you should see something like
To prepare for regression testing, do "make all" in the regression test
directory. This compiles a 'C' program with PostgreSQL extension functions
into a shared library. Localized SQL scripts and output-comparison
files are also created for the tests that need them. The localization
replaces macros in the source files with absolute pathnames and user names.
======================
All 75 tests passed.
======================
Normally, the regression tests should be run as the postgres user since
the 'src/test/regress' directory and sub-directories are owned by the
postgres user. If you run the regression test as another user the
'src/test/regress' directory tree must be writeable to that user.
or otherwise a note about what tests failed. See the section called
Test Evaluation below for more.
It was formerly necessary to run the postmaster with system time zone
set to PST, but this is no longer required. You can run the regression
tests under your normal postmaster configuration. The test script will
set the PGTZ environment variable to ensure that timezone-dependent tests
produce the expected results.
Note: Because this test method runs a temporary server, it will
not work when you are the root user (the server will not start as
root). If you already did the build as root, you do not have to
start all over. Instead, make the regression test directory
writable by some other user, log in as that user, and restart the
tests.
Directory Layout
root# chmod -R a+w src/test/regress
root# su - joeuser
joeuser$ gmake check
input/ .... .source files that are converted using 'make all' into
some of the .sql files in the 'sql' subdirectory
(The only possible "security risk" here is that other users might
be able to alter the regression test results behind your back. Use
common sense when managing user permissions.)
output/ ... .source files that are converted using 'make all' into
.out files in the 'expected' subdirectory
Alternatively, run the tests after installation.
sql/ ...... .sql files used to perform the regression tests
Tip: On some systems, the default Bourne-compatible shell
(/bin/sh) gets confused when it has to manage too many child
processes in parallel. This may cause the parallel test run to
lock up or fail. In such cases, specify a different
Bourne-compatible shell on the command line, for example:
expected/ . .out files that represent what we *expect* the results to
look like
$ gmake SHELL=/bin/ksh check
results/ .. .out files that contain what the results *actually* look
like. Also used as temporary storage for table copy testing.
To run the tests after installation, initialize a data area and start
the server, then type
Running the regression test
$ gmake installcheck
If you have previously run the regression test for a different Postgres
release, make sure you have up-to-date comparison files by doing
The server is expected to be running on the local host with the
default port number.
make clean all
Test Evaluation
The regression test is invoked with the command:
Some properly installed and fully functional PostgreSQL installations
can "fail" some of these regression tests due to artifacts of floating
point representation and time zone support. The tests are currently
evaluated using a simple diff comparison against the outputs generated
on a reference system, so the results are sensitive to small system
differences. When a test is reported as "failed", always examine the
differences between expected and actual results; you may well find
that the differences are not significant. Nonetheless, we still strive
to maintain accurate reference files across all supported platforms,
so it can be expected that all tests pass.
make runtest
or you can do
make runcheck
which invokes a parallel form of the regress tests, and does not
need an already-installed postmaster. Instead, runcheck creates
a temporary installation under the regress directory.
Comparing expected/actual output
The results are in files in the ./results directory. These results
can be compared with results in the ./expected directory using 'diff'.
(The test script now does this for you, and leaves the differences
in ./regression.diffs.)
The files might not compare exactly. The following paragraphs attempt
to explain the differences.
Once the output files have been verified for a particular platform,
it is possible to provide new platform-specific comparison files,
so that future test runs won't report bogus "failures". See
'Platform-specific comparison files', below.
The actual outputs of the regression tests are in files in the
src/test/regress/results directory. The test script uses diff to
compare each output file against the reference outputs stored in the
src/test/regress/expected directory. Any differences are saved for
your inspection in src/test/regress/regression.diffs. (Or you can run
diff yourself, if you prefer.)
Error message differences
Some of the regression tests involve intentional invalid input values.
Error messages can come from either the Postgres code or from the host
platform system routines. In the latter case, the messages may vary
between platforms, but should reflect similar information. These
differences in messages will result in a "failed" regression test which
can be validated by inspection.
Some of the regression tests involve intentional invalid input
values. Error messages can come from either the PostgreSQL code or
from the host platform system routines. In the latter case, the
messages may vary between platforms, but should reflect similar
information. These differences in messages will result in a "failed"
regression test which can be validated by inspection.
DATE/TIME differences
Date and time differences
Most of the date and time results are dependent on timezone environment.
The reference files are generated for timezone PST8PDT (Berkeley,
California) and there will be apparent failures if the tests are not
run with that timezone setting. The regression test driver sets
environment variable PGTZ to PST8PDT to ensure proper results.
