The jtreg FAQ

This FAQ is a growing list of questions asked by developers running and writing tests which will be run using the regression test harness for the OpenJDK platform, jtreg. It is a supplement to the test-tag language specification and is intended to illuminate implications of the spec and to answer questions about this implementation of the spec.

Index

1 Overview

1.1 What’s the purpose of this test framework?

The test framework described here is intended primarily for unit and regression tests. It can also be used for functional tests, and even simple product tests – in other words, just about any type of test except a conformance test. (Conformance tests belong in a Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK), such as the Java Compatibility Kit (JCK)). Tests can often be written as small standalone Java programs, although in some cases an applet or a shell-script might be required.

1.2 What’s a regression test?

A regression test is a test written specifically to check that a bug has been fixed and remains fixed. A regression test should fail when run against a build with the bug in question, and pass when run against a build in which the bug has been fixed.

1.3 But can I also write non-regression tests using this framework?

Yes. Suppose, for example, that you evaluate a bug that turns out not to be a bug, but in the course of doing the evaluation you write a test that checks for correct behavior. You can help improve the quality of the JDK by checking this test into the test directory.

1.4 What is the difference between a unit test and a regression test?

1.5 What is the JavaTest™ harness?

The JavaTest harness is a set of tools designed to execute test programs. It was originally designed to execute tests in the Java Compatibility Kit (JCK). Among other things, the harness has evolved the ability to execute non-JCK testsuites. The JDK regression test suite is one such suite.

An open source version of the harness is available at http://openjdk.org/projects/code-tools/jtharness/.

1.6 What are the JDK regression extensions to the JavaTest harness? What is “regtest”?

For the harness to execute tests in a given test suite, it needs specialized code which knows how to find test descriptions and how to interpret those descriptions. The JDK Test Framework: Tag Language Specification provides the needed descriptions. “regtest” refers to extensions for the JavaTest harness that implement this specification, and is an older name for what is now known as “jtreg”.

1.7 What are the system requirements for using the JDK regression extensions?

It is recommended that you run jtreg using JDK 1.8 or later.

1.8 Where can I find a copy of jtreg?

Information on downloading and building the source code, as well as publicly available binaries, is given on the OpenJDK jtreg home page.

1.9 Where do I find additional supporting documentation?

Beyond the Java™ Platform documentation, the following are relevant documentation resources.

1.10 There’s functionality missing from the tag specification. I can’t write my test, or it would vastly improve the life of people writing tests if it was added. What do I need to do?

See the OpenJDK jtreg home page for a suitable forum or mailing list.

1.11 The spec is fine, but there’s some functionality that I’d like to get from the regression extensions, or I still can’t run it on a basic test. Who do I contact?

Send email to jtreg-discuss(at)openjdk.org

1.12 Why not use JUnit or TestNG?

JUnit and TestNG not around when we started writing tests for JDK. And, the test tag specification has been specifically designed for testing JDK, with support for testing applets, command-line interfaces, and so on, as well as simple API tests.

And by now, there are many thousands of tests written for jtreg, so it would not be practical to convert them all to some other test framework.

However, note that jtreg now includes support for collections of tests written in JUnit and TestNG.

2 Getting Started

2.1 What does a typical invocation of jtreg look like? How can I make sure that I can even run the JavaTest harness?

You may verify that the JavaTest harness can be properly invoked by using jtreg to run this sample test.

/*
 * @test
 * @bug 2718282
 * @summary Hello test
 */

public class Hello {
    public static void main(String [] args) throws Exception {
        if (true)
            System.out.println("Hello World!");
        else
            throw new Exception("??");
    }
}

A typical invocation of jtreg on that test is:

ribbit$ jtreg -verbose:all -testjdk:/usr/local/java/jdk1.4/solsparc Hello.java

where

Modulo the line numbers, output for the successful invocation of jtreg will look like:

 1   --------------------------------------------------
 2   TEST: Hello.java
 3   JDK under test: (/usr/local/java/jdk1.4/solsparc/jre)
 4   java version "1.4.0-beta"
 5   Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.0-beta-b56)
 6   Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4-beta-B56, mixed mode)
 7
 8   ACTION: build -- Passed. Compilation successful
 9   REASON: Named class compiled on demand
10   TIME:   3.024 seconds
11
12   ACTION: compile -- Passed. Compilation successful
13   REASON: .class file out of date or does not exist
14   TIME:   3.023 seconds
15   STDOUT:
16   STDERR:
17
18   ACTION: main -- Passed. Execution successful
19   REASON: Assumed action based on file name: run main Hello
20   TIME:   0.862 seconds
21   STDOUT:
22   Hello World!
23   STDERR:
24   STATUS:Passed.
25
26   TEST RESULT: Passed. Execution successful
27   --------------------------------------------------
28   test results: passed: 1
29   Report written to /u/iag/jtw/JTreport/report.html
30   Results written to /u/iag/jtw/JTwork

The test was compiled and executed. No exception was thrown during execution, thus the test passed.

Interpretation of this output is as follows:

2.2 Bleah! That verbose output is so long! Can I have something shorter?

Yes. Several options provided with jtreg influence the output per test. Here are a few verbose settings in order of decreasing average output per test.

The following samples of output correspond to each of the above settings. Each sample is run with three tests: Pass.java, Fail.java, and Error.java . Note that in some cases, the output varies substantially depending on whether the test passed or failed.

