DejaGnu

DejaGnu is a framework for testing other programs. It has a main script called runtest that goes through a directory looking at configuration files and then runs some tests with given criteria. The purpose of the DejaGnu package is to provide a single front end for all tests. It is a part of the GNU Project and is licensed under the GPL. It is based on Expect, which is in turn based on Tcl. The current maintainers are Rob Savoye and Ben Elliston.

DejaGnu has a very strong history in testing due to its Tcl base. Tcl is used extensively by companies such as Oracle and Sybase to test their products. DejaGnu allows this work to be much more structured.

The tests can be grouped according to the tool they are testing. The test is run by merely calling runtest in the root project directory.

This will look in the testsuite directory for any folders starting with program_to_test and will run all .exp files in that folder.

One field for which DejaGnu is particularly well suited is that of embedded system design. It allows for testing to be done remotely on development boards; separate initialization files can be created for each operating system and board. This mainly focuses on embedded targets and remote hosts. DejaGnu is thus popular with many GNU projects, at universities, and for private companies.

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