Most of the date and time results are dependent on the time zone
environment. The reference files are generated for time zone PST8PDT
(Berkeley, California) and there will be apparent failures if the
tests are not run with that time zone setting. The regression test
driver sets environment variable PGTZ to PST8PDT to ensure proper
results. However, your system must provide library support for the
PST8PDT time zone, or the time zone-dependent tests will fail. To
verify that your machine does have this support, type the following:
There appear to be some systems which do not accept the recommended syntax
for explicitly setting the local time zone rules; you may need to use
a different PGTZ setting on such machines.
$ env TZ=PST8PDT date
Some systems using older timezone libraries fail to apply daylight-savings
corrections to pre-1970 dates, causing pre-1970 PDT times to be displayed
in PST instead. This will result in localized differences in the test
results.
The command above should have returned the current system time in the
PST8PDT time zone. If the PST8PDT database is not available, then your
system may have returned the time in GMT. If the PST8PDT time zone is
not available, you can set the time zone rules explicitly:
FLOATING POINT differences
PGTZ='PST8PDT7,M04.01.0,M10.05.03'; export PGTZ
Some of the tests involve computing 64-bit (FLOAT8) numbers from table
columns. Differences in results involving mathematical functions of
FLOAT8 columns have been observed. These differences occur where
different operating systems are used on the same platform ie:
BSDI and SOLARIS on Intel/86, and where the same operating system is
used used on different platforms, ie: SOLARIS on SPARC and Intel/86.
There appear to be some systems which do not accept the recommended
syntax for explicitly setting the local time zone rules; you may need
to use a different PGTZ setting on such machines.
Human eyeball comparison is needed to determine the real significance
of these differences which are usually 10 places to the right of
the decimal point.
Some systems using older time zone libraries fail to apply
daylight-savings corrections to dates before 1970, causing pre-1970
PDT times to be displayed in PST instead. This will result in
localized differences in the test results.
Some systems signal errors from pow() and exp() differently from
the mechanism expected by the current Postgres code.
Some of the queries in the "timestamp" test will fail if you run the
test on the day of a daylight-savings time changeover, or the day
before or after one. These queries assume that the intervals between
midnight yesterday, midnight today and midnight tomorrow are exactly
twenty-four hours -- which is wrong if daylight-savings time went into
or out of effect meanwhile.
POLYGON differences
Floating point differences
Several of the tests involve operations on geographic data about the
Oakland/Berkley CA street map. The map data is expressed as polygons
whose vertices are represented as pairs of FLOAT8 numbers (decimal
latitude and longitude). Initially, some tables are created and
loaded with geographic data, then some views are created which join
two tables using the polygon intersection operator (##), then a select
is done on the view.
Some of the tests involve computing 64-bit (double precision) numbers
from table columns. Differences in results involving mathematical
functions of double precision columns have been observed. The float8
and geometry tests are particularly prone to small differences across
platforms, or even with different compiler optimization options. Human
eyeball comparison is needed to determine the real significance of
these differences which are usually 10 places to the right of the
decimal point.
When comparing the results from different platforms, differences occur
in the 2nd or 3rd place to the right of the decimal point. The SQL
statements where these problems occur are the following:
Some systems signal errors from pow() and exp() differently from the
mechanism expected by the current PostgreSQL code.
QUERY: SELECT * from street;
QUERY: SELECT * from iexit;
Polygon differences
Random differences
Several of the tests involve operations on geographic data about the
Oakland/Berkeley, CA street map. The map data is expressed as polygons
whose vertices are represented as pairs of double precision numbers
(decimal latitude and longitude). Initially, some tables are created
and loaded with geographic data, then some views are created which
join two tables using the polygon intersection operator (##), then a
select is done on the view.
There is at least one test case in random.out which is intended to produce
random results. This causes random to fail the regression testing.
Typing "diff results/random.out expected/random.out" should produce only
one or a few lines of differences for this reason, but other floating
point differences on dissimilar architectures might cause many more
differences. See the release notes below.
When comparing the results from different platforms, differences occur
in the 2nd or 3rd place to the right of the decimal point. The SQL
statements where these problems occur are the following:
The 'expected' files
SELECT * from street;
SELECT * from iexit;
The ./expected/*.out files were adapted from the original monolithic
'expected.input' file provided by Jolly Chen et al. Newer versions of these
files generated on various development machines have been substituted after
careful (?) inspection. Many of the development machines are running a
Unix OS variant (FreeBSD, Linux, etc) on Ix86 hardware.
The "random" test
There is at least one case in the "random" test script that is
intended to produce random results. This causes random to fail the
regression test once in a while (perhaps once in every five to ten
trials). Typing
diff results/random.out expected/random.out
should produce only one or a few lines of differences. You need not
worry unless the random test always fails in repeated attempts. (On
the other hand, if the random test is never reported to fail even in
many trials of the regress tests, you probably should worry.)