-verbose:fail - Full output for failed tests only. Two lines for tests that passed or produced errors (related options: -verbose:pass, -verbose:fail, and -verbose:all).

ribbit$ jtreg -verbose:fail Pass.java Fail.java Error.java
--------------------------------------------------
TEST: Pass.java
TEST RESULT: Passed. Execution successful
--------------------------------------------------
TEST: Fail.java
JDK under test: (/usr/local/java/jdk1.4/solsparc)
java version "1.4.0-beta"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.0-beta-b56)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4-beta-B56, mixed mode)

ACTION: build -- Passed. Compilation successful
REASON: Named class compiled on demand
TIME:   3.649 seconds

ACTION: compile -- Passed. Compilation successful
REASON: .class file out of date or does not exist
TIME:   3.637 seconds
STDOUT:
STDERR:

ACTION: main -- Failed. Execution failed: `main' threw exception: java.lang.Exception: Fail
REASON: Assumed action based on file name: run main Fail
TIME:   1.219 seconds
STDOUT:
STDERR:
java.lang.Exception: I failed
 at Fail.main(Fail.java:5)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:30)
 at sun.reflect.InflatableMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(InflatableMethodAccessorImpl.java:46)
 at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:306)
 at com.sun.javatest.regtest.MainWrapper$MainThread.run(MainWrapper.java:94)
 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:579)

JavaTest Message: Test threw exception: java.lang.Exception: I failed
JavaTest Message: shutting down test

STATUS:Failed.`main' threw exception: java.lang.Exception: I failed

TEST RESULT: Failed. Execution failed: `main' threw exception: java.lang.Exception: I failed
--------------------------------------------------
TEST: Error.java
TEST RESULT: Error. Parse Exception: Unexpected length for bugid: 31415926,
--------------------------------------------------
test results: passed: 1; failed: 1; error: 1
Report written to /u/iag/jtw/JTreport/report.html
Results written to /u/iag/jtw/JTwork
Error: some tests failed or other problems occurred

-verbose - This option produces three lines of output per test: start, end, final status.

ribbit$ jtreg -verbose Pass.java Fail.java Error.java
runner starting test: Pass.java
runner finished test: Pass.java
Passed. Execution successful
runner starting test: Fail.java
runner finished test: Fail.java
Failed. Execution failed: `main' threw exception: java.lang.Exception: I failed
runner starting test: Error.java
runner finished test: Error.java
Error. Parse Exception: Unexpected length for bugid: 31415926,
test results: passed: 1; failed: 1; error: 1
Report written to /u/iag/jtw/JTreport/report.html
Results written to /u/iag/jtw/JTwork
Error: some tests failed or other problems occurred

-verbose:summary - A single line of output per test: final status and name of file.

ribbit$ jtreg -verbose:summary Pass.java Fail.java Error.java
Passed: Pass.java
FAILED: Fail.java
Error:  Error.java
test results: passed: 1; failed: 1; error: 1
Report written to /u/iag/jtw/JTreport/report.html
Results written to /u/iag/jtw/JTwork
Error: some tests failed or other problems occurred

No verbose option provides only general summary information about all the tests run.

ribbit$ jtreg Pass.java Fail.java Error.java
test results: passed: 1; failed: 1; error: 1
Report written to /u/iag/jtw/JTreport/report.html
Results written to /u/iag/jtw/JTwork
Error: some tests failed or other problems occurred

If there is information that you find lacking in all of these options, please contact the developer to determine if it is possible to make it available.

2.3 Are there abbreviations for these long options?

Yes. The -help option to jtreg lists the long and abbreviated forms of all options.

2.4 What is a .jtr file?

As each test is run, it produces a JavaTest Results (.jtr) file which contains information about how the test was run, the name of the test, standard output, standard input, final status, etc. The name of the file is the basename of the file containing the test description followed by the .jtr extension. For example, Hello.java produces a file called Hello.jtr. These files reside in the work directory which contains a directory hierarchy that parallels the test source structure.

Blocks of text within a .jtr file use \ to escape certain characters (including \ itself). This needs to be taken into account if you view the contents of the file directly. If you use the GUI, or use the jtreg -show option, the escapes are automatically taken into account.

2.5 What’s the difference between the “fail” and “error” return status?

If a test failed, then the harness was able to actually run the test code. The failure could either indicate that the test truly failed (i.e. it threw an exception) or that there was some problem running the test due to security restrictions, lack of resources, etc.

If error is the final result of a test, then the harness was unable to run the test. An error is most commonly associated with problems in the test description (typos, missing required arguments, etc.).

In either case the result contains a short message intended to provide hints as to where the problem lies.

2.6 If a test fails, I’d like to put all of my debugging information into the final result. How do I do that?

The final result string is composed by the harness. For tests that fail because an exception is thrown, the result string will contain some header string such as 'main' threw exception: followed by the exception’s type and detail message. This detail message should contain sufficient information to provide the test user a starting point to investigate the unexpected failure. It should not contain full debugging information.

The harness makes no guarantees as to the availability of any detail message longer than 128 characters.

2.7 I’ve heard that the jtreg has a GUI. How do I access that?

The complete JavaTest harness GUI is available via the -gui option to jtreg.

2.8 Can I test a JRE?

Yes. Use the -testJDK option to specify the JRE or other image to be tested, and use the -compileJDK option to specify a matching version of JDK, containing all the standard JDK modules and tools.

For OpenJDK version 9 and later, this relies on the tests being correctly marked up with appropriate @modules tags. For earlier versions, the appropriate subset of tests will need to be determined and specified on the command line. Some tests may fail if they are not correctly marked up, or if they are inappropriately selected.

2.9 How do I run jtreg under Windows?

jtreg is normally invoked by a wrapper script, written for the Bourne family of shells. On Windows, you can use any of the following:

You can also start jtreg directly, with a command of the form java -jar jtreg.jar options, but you will still need to install one of MKS, Cygwin or WSL to be able to run shell tests.

