[Users] test suite data files commits to svn

[Erik Schnetter]

On Apr 19, 2010, at 2:43 , Ian Hinder wrote:

>
> On 19 Apr 2010, at 05:21, Baiotti Luca wrote:
>
>> Hi Bruno,
>>
>> the idea of the testsuites is to have reliable data (corresponding
>> to a given
>> parfile) to compare with, when one wants to check that the code
>> works , e.g., on a
>> new machine or that a change in the source code has not introduced
>> unwanted
>> behaviour. So the data are a fundamental part of the testsuites.
>
> While I completely agree with what Luca said, I would like to echo
> Bruno's concern that some of the test suite data is very large. Since
> it is only designed for regression testing, there is no reason I can
> see to have such large data files.  There is either a regression or
> there isn't, and once you have found that it is present, you can then
> do more detailed runs with more output to locate it.  You shouldn't
> need a large amount of output.


If a thorn calculates N quantities, then ideally there should be N 3D  
output files, so that all quantities are tested.  It is impossible to  
test correctness if there are only norms, and if there is only 1D  
output then problems off-axis are not detected.

In a way, the best approach would be to create a checkpoint file from  
a test parameter file and store this.  This would be the most  
efficient way to store the complete information.  Unfortunately,  
Cactus test cases support only ASCII output (so far?).

-erik

-- 
Erik Schnetter <schnetter at cct.lsu.edu>   http://www.cct.lsu.edu/~eschnett/