This page shares some tips and tricks about the Phoronix Test Suite as well as some random information that some users may find useful.
- The desktop's screensaver will automatically be shutdown when a test is running and will be restored to its previous state upon the test's completion. This should work for GNOME, KDE, and other XDG-supportive desktop environments.
- Phoronix Test Suite supports OpenSolaris and *BSD operating systems. Support for Mac OS X may be added in the future.
- How do I find tests that are in a suite? Run phoronix-test-suite info NAME-OF-SUITE and (along with other information) a tree will be displayed that recursively shows the tests (along with any sub-suites) inside. To find suites that utilize a particular test, run phoronix-test-suite info NAME-OF-TEST and it will show that information too.
- 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.
- 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.
- When being prompted for the test identifier or the file name for saving the results, several user variables are supported. These include $VIDEO_RESOLUTION, $VIDEO_CARD, $OPERATING_SYSTEM, $PROCESSOR, $MOTHERBOARD, $CHIPSET, and $KERNEL_VERSION. If any of these variables are entered, the Phoronix Test Suite will replace them with their respective values before saving the results.
- If RemoveDownloadFiles is set to TRUE within the user-config.xml file, once a test has been installed the originally downloaded files for that test will be automatically removed. This conserves disk space but will cause these files to be re-downloaded the next time the test needs to be re-installed. This will also not back up the downloaded files to the Phoronix Test Suite download cache. Enabling this option is just recommended for users with very limited disk space.
- If the amount of video memory for your graphics card is incorrectly reported by the Phoronix Test Suite (you can check by running phoronix-test-suite diagnostics), you can use the VIDEO_MEMORY= environmental variable for overriding the video memory capacity (in Megabytes) used by the Phoronix Test Suite.
- If the DISPLAY environmental variable is not set or NO_GRAPHICS_TESTS environmental variable is set, tests of type Graphics will not be run. Likewise, if NO_SYSTEM_TESTS environmental variable is set, tests of type System will not run. This applies to all test types where NO_<TEST TYPE>_TESTS is set.
- If the TEST_RESULTS_NAME environmental variable is set, instead of prompting the user for the name to save the results as, it will use the variable's value.
- If the TEST_RESULTS_IDENTIFIER environmental variable is set, instead of prompting the user for the test identifier when saving the result, it will use the variable's value.
- The Phoronix Test Suite really appreciates and welcomes independent code contributions, patches, new tests/suites, etc... :)
- If you are just an individual user that enjoys the Phoronix Test Suite, and not an 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.
- 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.
- The Phoronix Test Suite recursively determines tests/suites and allows a suite to call another suite.
- In pts/etc are XML templates that you can use when starting to write test profiles and other XML files.
- 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.
- The XML syntax for all file specifications are defined within pts-core/functions/pts-interfaces.php and trailing each definition is a comment describing its purpose / value.
- By writing a PTS module, you can easily extend the functionality of the Phoronix Test Suite. Some examples are being able to email the results upon completion, controlling the system's screensaver, updating a text LCD panel with the current test status, etc.
- One of the quickest and easiest ways to understand how to write a profile is by just looking at the some of the existing modules within the pts-core/modules folder. The Phoronix Test Suite has support for both shell and PHP modules.
- 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.