2.10 Which should I use? MKS, Cygwin or WSL?

jtreg supports all, equally. However, the tests in recent versions of OpenJDK test suites assume the use of Cygwin. So, when you are writing tests for one of those test suites, you should make sure that your test at least works with Cygwin.

Older versions of OpenJDK assumed the use of MKS to run shell tests, with Cygwin being a secondary option. So, when you are writing tests for those test suites, you should make sure that your test at least works with MKS. If you prefer to use Cygwin, and can make your test run with both, so much the better.

Support for Windows Subsystem for Linux is being added to the build system and tests for JDK 13. If jtreg detects Cygwin on the execution path, jtreg will use Cygwin to run shell tests; otherwise, if jtreg detect WSL on the path, jtreg will use WSL to run shell tests. You can override the automatic selection by using either the -wsl or -cygwin command-line options.

2.11 Does jtreg provide command-line help?

jtreg provides command line help, which lists all the available options and any arguments expected by those options. You can get help on all the options by using the -help option by itself:

$ jtreg -help

You may also get command line help for any option or topic by giving arguments to the -help option, in which case jtreg will just print the sections containing any of the specified terms. For example:

$ jtreg -help -workDir
$ jtreg -help jdk

3 Using jtreg

3.1 How do I specify which tests to run?

The most basic way to specify which tests to run is to give one or more paths directly on the command line, for directories and files containing tests. If a file contains multiple tests, you can specify the name of a test within that file by appending #ID to the file path, where ID is either defined in the test itself after the @test tag, or the string idN if no id is explicitly defined, where N is the number of the test within the file, and where 0 identifies the first test.

If you wish to specify a long list of arguments, you can put the list in a file and specify that file using the @file option.

You may also specify the name of a group of tests. Groups are defined in the test suite, and define a collection of tests to be run.

To summarise, you can use the following to specify tests to be run:

Kinds of Supported Arguments
Argument Description
directory All tests found in files in and under the directory
file[#id] All tests in a file, or a specific test in a file
[directory]:group All tests in a group defined for a testsuite
@file Expand arguments in a file

You can further refine the set of tests to be run in various ways.

3.2 How do I refine the set of sets to run?

You can refine the set of tests to be run in various ways:

Note that in addition to the command-line options just listed, a test may contain tags such as @requires and @modules that determine whether a test should be run on any particular system.

3.3 How do I specify the JDK to use?

First, it is important to distinguish the JDK you use to run jtreg itself from the JDK you use to run the tests. It is generally recommended to use a released version of JDK to run jtreg; it must be at least version 1.7.

If you use the standard bin/jtreg script to run jtreg, you can specify the version using the JT_JAVA environment variable.

The JDK that jtreg will use to run the tests is normally specified with the jtreg -jdk option. This JDK will be used to both compile and run the tests. It need not be the same version of JDK that is used to run jtreg; it must be at least JDK 1.5 to run tests in agentVM mode, and can be even older to run tests in otherVM mode.

Cross-compilation

jtreg provides some (limited) support for using different versions of JDK to compile tests and to run them. This is useful when testing small version of JDK, such as compact profiles, or images built with jlink that do not contain all the modules of a standard JDK.

To use this feature, use the -compileJDK option to specify the JDK used to compile the tests (that is, used by the @build and @compile tags), and use the -testJDK option to specify the JDK used to execute the compiled classes (for example, as used by @run main).

Note: the @compile tag has a dual use: it is used in compiler tests (that is, to test the JDK compiler, javac) and less commonly, it is used to compile classes for API tests when the simple @build tag is not sufficient. It is currently not possible to distinguish these uses except by context. It does not make sense to use the cross-compilation feature for compiler tests.

3.4 What are the work and report directories?

The work directory contains any files which are generated during a test run. These include compiled (.class) files, individual test result (.jtr) files, and any files which are saved from the scratch directory, as directed by the -retain option. By default, the name of the work directory is JTwork. The name may be selected via the -workDir option to jtreg.

The report directory contains all final reports in HTML and/or plain text format. By default, the name of the report directory is JTreport. The name may be selected via the -reportDir option.

The HTML files in the report directory may contain links to the individual test result (.jtr) files in the work directory. These links will be relative links if the report and work directories share a nearby common ancestor, such as the same parent or grandparent. A recommended practice is to create a single directory, containing subdirectories simply named report and work.

The plain text files in the report directory include the following:

Reports can be disabled with the -noreport option.

It is generally recommended that the work and report directories should not be placed anywhere in the test suite itself. Since jtreg may scan the entire test suite looking for tests, it is unnecessary work for jtreg to have the scan these directories looking for the unlikely possibility of tests. This implies a corollary that you should not rely on the default settings for these directories (./JTwork and ./JTreport) if you choose to execute jtreg in any directory in the test suite.

3.5 What is a scratch directory?

When jtreg executes a test, the current directory for the test is set to a scratch directory so that the test can easily write any temporary files. jtreg will ensure that the directory is always empty when the test begins, so that the test does not have to worry about deleting any pre-existing files. These directories are placed in the work directory.

As a special case, if all the tests are being run in otherVM mode, and if -retain is specified, the scratch directory for each test will be the unique test-specific directory in the work directory where the test’s files will be retained. In this situation, if any file that is not to be retained cannot be deleted, an error will be reported and it will simply be left in place.

3.6 What is a ProblemList.txt file?

ProblemList.txt is the name given by convention to a list of tests in a test suite that should not be run. Use the -exclude option to specify the file to jtreg. The file is a simple text file in which blank lines and lines beginning # are treated as comments and ignored, and other lines are of the form:

test-name list-of-bug-numbers list-of-platforms description

The two list items must each be comma-separated lists with no embedded whitespace.