Platform-specific comparison files
Since some of the tests inherently produce platform-specific results,
we have provided a way to supply platform-specific result comparison
files. Frequently, the same variation applies to multiple platforms;
rather than supplying a separate comparison file for every platform,
there is a mapping file that defines which comparison file to use.
So, to eliminate bogus test "failures" for a particular platform,
you must choose or make a variant result file, and then add a line
to the mapping file, which is "resultmap".
Since some of the tests inherently produce platform-specific results,
we have provided a way to supply platform-specific result comparison
files. Frequently, the same variation applies to multiple platforms;
rather than supplying a separate comparison file for every platform,
there is a mapping file that defines which comparison file to use. So,
to eliminate bogus test "failures" for a particular platform, you must
choose or make a variant result file, and then add a line to the
mapping file, which is "resultmap".
Each line in the mapping file is of the form
testname/platformnamepattern=comparisonfilename
The test name is just the name of the particular regression test module.
The platform name pattern is a pattern in the style of expr(1) (that is,
a regular expression with an implicit ^ anchor at the start). It is matched
against the platform name as printed by config.guess. The comparison
file name is the name of the substitute result comparison file.
Each line in the mapping file is of the form
testname/platformnamepattern=comparisonfilename
The test name is just the name of the particular regression test
module. The platform name pattern is a pattern in the style of expr(1)
(that is, a regular expression with an implicit ^ anchor at the
start). It is matched against the platform name as printed by
config.guess. The comparison file name is the name of the substitute
result comparison file.
For example: the int2 regress test includes a deliberate entry of a
value that is too large to fit in int2. The specific error message
that is produced is platform-dependent; our reference platform emits
For example: the int2 regress test includes a deliberate entry of a value
that is too large to fit in int2. The specific error message that is
produced is platform-dependent; our reference platform emits
ERROR: pg_atoi: error reading "100000": Numerical result out of range
but a fair number of other Unix platforms emit
but a fair number of other Unix platforms emit
ERROR: pg_atoi: error reading "100000": Result too large
Therefore, we provide a variant comparison file, int2-too-large.out,
that includes this spelling of the error message. To silence the
bogus "failure" message on HPPA platforms, resultmap includes
int2/hppa=int2-too-large
which will trigger on any machine for which config.guess's output
begins with 'hppa'. Other lines in resultmap select the variant
comparison file for other platforms where it's appropriate.
Current release notes (Thomas.Lockhart@jpl.nasa.gov)
Therefore, we provide a variant comparison file, int2-too-large.out,
that includes this spelling of the error message. To silence the bogus
"failure" message on HPPA platforms, resultmap includes
The regression tests have been adapted and extensively modified for the
v6.1 release of PostgreSQL.
int2/hppa=int2-too-large
Three new data types (datetime, timespan, and circle) have been added to
the native set of PostgreSQL types. Points, boxes, paths, and polygons
have had their output formats made consistant across the data types.
The polygon output in misc.out has only been spot-checked for correctness
relative to the original regression output.
PostgreSQL v6.1 introduces a new, alternate optimizer which uses "genetic"
algorithms. These algorithms introduce a random behavior in the ordering
of query results when the query contains multiple qualifiers or multiple
tables (giving the optimizer a choice on order of evaluation). Several
regression tests have been modified to explicitly order the results, and
hence are insensitive to optimizer choices. A few regression tests are
for data types which are inherently unordered (e.g. points and time
intervals) and tests involving those types are explicitly bracketed with
"set geqo to 'off'" and "reset geqo".
The interpretation of array specifiers (the curly braces around atomic
values) appears to have changed sometime after the original regression
tests were generated. The current ./expected/*.out files reflect this
new interpretation, which may not be correct!
The float8 regression test fails on at least some platforms. This is due
to differences in implementations of pow() and exp() and the signaling
mechanisms used for overflow and underflow conditions.
The "random" results in the random test should cause the "random" test
to be "failed", since the regression tests are evaluated using a simple
diff. However, "random" does not seem to produce random results on my
test machine (Linux/gcc/i686).
Sample timing results
Timing under Linux 2.0.27 seems to have a roughly 5% variation from run
to run, presumably due to the timing vagaries of multitasking systems.
Time System
06:12 Pentium Pro 180, 32MB, Linux 2.0.30, gcc 2.7.2 -O2 -m486
12:06 P-100, 48MB, Linux 2.0.29, gcc
39:58 Sparc IPC 32MB, Solaris 2.5, gcc 2.7.2.1 -O -g
which will trigger on any machine for which config.guess's output
begins with 'hppa'. Other lines in resultmap select the variant
comparison file for other platforms where it's appropriate.