From 274eb1fac853c101c21231366c5dd56aba4d3ca1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Michael Larabel Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 19:32:00 -0400 Subject: Add Tips & Tricks documentation and update installation instructions... --- documentation/index.html | 1 + documentation/install.html | 1 + documentation/tips_and_tricks.html | 70 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 72 insertions(+) create mode 100644 documentation/tips_and_tricks.html diff --git a/documentation/index.html b/documentation/index.html index 78231cb..3615e88 100644 --- a/documentation/index.html +++ b/documentation/index.html @@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ package(s) (or other software that you develop), or support for your company, pl

Explanation Of User Options

Writing Your First Test Profile

System Sensor Monitoring

+

Tips & Tricks

Development Credits

XML Syntax / Specifications

Test Profile

diff --git a/documentation/install.html b/documentation/install.html index c0d9a0d..bb0d442 100644 --- a/documentation/install.html +++ b/documentation/install.html @@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ behind the use of PHP 5 for is the portability across platforms for this languag low impact on the overall system, a lower entrance barrier for new developers, and low number (if any) dependencies that PHP5 CLI requires. The PHP GD library is used for rendering the graphs within the PTS Results Viewer.

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Note: you may need to modify the php.ini file on your system in order to support uploading results to PTS Global or logging into your PTS Global account. The allow_url_fopen, file_uploads, and allow_url_include options must be set to true in the PHP configuration and curl must be supported by the PHP installation. Additional information.

While PHP and PHP GD are the only required dependencies, many of the test profiles do require the standard Linux development tools/libraries (GCC, etc). On a clean Ubuntu installation, it's as easy as first running sudo apt-get install build-essential diff --git a/documentation/tips_and_tricks.html b/documentation/tips_and_tricks.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc45edf --- /dev/null +++ b/documentation/tips_and_tricks.html @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ + + +Phoronix Test Suite - Tips & Tricks + + + +

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+
<< Documentation Home
Tips & Tricks
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+ +

Tips & Tricks

+

This page shares some tips and tricks about the Phoronix Test Suite as well +as some random information that some users may find useful.

+

General

+

- If running within a GNOME desktop, the screensaver will automatically be +shutdown when a test is running and will be restored to its previous state upon +the test's completion. If the using a different desktop environment, it will attempt +to interrupt the screensaver using an XDG command.

+

- When running a test in batch mode (through the use of the batch-run +or batch-benchmark options) that normally has end-user options (such +as the sub-test to run or resolution), the Phoronix Test Suite will run the test +with each unique combination of options possible.

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- Phoronix Test Suite support for Mac OS X and OpenSolaris may be added in +the future.

+

- The Phoronix Test Suite really appreciates and welcomes independent code +contributions, patches, new tests/suites, etc... :)

+

- If you're just an individual user that enjoys the Phoronix Test Suite, and +not a ISV/IHV interested in submitting products for review at Phoronix.com +or a company interested in professional/enterprise support of the Phoronix Test +Suite by Phoronix Media, another way to support this project is by becoming a +Phoronix Premium subscriber @ http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=phoronix_premium. +You may also contact us (phoronix [at] phoronix.com) for additional information +or ideas.

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- If the environmental variable PTS_MERGE=custom is set, no compatibility +checks will be performed when merging results and it will allow you to form custom +suites very easily, etc. Though the preferred method to create a suite is by writing +a formal suite.

+

Download Caches

+

- If you're a company or simply own multiple computers, the download caching support of the Phoronix Test Suite can work quite well. This feature allows you to very simply setup a local (or network-wide) repository for the Phoronix Test Suite of all the files the different tests use. After you've installed the tests on one system that you normally use (or have ran phoronix-test-suite install-all) running phoronix-test-suite make-download-cache will cache all of the files that each test downloaded. The location of this cache is ~/.phoronix-test-suite/download-cache/. Once the cache has been created, you can copy this folder to other systems and place the files in the same location. Then when the Phoronix Test Suite needs to download a file for a test, before downloading it from the Internet it will first check this cache for the file(s). If the files are there and the MD5 check-sums have been verified, it will simply copy the file -- thereby saving bandwidth and time. The download cache location can be downloaded in ~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml. By adjusting the download cache, you could setup the cache folder to be on an FTP or NFS share (as an example) on a server that's accessible via your LAN. Configure your test systems to use this local repository and you'll be saving time and bandwidth.

+

Configuration

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- The user configuration options for the Phoronix Test Suite are stored in +~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml. The batch mode options are also +stored within this file and those can be adjusted by running phoronix-test-suite +batch-setup.

+

- The colors, size, and other attributes for the graphs found within the PTS +Results Viewer can be modified via the file ~/.phoronix-test-suite/graph-config.xml. +A description of the XML tags can be found by looking at the comments within pts-core/functions/pts-interfaces.php +and pts-core/objects/pts_CustomGraph.php. No matter the graph type, the +same generic graph-config.xml configuration is used.

+

Test / Suite Writing

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- The Phoronix Test Suite recursively determins tests/suites and allows a suite +to call another suite.

+

- One of the quickest and easiest ways to understand how to write a profile +is by just looking at the some of the existing profiles within the pts/ folder.

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- The XML syntax for all file specifications are defined within pts-core/functions/pts-interfaces.php +and trailing each defintion is a comment describing its purpose / value.

+

Debugging

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- Setting DEBUG=1 as an environmental variable prior to running the +Phoronix Test Suite will put it in a diagnostics mode. In this mode, additional +information may be printed to the standard output to help developers or test maintainers +debug problems. In the case of using the list-tests or list-suites +in the diagnostics mode, different information will be outputted that's more relevant +to Phoronix Test Suite developers.

+

- To save the debugging output, set DEBUG_FILE=name-of-file as an +environmental variable and the results will be saved to ~/.phoronix-test-suite/debug-messages/name-of-file.

+ +
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