The list of bug numbers should identify one or more bugs that justify why the test is in the list and should not be run. It is not used by jtreg, but may be used by other tools to warn when a test should be removed from the list because the underlying issue has been resolved.

The list of platforms should identify one or more platforms on which the test should not be run. Each entry in this list should be in one of the following forms:

3.7 What are the agentVM and otherVM modes?

In otherVM mode, jtreg will start a new JVM to perform each action (such as @compile, @run main, and so on) in a test. When the action has been completed, the JVM will exit, relying on the system to clean up any resources that may have been in use by the action.

In agentVM mode, jtreg will maintain a pool of available JVMs, grouped according to the VM options specified when the JVM was created. When jtreg needs to execute an action for a test, it will obtain a suitable JVM from the pool, or create a new one if necessary. jtreg will use that JVM, and when it has been completed, it will attempt to restore some well-known global values to a standard state (such as the system properties, standard IO streams, security manager, etc). If that cleanup is successful, depending on the VM options used to create the JVM, jtreg may put the JVM in the pool for later reuse. Otherwise, the JVM is allowed to exit.

Which mode should I use?

OtherVM mode provides the maximum isolation between the actions of tests, at the cost of performance, since a new JVM is started for each action.

In contrast, agentVM mode has higher performance, but it requires that any code that runs in an agent VM must ensure that the VM can easily be reset to a standard state when the action has completed. For any state that cannot be reset by jtreg, such as closing any open files, the code must perform its own cleanup, or the action should be changed to use otherVM mode.

How do I specify which mode to use?

The default for all actions is to use the mode specified on the command line, using either the -agentvm or -othervm options or their shorter-form aliases. If no option is specified, -othervm is the default.

Note: the JDK make run-test feature uses the -agentvm option, so that agentVM mode is the default when using make run-test.

The default action can be overridden for the tests in a directory (and its subdirectories) by using the othervm.dirs property in either the TEST.ROOT or a TEST.properties file.

The default action can be overridden for any individual action by using the /othervm option for the action. For example,

@compile/othervm MyTest.java
@run main/othervm -esa MyTest

How do I find which mode was used to run an action?

Look for a line beginning “Mode:” in the “messages” section for the action in the test’s result (.jtr) file. This will specify the mode used to execute the action, together with a reason if the default mode was not used. For example,

    ----------messages:(4/152)----------
    command: main MainOtherVM
    reason: User specified action: run main/othervm MainOtherVM
=>  Mode: othervm [/othervm specified]
    elapsed time (seconds): 0.141

3.8 How do I specify whether to run tests concurrently?

jtreg provides the ability to run tests in parallel, using multiple JVMs running at once. (jtreg never runs multiple tests at the same time in any one JVM.)

Running tests in parallel can significantly speed up the overall time to run the selected tests in the test suite on big server-class machines, but it is also important not to overload the machine, because that can cause spurious test failures, caused by resource starvation, leading to test timeouts.

You can specify the number of tests to run in parallel with the -concurrency option. The default value is 1, meaning that only one test is being executed at any one time.

It is difficult to give a hard and fast rule for choosing higher values; it depends on the characteristics of the machine being used: the number of cores, hyperthreading and the amount of available memory. The general rule is to determine a value that is high enough to use most of the system resources, without overloading the system and pegging the resource utilization meter at 100%. It is also advisable to avoid swapping virtual memory as much as possible.

One important consideration is how the specified concurrency can affect the number of JVMs that are instantiated:

Note: the preceding rules describe the current behavior of jtreg. Alternate behaviors have been proposed, such as a fixed-size pool with a least-recently-used (LRU) replacement strategy.

Another important consideration when many JVMs are active on a single machine is the amount of memory that may be used by each JVM. Use VM options such as -Xmx and -XX:MaxRAMPercentage to control the amount of memory allocated to each JVM.

If you run JDK tests using make run-test, suitable values for -concurrency, -Xmx and-XX:MaxRAMPercentage are determined automatically.

Can I run tests on multiple machines?

jtreg does not natively support running tests on multiple machines at once. However, you can partition the test suite into sections, and use different instances of jtreg to each run a section of the test suite on a different machine. You can then use jtreg to generate a single report based of the results of executing each of the sections.

3.9 How do I specify additional options for compiling and running tests?

You can specify additional VM options for all JVMs started by jtreg, using the -vmoption and -vmoptions options.

In addition, for historical reasons, jtreg supports a number of VM options which can be specified directly on the command-line. Some of the more useful such options include -enableassertions and related options, -Dname=value to set a system property, and -Xmxvalue to limit the memory usage.

You can specify additional VM options for all JVMs used to execute tests, using the -javaoption and -javaoptions options. These options apply to the JVMs used for the @run main and @run applet actions. (They do not apply to the JVMs used for the @build and @compile actions.)

Although not common to do so, you can specify additional options for use whenever javac is invoked. You can do this with the -javacoption and -javacoptions options.

It is not possible to set VM options just for the JVMs used to run javac. In particular, the javac option -Jvm-option is not supported.

3.10 What do I need to know about test timeouts?

Because most users do not closely monitor the execution of all the tests in a test run, jtreg will monitor the time take for various events during its overall execution, to ensure that those events do not take longer than anticipated. This includes the following:

To allow for running tests on slow hardware, or when using VM options that might adversely affect system performance, the timeout intervals can be scaled by using the -timeoutFactor option.

Ideally, any test code that uses timeouts internally should take the current timeout factor into account. Java code can access the current timeout value using the test.timeout.factor system property. Shell tests can access the value using the TESTTIMEOUUTFACTOR environment variable.

