Notes on using the PCP QA Suite
===============================

Preliminaries
-------------

    The PCP QA Suite is designed with a philosophy that it is trying to
    exercise the code in a context that is as close as possible to that
    which an end-user would experience. For this reason, the PCP software to
    be tested should be installed in the "usual" places, with the "usual"
    permissions and operate on the "usual" ports.

    In particular the QA Suite does not execute PCP applications like pmcd,
    pmlogger, pminfo, pmie, pmval, etc from the source tree.  Rather they
    need to have been built and packaged and installed on the local system
    prior to starting any QA.  Refer to the ../Makepkgs script for a recipe
    that may be used to build packages for a variety of platforms.

    Further the PCP QA Suite exercises and tests aspects of the PCP
    packaging, use of certain local accounts, interaction with system
    daemons, init systems, a number of PCP-related system administrative
    functions, e.g. to stop and start PCP services.  Refer to the notes
    on sudo below.

    But this also means the QA Suite may alter existing system configuration
    files, and this introduces some risk, so PCP QA should not be run
    on production systems.  Historically we have used developer systems
    and dedicated QA systems for running the full QA Suite - VMs are
    particularly well-suited to this task.

    In addition to the base PCP package installation, the sample and simple
    PMDAs need to be installed (however the QA infrastructure will take
    care of this, e.g. by running ./check 0).

Basic getting started
---------------------

    There is some local configuration needed ... check the file
    "common.config" ... this script uses heuristics to set a number of
    interesting variables, specifically:

    $PCPQA_CLOSE_X_SERVER
	The $DISPLAY setting for an X server that is willing to accept
	connections from X clients running on the local machine.  This is
	optional, and if not set any QA tests dependent on this will
	be skipped.

    $PCPQA_FAR_PMCD
	The hostname for a host running pmcd, but the host is preferably
	a long way away (over a WAN) for timing test.  This is optional,
	and if not set any QA tests dependent on this will be skipped.

    $PCPQA_HYPHEN_HOST
	The hostname for a host running pmcd, with a hyphen (-) in the
	hostname.  This is optional, and if not set any QA tests dependent
	on this will be skipped.

    Next, mk.qa_hosts is a script that includes heuristics for selecting
    and sorting the list of potential remote PCP QA hosts (qa_hosts.master).
    Refer to the comments in qa_hosts.master, and make appropriate changes.

    For each of the potential remote PCP QA hosts, the following must be
    set up:

    (a) PCP installed from packages,
    (b) pmcd(1) running,
    (c) a login for the user "pcpqa" needs to be created, and then set
        up in such a way that ssh/scp will work without the need for any
        password, i.e. these sorts of commands
	    $ ssh pcpqa@pcp-qa-host some-command
	    $ scp some-file pcpqa@pcp-qa-host:some-dir
        must work correctly when run from the local host.  The "pcpqa"
        user's environment must also be initialized so that their shell's
        path includes all of the PCP binary directories (identify these
        with $ grep BIN /etc/pcp.conf), so that all PCP commands are
        executable without full pathnames.  Of most concern would be
        auxilliary directory (usually /usr/pcp/bin, /usr/share/pcp/bin or
        /usr/libexec/pcp/bin) where commands like pmlogger(1), pmhostname(1),
        mkaf(1), etc.) are installed. And finally, the "pcpqa" user needs
	to be included in the group "pcp".

    Once you've modified common.config and qa_hosts.master, then run
    "chk.setup" to validate the settings.

    For test 051 we need five local hostnames that are valid, although PCP
    does not need to be installed there, nor pmcd(1) running.  The five
    hosts listed in 051.hosts (the comments at the start of this file
    explain what is required) should suffice for most installations.

    The PCP QA tests are designed to be run by a non-root user.  Where root
    privileges are needed, e.g. to stop or start pmcd, install/remove
    PMDAs, etc. the "sudo" application is used.  When using sudo for QA,
    your current or pcpqa user needs to be able to execute commands as
    root without being prompted for a password.  This can be achieved by
    adding the following line to the /etc/sudoers file (or in more recent
    versions of sudo, a /etc/sudoers.d/pcpqa file):

	pcpqa   ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

    Some tests are graphical, and wish to make use of your display.
    For authentication to success, you may find you need to perform some
    access list updates, e.g. "xhost +local:" for such tests to pass
    (e.g. test 325).

    You can now verify your QA setup, by running:

	./check 000

    The first time you run "check" (see below) it will descend into the
    src directory (see below) and make all of the QA test programs and
    dynamic PCP archives, so some patience may be required.

    If test 000 fails, it may be that you have locally developed PMDAs
    or optional PMDAs installed.  Edit common.filter, and modify the
    _filter_top_pmns() procedure to strip the top-level name components
    for any new metric names (there are lots of examples already there)
    ... if these are distributed (shipped) PMDAs, please update the list.

