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<Title>Phoronix Test Suite - Tips & Tricks</Title>
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<h1>Tips & Tricks</h1>
<p>This page shares some tips and tricks about the Phoronix Test Suite as well
as some random information that some users may find useful.</p>
<h2>General</h2>
<p>- 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.</p>
<p>- Phoronix Test Suite supports OpenSolaris and *BSD operating systems. Support for Mac OS X may
be added in the future.</p>
<p>- How do I find tests that are in a suite? Run <em>phoronix-test-suite info NAME-OF-SUITE</em> 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 <em>phoronix-test-suite info NAME-OF-TEST</em> and it will show that information too.</p>
<h2>Running</h2>
<p>- When running a test in batch mode (through the use of the <em>batch-run</em>
or <em>batch-benchmark</em> 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.</p>
<p>- If the environmental variable <em>PTS_MERGE=custom</em> 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.</p>
<p>- When being prompted for the test identifier or the file name for saving the results, several user variables are supported. These include
<em>$VIDEO_RESOLUTION</em>, <em>$VIDEO_CARD</em>, <em>$OPERATING_SYSTEM</em>, <em>$PROCESSOR</em>, <em>$MOTHERBOARD</em>, <em>$CHIPSET</em>, and <em>$KERNEL_VERSION</em>.
If any of these variables are entered, the Phoronix Test Suite will replace them with their respective values before saving the results.</p>
<p>- If <em>RemoveDownloadFiles</em> is set to <em>TRUE</em> within the <em>user-config.xml</em> 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.</p>
<p>- If the amount of video memory for your graphics card is incorrectly reported by the Phoronix Test Suite (you can check by running <em>phoronix-test-suite diagnostics</em>), you can use the <em>VIDEO_MEMORY=</em> environmental variable for overriding the video memory capacity (in Megabytes) used by the Phoronix Test Suite.</p>
<p>- If the <em>DISPLAY</em> environmental variable is not set or <em>NO_GRAPHICS_TESTS</em> environmental variable is set, tests of type <em>Graphics</em> will not be run. Likewise, if <em>NO_SYSTEM_TESTS</em> environmental variable is set, tests of type <em>System</em> will not run. This applies to all test types where <em>NO_<TEST TYPE>_TESTS</em> is set.</p>
<p>- If the <em>TEST_RESULTS_NAME</em> environmental variable is set, instead of prompting the user for the name to save the results as, it will use the variable's value.</p>
<p>- If the <em>TEST_RESULTS_IDENTIFIER</em> environmental variable is set, instead of prompting the user for the test identifier when saving the result, it will use the variable's value.</p>
<h2>Support</h2>
<p>- The Phoronix Test Suite really appreciates and welcomes independent code
contributions, patches, new tests/suites, etc... :)</p>
<p>- 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 <a href="http://www.phoronix.com/">Phoronix.com</a>
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 @ <a href="http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=phoronix_premium">http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=phoronix_premium</a>.
You may also contact us (phoronix [at] phoronix.com) for additional information
or ideas.</p>
<h2>Configuration</h2>
<p>- The user configuration options for the Phoronix Test Suite are stored in
<em>~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml</em>. The batch mode options are also
stored within this file and those can be adjusted by running <em>phoronix-test-suite
batch-setup</em>.</p>
<p>- The colors, size, and other attributes for the graphs found within the PTS
Results Viewer can be modified via the file <em>~/.phoronix-test-suite/graph-config.xml</em>.
A description of the XML tags can be found by looking at the comments within <em>pts-core/functions/pts-interfaces.php</em>
and <em>pts-core/objects/pts_CustomGraph.php</em>. No matter the graph type, the
same generic <em>graph-config.xml</em> configuration is used.</p>
<h2>Test / Suite Writing</h2>
<p>- The Phoronix Test Suite recursively determines tests/suites and allows a suite
to call another suite.</p>
<p>- In <em>pts/etc</em> are XML templates that you can use when starting to write test profiles and other XML files.</p>
<p>- 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 <em>pts/</em> folder.</p>
<p>- The XML syntax for all file specifications are defined within <em>pts-core/functions/pts-interfaces.php</em>
and trailing each definition is a comment describing its purpose / value.</p>
<h2>Module Writing</h2>
<p>- 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.</p>
<p>- 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 <em>pts-core/modules</em> folder. The Phoronix Test
Suite has support for both shell and PHP modules.</p>
<h2>Debugging</h2>
<p>- Setting <em>DEBUG=1</em> 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 <em>list-tests</em> or <em>list-suites</em>
in the diagnostics mode, different information will be outputted that's more relevant
to Phoronix Test Suite developers.</p>
<p>- To save the debugging output, set <em>DEBUG_FILE=name-of-file</em> as an
environmental variable and the results will be saved to <em>~/.phoronix-test-suite/debug-messages/name-of-file</em>.</p>
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