It may be convenient to run code in a JVM when an action for a test is about to be timed out: such code may perform a thread dump or some other detailed analysis of the JVM involved. jtreg allows such code to be provided using the -timeoutHandler and -timeoutHanderDir options. The default timeout handler will try and call jstack to generate stack traces of all the Java threads running in the JVM being used for the action.

Test timeouts are automatically disabled when a test is being debugged, as indicated by the use of the -debug option.

For all timeout-related options, use jtreg -help timeout.

3.11 How do I run only tests which were written for a specific bugid?

The -bug option to jtreg will run only those tests which define the given bugid using the @bug tag.

3.12 How do I run only tests NOT requiring manual intervention?

The -automatic option to jtreg will ignore all tests which contain the /manual tag option.

3.13 How do I run only tests requiring manual intervention?

The -manual option to jtreg will run only those tests which contain the /manual tag option.

3.14 How do I view what a test sends to System.out or System.err?

You have several alternatives.

  1. Use the -verbose:all option, or the related result-sensitive options -verbose:pass, -verbose:fail, -verbose:error.
  2. Use the JavaTest (JT Harness) harness GUI.
  3. View the test’s .jtr file. Note: some characters in the file may be encoded.
  4. Use the -show option to display the unencoded content of a stream. For example,
    • jtreg -w work-dir -show:System.out test-name

3.15 How do I see what groups are defined in my test suite?

Use the showGroups option. To see all groups, specify the name of the test suite; to see the details for a specific group, specify the test suite and group.

$ jtreg -showGroups test/langtools
$ jtreg -showGroups test/langtools:tier2

3.16 How do I see what tests will be executed, without actually executing them?

Use the -listtests option.

$ jtreg -listtests test/langtools/jdk/javadoc/doclet

3.17 Why are there extra \ characters in the output from a test in a .jtr file?

By design, the contents of a .jtr file, including any output from tests, is represented in a way that can be read back in again by jtreg and related tools. To that end, characters that are not standard ASCII characters (printable characters, and CR, LF, SP, HT) are encoded with escape sequences. Characters outside that set are represented by \uXXXX, and \ itself as written as \\. Anyone viewing the contents of a .jtr directly, such as in a plain-text editor, or using command-line tools like grep need to be aware of that encoding and take it into account.

To view the unencoded output from a test that has been recorded in a .jtr file, use the jtreg -show:name option.

$ jtreg -w:/path/to/work-dir -show:System.out /path/to/test

The -show option can also be used to see the rerun script that is provided in the .jtr file, and which may also contain escape sequences. This script allows you to rerun the test stand-alone, without the use of the jtreg infrastructure.

3.18 What names can I use with the -show option

All recent versions of jtreg accept the name of an output stream as the name.

$ jtreg ...  -show:stream-name ...

The name of each output stream appears after a series of dashes and before a colon : in the .jtr file. For example, here is a heading for a stream named System.out:

----------System.out:(1/501)----------

More recent versions (6.2 onwards) support an optional section name as well. See the command-line help for specific details in the version you are using.

$ jtreg ... -show:section-name/stream-name

The name of all the sections appear in the testresult part of the .jtr file, and individually after #section: at the beginning of each section. For example,

sections=script_messages build compile build main

#section:compile

3.19 Can I verify the correctness of test descriptions without actually running the tests?

Yes! The -check option to jtreg will find test descriptions and will determine whether they are written according to the tag specification. Tests will not be executed.

The following sample output illustrates use of this option.

ribbit$ jtreg -verbose:summary -check Pass.java Fail.java Error.java
Passed: Pass.java
Passed: Fail.java
Error:  Error.java
test results: passed: 2; error: 1
Report written to /u/iag/jtw/JTreport/report.html
Results written to /u/iag/jtw/JTwork
Error: some tests failed or other problems occurred

3.20 I’d like to run my test standalone, without using jtreg: how do I do that?

All tests are generally designed so that they can be run without using jtreg. Tests either have a main method, or can be run using a framework like TestNG or JUnit.

If you have already executed the test, jtreg can provide a sample command-line to rerun it; you can find this in the rerun section of the test result (.jtr) file, or you can use the -show option to display the information to the console. For example,

3.21 Can I generate reports for tests that have already been run?

Yes! The -reportOnly option to jtreg will generate the standard HTML and plain text reports for tests which have been previously executed. Tests will not be executed. A work directory containing the results of the executed tests must be provided. The default location is ./JTwork. An alternate directory may be specified using -workDir.

3.22 What happens when jtreg runs a test?

In preparation for running a test, jtreg will ensure that the scratch directory to be used for the test is empty. If any files are found, jtreg will attempt to delete them; if it cannot, it will report an error and not run the test.

Note: it can be difficult for jtreg to identify the test that created a file that cannot be deleted, which may result in less-than-helpful error messages. See below for a way around this problem.

Once the scratch directory has been prepared, jtreg will execute each action (@build, @compile, @run, and so on) in order. For each action:

When jtreg has completed executing the actions for a test, it may try and retain or delete and files that may have been created in the scratch directory.

The default behavior is for jtreg to leave any files created by the test in the scratch directory after a test completes, but to subsequently delete any such files before the next test begins. This behavior conveniently means that any files are left in the scratch directory for inspection by the user when running a single test, such as when developing and running a new test, but the downside is that if there are subsequently any problems deleting those files, the identity of the test that created them is not easily determined.

The default behavior can be changed by using the --retain option, which is used to specify which files, if any, are to be retained when a test completes. Any file in the scratch directory that is not one of those specified to be retained will be deleted.