    Firewalls can get in the way.  In addition to the standard pmcd port(s)
    (TCP ports 44321, 44322 and 44323) one needs to open ports to allow
    incoming connections and outgoing connections on a range of ports
    for pmdatrace, pmlogger connections via pmlc, and some QA tests.
    Opening the TCP range 4320 to 4350 (inclusive) should suffice.

    If the avahi services are to be tested, then the firewall also needs
    to allow mDNS traffic (UDP, port 5353), for both external and internal
    connections.


Doing the Real Work
-------------------

    check ...
	This script runs tests and verifies the output.  In general, test NNN
	is expected to terminate with an exit status of 0, no core file and
	produce output that matches that in the file NNN.out ... failures
	leave the current output in NNN.out.bad, and may leave a more
	verbose trace that is useful for diagnosing failures in NNN.full.

	The command line options to check are:

	NNN	run test NNN (leading zeros will be added as necessary to
		the test sequence number, so 00N and N are equivalent)

	NNN-	all tests >= NNN

	NNN-MMM	all tests in the range NNN ... MMM

	-l	diffs in line mode (the default is to use xdiff or similar)

	-n	show me, do not run any tests

	-q	quick mode, by-pass the initial setup integrity checks
		(recommended that you do not use this the first time, nor
		if the last run test failed)

	-g xxx	include tests from a named group (xxx) ... refer to the
		"groups" file

	-x xxx	exclude tests from a named group (xxx) ... refer to the
		"groups" file

	If none of the NNN variants or -g is specified, then the default
	is to run all tests.

	Each of the NNN scripts that may be run by check follows the same
	basic scheme:

	- include some optional shell procedures and set variables to
	  define the local configuration options
	- optionally, check the run-time environment to see if it makes
	  sense to run the test at all, and if not echo the reason to the
	  file NNN.notrun and exit ... check will notice the NNN.notrun
	  file and skip any testing of the exit status or comparison
	  of output
	- define $tmp as a prefix to be used for all temporary files, and
	  install a trap handler to remove temporary files when the scipt
	  exits
	- optionally, check the run-time environment to choose one of
	  a number of expected output formats, and link the selected
	  file to NNN.out ... if the same output is expected in all
	  environments, the NNN.out file will already exist as part of
	  the PCP QA distribution
	- run the test
	- optionally save all the output in the file NNN.full ... this
	  is only useful for debugging test failures
	- filter the output to produce deterministic output that will
	  match NNN.out if the test has been successful

    remake NNN
	This script creates a new NNN.out file.  Since the NNN.out files
	are precious, and reflect the state of the qualified and expected
	output, they should typically not be changed unless some change
	has been made to the NNN script or the filters it uses.

    new
	Make sure "group" is writeable, then run "new" to create the
	skeletal framework of a new test.

	It is strongly suggested that you base your test on an existing test
	... pay particular attention to making the output deterministic
	so the test uses the "not run" protocols (see 009 and check for
	examples) to avoid running the test (and hence failing) if an
	optional application, feature or platform is not available, and
	uses appropriate filters (see common.filter for lots of useful
	filters already packaged as shell procedures).

    show-me ...
	Report differences between the NNN.out and NNN.out.bad files.
	By default, uses all of the NNN.out.bad files in the current
	directory, but can also specify test numbers or ranges of test
	numbers on the command line.

	Other options may be used to fetch good and bad output files from
	various exotic remote locations (refer to the script).


Make in the src Directory
-----------------------------

    The src directory contains a number of test applications that are
    designed to exercise some of the more exotic corners of the PCP
    functionality.

    In making these applications, you may see this ...

	Error: trace_dev.h and ../../src/include/trace_dev.h are different!
	make: [trace_dev.h] Error 1 (ignored)

    this is caused by the source for the pcp_trace library being out of sync
    with the src applications.  If this happens, please ...

    1. cd src
    2. diff -u trace_dev.h ../../src/include/trace_dev.h
       and mail the differences to pcp@groups.io so we can refine the
       Makefiles to avoid cosmetic differences
    3. mv trace_dev.h trace_dev.h.orig
       cp ../../src/include/trace_dev.h trace_dev.h
    4. make


008 Issues
----------

    Test 008 depends on the local disk configuration, so you need to
    make your own 008.out file (or rather a variant that 008 will link to
    008.out when the test is run).  Refer to the 008 script, but here is
    the basic recipe:

	$ touch 008.out.`hostname`
	$ ./remake 008
	$ mv 008.out 008.out.`hostname`

    Be aware that it can be adversely influenced by temporary disks like
    USB sticks, mobile phones, or other transient storage that may come
    and go in your test systems.


Fixes
-----
    
    If you find something that does not work, and fix it, or create
    additional QA tests, please send the details to pcp@groups.io.

