Running unit tests under valgrind

Derek Atkins warlord at MIT.EDU
Tue May 22 10:23:01 EDT 2012


Donald,

Donald Allen <donaldcallen at gmail.com> writes:

>>> Do you guys run the whole system under valgrind (John is obviously
>>> right about tests on the parts don't necessarily say anything about
>>> the whole) prior to release as part of your QA process?
>>
>> Not routinely. Every so often someone will get motivated and run under valgrind for a while and chase down some of the leaks, but there are too many execution paths and not yet enough tests to be sure of exercising even a significant percentage of the program. We'll get that sorted eventually.
>
> I would argue that waiting until you have what you think is adequate
> test coverage is not a good strategy. Releases don't happen that often
> and it sounds like running the whole thing under valgrind isn't that
> difficult, so the cost of doing it is not high. And it just might turn
> up something important, even without comprehensive test coverage. You
> could make the gnucash+valgrind package available to some volunteers
> whever you see fit during the release cycle (I'd be happy to be one of
> them) to exercise the system and report the problems it turns up. So I
> think it makes sense from a cost-benefit standpoint not to wait.
>
> I would also argue that the comprehensive test suite, especially on a
> volunteer project like this, could be a pipe dream. I've been involved
> in projects where people were being paid for their work and all the
> right things were said, but not done, about test coverage. It's like
> documentation. Programmers like to program, not write tests, not write
> documentation. I'm not saying it never happens, but its a lot more
> difficult to make it happen than to get reams of code written.

Are you offering to help do this periodic testing!?   If so, thank you!

> /Don
>
>>
>> Regards,
>> John Ralls

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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