If there are any problems deleting any file, it will be reported as an error against the test; if the scratch directory is associated with a JVM in the agent pool, that JVM will be discarded. Another will be created to replace it, using a different scratch directory, if the need arises.

On Windows, a file will not be deleted until any open handles on the file have been closed. This will mean that files that have accidentally been left open by a test cannot be deleted. jtreg will try hard to delete files in the scratch directory, and will wait awhile in case the files go away in a timely manner.

3.23 My tests take a long time to run: how do I find where the time goes?

The .jtr file for each test contains timing information for each action executed by the test and for the test as a whole.

jtreg writes a simple summary of test execution times to a file in the report directory, called text/timeStats.txt. This file contains data to create a histogram giving the number of tests taking a given time to execute, rounded to the nearest second. These values are then followed by the mean and standard deviation of the test execution times. If there are any tests taking an unexpectedly long time to execute, they can be determined by examining the elapsed entries in the .jtr files.

3.24 How do I find the tests that took longest to run?

Using the elapsed time written into each .jtr file, you can find the slowest tests with a command such as the following:

grep -r "^elapsed=" DIRS | sed -e 's/\\:/:/g' | sort -t = -k 2 -n -r

where DIRS is one or more directories containing .jtr files to be examined. The command scans the input files and directories looking for the elapsed lines, and then sorts the lines by the millisecond value in descending order.

You can also use the head command to limit the output to the desired number of the slowest tests, represented here by COUNT:

grep -r "^elapsed=" DIRS | sed -e 's/\\:/:/g' | sort -t = -k 2 -n -r | head -n COUNT

Note: there is also an entry named totalTime in the testresult data in each .jtr file, giving the execution time in seconds. As such, it is approximately equivalent to the value given in the elapsed value, after allowing for the different units (seconds compared to milliseconds) in the two values.

3.25 My system is unusable while I run tests. How do I fix that?

The JDK make test framework automatically uses these techniques to reduce the load on a system.

3.26 What is the agent pool?

The agent pool is a collection of reusable VMs that can be used to run test actions, like @compile and @run main, when it is not required to run the action in a separate VM. VMs are started automatically as needed, and after each use, if they can be reset to a standard state, they are saved for potential reuse by subsequent actions that require a VM with similar characteristics.

The characteristics used to select a VM from the pool are:

3.27 How do I control the agent pool?

There is a limit to the number of VMs in the pool at any one time. The default is double the number of tests that may run concurrently. The value can be overridden with the --max-pool-size option. Setting a larger number will mean more system resources are used to keep idle VMs available for potential reuse; setting a smaller number will save system resources but will reduce the chance of being able to reuse a JVM.

There is also a time limit on how long an idle VM will remain in the pool, The default is 30 seconds. The value can be overridden with the --pool-idle-timeout option. Setting a larger number will mean more system resources are used to keep idle VMs available for potential reuse; setting a smaller number will save system resources but will reduce the chance of being able to reuse a JVM. The value is used as given; it is not subject to the modification by the -timeoutFactor option.

3.28 How do I run JDK jtreg tests using make test and the JDK makefile infrastructure

This is described in detail in the file doc/testing.md in all recent versions of the main JDK repository. You can see the latest version, in HTML, here: Testing the JDK.

4 Writing a JDK Regression Test

4.1 How do I write a test?

The simplest test is an ordinary Java program with the usual static main method. If the test fails, it should throw an exception; if it succeeds, it should return normally.

Here’s an example:

/* @test
   @bug 1234567
   @summary Make sure that 1 != 0
*/

public class OneZero {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        if (1 == 0) {
            throw new Exception("1 == 0");
        }
    }

}

This test could be run on its own with the command

$JDK/bin/java OneZero

where $JDK is the location of the JDK build that you’re testing.

4.2 What does the @test tag mean?

The @test tag identifies a source file that defines a test. the harness will automatically run any .java, .sh, and .html file containing an @test tag within the appropriate comment; it ignores any file not containing such a tag or not utilizing one of the expected extensions.

If necessary the harness will compile the source file, if the class files are older than the corresponding source files. Other files which the test depends on must be specified with the @run build action.

The arguments to the @test tag are ignored by the harness. For identification, it may be useful to put information such as SCCS ID keywords after the @test tag.

While not part of the tag specification, some tests use the string “/nodynamiccopyright/” after @test to indicate that the file should not be subject to automated copyright processing that might affect the operation of the test, for example, by affecting the line numbers of the test source code.

4.3 What do the other tags mean?

The other tags shown above are optional.

The @bug tag should be followed by one or more bug numbers, separated by spaces. The bug number is useful in diagnosing test failures. It is OK to write tests that don’t have bug numbers, but if you’re writing a test for a specific bug please include the bug number in an @bug tag.

The @summary tag describes the condition that is checked by the test. It is especially useful for non-regression tests, which by definition don’t have bug numbers, but even if there’s a bug number it’s helpful to include a summary. Note that a test summary is generally not the same thing as a Bugtraq synopsis, since the latter describes the bug rather than the condition that the bug violates.

4.4 How are tag arguments delimited?

The arguments of a tag are the words between that tag and the next tag, if there is one, or the end of the comment enclosing the tags.

4.5 Can I put comments in a test description?

Yes, use the @comment tag. It can be followed with any text, excluding @ characters, up to the next @ or the end of the comment containing the test description.

4.6 If a test fails, do I have to throw my own exception?

No. In cases like the above example in which you must check a condition in order to decide whether the test is to pass or fail, you have no choice but to construct an exception. RuntimeException is a convenient choice since it’s unchecked, so you don’t have to sprinkle your code with throws clauses.

