[comp.windows.x] X port verification

sfr@neccan.necisa.oz (Stephen Rothwell) (10/17/89)

I am interested in verifying the correctness of a port
the X11 server.  Is there anything available to do this
e.g. a test suite?
 
Please reply by mail.
 
sfr@neccan.necisa.oz	NEC Information Systems Australia
D

rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) (10/17/89)

The Alpha release of the X Testing Consortium's X Test Suite is now available
via anonymous ftp to expo.lcs.mit.edu (18.30.0.212), in the directory
/pub/XTEST/, as a split compressed tar file.  The distribution is
approximately 36Mb uncompressed.

The suite can also be ordered from the MIT Software Center.  The suite is
available on one 2400ft, 1600bpi 9-track magnetic reel to reel tape written in
UNIX tar format.  No other distribution format is available from MIT.  The tape
contains source code and is distributed with a hardcopy of the documentation.

To obtain a copy of the X Test Suite, please send a check drawn on a U.S. bank 
payable to the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" for US $200 to:
   
   MIT Software Center
   Bldg. E32-300
   28 Carleton Street
   Cambridge, MA  02139 

Please send wire transfers to:

   First National Bank of Boston
   100 Federal Street
   Boston, MA  0211)

   Acct #51463306

   Reference: (your company name)M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office

Please send a shipping address with your order.  P.O. Boxes are undeliverable 
via UPS.

If you have ordering questions, you can call the X Hotline at (617) 258-8330.


The X Testing Consortium was formed (prior to the formation of the MIT X
Consortium) to develop code suitable for testing the correctness and
robustness of vendor implementations of the X Window System.  This release of
the test suite contains the following components:

1. Protocol Sanity Tests.  These test the server's basic ability to accept all
   legal message types and respond appropriately, test aspects which cannot be
   tested adequately from Xlib, and test basic server functionality that the
   Xlib tests depend on.

2. Xlib Tests.  Comprehensive tests for most routines and macros in the Xlib
   interface, testing both Xlib and the server.  Includes pixel validation
   of graphics requests.

3. Xlib Test Specifications.  Informal written specifications of what the Xlib
   Tests should do.

4. Volume/Stress Tests.  Tests server robustness with high data load and high
   computational load sustained over both short and long periods of time, and
   provides a framework for adding additional tests.

5. Client Exerciser.  Utilities for recording and playing back scripts of user
   actions (keyboard and pointer events), for the purpose of testing clients.
   The utilities make use of the Input Synthesis Extension (distributed as part
   of X11 Release 3 from MIT).

6. Graphics Benchmark.  Yet another graphics benchmark tool.

7. Interactive Xlib.  A test program which will read and execute Xlib functions
   and macros, both interactively and from input control files.

8. Gbench.  A graphics benchmark tool from Stanford.  This was not developed
   by the X Testing Consortium, it is simply included here as another utility.

This is an ALPHA release of the test suite.  It is not complete, and there is
no particular guarantee that any problems reported by this suite are really
bugs in your Xlib or server implementation, they may well be bugs in the test
suite itself.  The contents of this tape are not endorsed as any form of
standard by the X Consortium.

This test suite is the result of considerable work by numerous people in the
companies making up the X Testing Consortium, and we are indebted to them.
MIT was not directly involved in the development of the test suite, but did
meet with the X Testing Consortium on a regular basis.  This release of the
test suite has not gone through MIT's configuration and build process, so it
may take some effort to build the suite on your machine.

Although there is much work left to be done, this test suite represents an
excellent beginning.  With this release, the X Testing Consortium is
disbanding, but the MIT X Consortium will continue the development of X
testing software.