<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Design Goals</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+
"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="DejaGnu"
HREF="book1.html"><LINK
REL="UP"
TITLE="Overview"
HREF="c50.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="What's New In This Release"
HREF="x81.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="A POSIX conforming test framework"
HREF="x134.html"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="SECT1"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="3"
ALIGN="center"
>DejaGnu: The GNU Testing Framework</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="x81.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>&#60;&#60;&#60; Previous</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="80%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
>Overview</TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="x134.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next &#62;&#62;&#62;</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="DESIGNGOALS"
></A
>Design Goals</H1
><P
>DejaGnu grew out of the internal needs of Cygnus Solutions,
    the company formerly known as Cygnus Support. Cygnus maintained
    and enhanced a variety of free programs in many different
    environments and we needed a testing tool that:</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
><P
>was useful to developers while fixing
      bugs;</P
></LI
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
><P
>automated running many tests during a software
      release process;</P
></LI
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
><P
>was portable among a variety of host
      computers;</P
></LI
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
><P
>supported cross-development
      testing;</P
></LI
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
><P
>permitted testing interactive programs, like
      <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>GDB</B
>; and </P
></LI
><LI
STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
><P
>permitted testing batch oriented programs, like
      <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>GCC</B
>.</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>Some of the requirements proved challenging.  For example,
    interactive programs do not lend themselves very well to automated testing.
    But all the requirements are important: for instance, it is imperative to
    make sure that <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>GDB</B
> works as well when cross-debugging
    as it does in a native configuration. </P
><P
>Probably the greatest challenge was testing in a
    cross-development environment.  Most cross-development
    environments are customized by each developer.  Even when buying
    packaged boards from vendors there are many differences.  The
    communication interfaces vary from a serial line to Ethernet.
    DejaGnu was designed with a modular communication setup, so that
    each kind of communication can be added as required and supported
    thereafter.  Once a communication procedure is coded, any test can
    use it.  Currently DejaGnu can use <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>rsh</B
>,
    <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>rlogin</B
>, <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>telnet</B
>,
    <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>tip</B
>, <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>kermit</B
> and
    <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>mondfe</B
> for remote communications.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="x81.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>&#60;&#60;&#60; Previous</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="book1.html"
ACCESSKEY="H"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="x134.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next &#62;&#62;&#62;</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>What's New In This Release</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="c50.html"
ACCESSKEY="U"
>Up</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>A POSIX conforming test framework</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>