On the other hand, if the test would naturally cause an exception to be thrown when it fails, it suffices to let that exception be propagated up through the main method. If the exception you expect to be thrown in the failure case is a checked exception, then you’ll need to provide the appropriate throws clauses in your code.

In general, the advantage of throwing your own exception is that often you can provide better diagnostics.

It is strongly recommended that you not catch general exceptions such as Throwable, Exception, or Error. Doing so can be potentially problematic.

4.7 Should a test call the System.exit method?

No. Depending on how you run the tests, you may get a security exception from the harness.

4.8 Can a test write to System.out and System.err?

Yes. The harness will capture everything sent to both streams.

4.9 Can a test check the output of System.out and System.err?

Yes, compiler tests using the @compile tag can use the /ref=file option. Such tests are generally not recommended, since the output can be sensitive to the locale in which they are run, and may contain other details which may be hard to maintain, such as line numbers.

While not part of the tag specification, some tests use the string “/nodynamiccopyright/” after the @test tag to indicate that the file should not be subject to automated copyright processing that might affect the operation of the test.

4.10 My test opens files and sockets: do I have to close them before the test exits?

If you want to be able to run the action in agentVM mode, then any open files and sockets must be closed before the action is completed: jtreg cannot do it for you.

If the action will always be run in otherVM mode, then it may be good practice to close any open files and sockets, but the operating system will probably close the open items for you if you do not.

4.11 My test changes observable system state like system properties or the default locale: do I have to reset it?

If you want to be able to run the action in agentVM mode, then you may need to reset the value before the action is completed. When an action is run in agentVM mode, jtreg will try and reset some commonly used values to their state at the beginning of the action. If you modify any other values, you must either reset them in the test code before the action exits, or ensure the use of otherVM mode for the action.

If the action will always be run in otherVM mode, there is no need to reset any system state that was modified during the action.

4.12 My test creates and uses additional threads: do I have to clean them up?

If you want to be able to run the action in agentVM mode, then you either must ensure that any threads have been terminated, or that they can be terminated by being interrupted. jtreg will run the main test code in a new thread in a new thread group. When that thread exits, or when any thread in the thread group throws an exception, jtreg will try to ensure that all threads in that thread group have exited. It will periodically interrupt those threads for a short period, to give them a chance to terminate themselves, and will report an error if they do not terminate in a timely fashion. An action should clean up for itself any threads that will not respond to being interrupted, or which are created in some other thread group.

If the action will always be run in othervm mode, there is no need to help ensure that all threads have terminated.

4.13 What is a combo test?

“Combo test” is an informal term used by OpenJDK developers to describe a style of writing a test so that it executes many test cases within the test, often by iterating over all combinations of a set of parameters. Such a technique can lead to a combinatorial explosion in the number of test cases, yielding hundreds or even thousands of test cases; when writing a test like this, it is important to consider how much time it will take to execute and how much output it may generate.

4.14 How much output can a test generate?

While a test can generate as much output as it wants, jtreg limits the amount that is saved of output written to any stream used by an action. This includes the standard output and error streams, and the “direct” output written by the compiler (javac) when run in agentVM mode.

The default for the maximum amount that is saved is 100K characters. If a test exceeds this limit, the first recourse should be to try and reduce the amount of output. Ask yourself whether all the information being written by the test is actually useful and if anyone is likely to read it all? Writing an unnecessary amount of detail affects everyone who runs the test and stores the output for any length of time.

Consider the following possibilities, to reduce the amount written by a test:

If you really need to have jtreg save more of the output, you can override the limit in two ways:

If the limit is exceeded, jtreg will discard the middle of the output, so that it can save the beginning of the output, which often contains configuration details written by the action or the top of a long stacktrace, and can save the end of the output, which contains the output that was written most recently by the action.

The discarded output will be replaced with a message like the following:

    Output overflow:
    JT Harness has limited the test output to the text
    at the beginning and the end, so that you can see how the
    test began, and how it completed.
    If you need to see more of the output from the test,
    set the system property javatest.maxOutputSize to a higher
    value. The current value is 100000.

4.15 How do I set javatest.maxOutputSize?

See the previous entry.

TL;DR: If you’re trying to set javatest.maxOutputSize, it may be because you have seen a message in the middle of some very long output in a .jtr file. You can either set the default value with a system property for the JVM running jtreg (not the JVM(s) used to run tests), or you can override the default value for some or all tests with the maxOutputSize property in the TEST.ROOT or TEST.properties configuration files.

4.16 How much time can a test take?

jtreg limits the amount of time that may be used to execute each action of the test. The default limit is 120 seconds (2 minutes). If a test exceeds this limit, the first recourse should be to try and reduce the time that is being used. If a test takes an excessive amount of time to run, that affects everyone who runs the test.

If you really need to increase the time allowed for an action, use the /timeout option for the action.

If you want to scale all the timeouts in a test run, use the -timeoutFactor command-line option.

4.17 How can I make a test configurable?

It can sometimes be useful to make a test behave differently when so required. One way to do so is to make the test code read the value of a system property or environment variable. You can set a system property on the jtreg command-line (for all tests) with -D or any of the ways to set a VM option. If you want to use an environment variable, you must declare that using the jtreg -e option. (If you don’t, jtreg will not pass the environment variable into any JVMs that it starts.)

4.18 What should I do with a test once I’ve written it?

Test it and then when you’re satisfied, check it into the test directory in your repository.

Yes, it really is that simple.

4.19 Do I need to test a test?

Yes! While there are procedures in place to routinely run tests to detect any issues in the product, that presumes that each test will work as expected. It is not practical to routinely test that every test is working as intended, because to do so would require a malfunctioning product that will help exercise the code pathways that are typically not executed. It is therefore especially important to ensure the test functions correctly (meaning, it will actually detect the errors it is designed to catch) at the time it is being written and reviewed.

4.20 How do I test a test?

There is no “one size fits all” solution, but here are some guidelines.

If a test is a regression test, meaning it is designed to test the fix for a bug that was found in the product, then check the following:

If the test is a unit test or system test for new functionality that has been added to the system, there is no prior version of the system that would demonstrate any errors, but you can try temporarily injecting some errors into the product code, in order to verify that the test will correctly detect those errors. One way to indirectly achieve this goal is to develop and use the test while developing the new feature (so-called test-driven development), instead of leaving it until afterwards.

For any type of test, ask yourself if the test is designed to cover all the lines of code that were affected in the corresponding change to the product. If code was changed, but is not exercised by any existing test or the new test, then that code is effectively untested. There may be minor exceptions to this rule for code that will really difficult to exercise, such as code to detect “out of memory” or “disk full” conditions, but the general principle holds. If you have access to code coverage tools, check that all the modified lines of code in the product have been executed: if code has not been executed, it has definitely not been tested.

For some types of test, it may be possible to build in some amount of self-testing. For example, if a test is designed to exercise a number of different behaviors in the product, where those behaviors can be externally monitored, ensure that all those behaviors were actually exercised, and report an error if any were not.

4.21 Where are the OpenJDK tests?

Within a recent version of an OpenJDK repo, the test/ directory contains three separate test suites:

In older versions of OpenJDK, these directories were in test subdirectories of the hotspot, jdk and langtools repositories.

4.22 Why not have separate test workspaces that only contain tests?

Checking a test into the workspace against which it’s first written helps prevent spurious test failures. In the case of a regression test, this process ensures that a regression test will migrate upward in the integration hierarchy along with the fix for the corresponding bug. If tests were managed separately from fixes then it would be difficult to distinguish between a true test failure and a failure due to version skew because the fix hadn’t caught up with the test.

4.23 How should I name a test?

In general, try to give tests names that are as specific and descriptive as possible. If a test is checking the behavior of one or a few methods, its name should include the names of those methods. For example, a test written for a bug in the skip method of FileInputStream could be placed in test/jdk/java/io/FileInputStream/Skip.java. A test written for a bug that involves both the skip and available methods could be named SkipAvailable.java.

Tests that involve many methods require a little more creativity in naming, since it would be unwieldy to include the names of all the methods. Just choose a descriptive word or short phrase. For example, a test that checks the general behavior of a FileInputStream after end-of-file has been reached could be named AfterEOF.java.

It can be helpful to add more information to the test name to help further describe the test. For example, a test that checks the skip method’s behavior when passed a negative count could be named SkipNegative.java.

You might find that the name you want to give your test has already been taken. In this case either find a different name or, if you’re just not in a creative mood, append an underscore and a digit to an existing name. Thus, if there were already a Skip.java file, a new test for the skip method could be named Skip_1.java.

Some tests require more than one source file, or may need access to data files. In this case it’s best to create a subdirectory in order to keep related files together. The subdirectory should be given a descriptive mixed-case name that begins with a lowercase letter. For example, a FileInputStream test that needs an input file as well as its Java source file in order to test the interaction of the read and available methods could be placed in the subdirectory test/jdk/java/io/FileInputStream/readAvailable.

Some tests involve more than one class in a package, in which case a new subdirectory in the relevant package directory should be created. For example, a set of general tests that exercise the character streams in the java.io package could be placed in the test/jdk/java/io/charStreams directory.

4.24 What about tests that don’t fit into the API structure?

In addition to a java directory for API-related tests, the test directory contains a javax directory, vm directory, a tools directory, and com and sun directories.

4.25 Can tests in different directories have the same name?

Yes. When a test is run by the harness, a special classloader is used so that the classpath is effectively set to include just the directory containing the test, plus the standard system classes. Thus name clashes between tests in different directories are not a problem.

An alternative approach would be to associate a different package with each test directory. This is done, for example, in the JCK test suite. The difficulty with this idea is that in order to debug a test (under dbx or workshop or jdb or whatever) you must set up your classpath in just the right way. This makes it difficult to diagnose bugs that are reported against specific tests.

4.26 How do I write a test for an AWT bug or a Swing bug?

Bugs in the graphical facilities of the JDK generally require manual interaction with applets. Applet tests are written in much the same way as the simple main tests described above. The primary differences are that a second “@” tag is given to indicate that the test is an applet test, and an appropriate HTML file is needed. For example, an AWT test named Foo.java would have the form:

/* @test
 * @bug 9876543
 * @run applet/manual Foo.html
 */

public class Foo extends java.awt.Applet { ... }

or

public class Foo extends javax.swing.JApplet { ... }

The @run tag tells the harness how to run the test. The first argument is the run type, applet, followed by an option, /manual, that flags this test as a manual test requiring user interaction. The remaining arguments to the @run tag are passed to the program in a manner appropriate to the run type. In this case, the test will be run just as if the appletviewer had been invoked on Foo.html. Thus Foo.html must contain, at least, an HTML applet tag with any necessary parameters.

4.27 How does the user know what to do for a manual applet test?

When the harness runs a manual applet test, it will display the contents of the HTML file that defines the applet. Include instructions in the HTML file so that the person running the test can figure out what to do if any interaction is required.

4.28 Exactly what does the/manual option mean?

The /manual option indicates to the harness that this is a manual test. This allows the harness to distinguish manual from automatic tests, which is important since the latter can be run without user interaction.

There are actually three kinds of applet manual tests: Self-contained tests, yesno tests, and done tests.

main and shell may also specify the manual option using main/manual and shell/manual respectively. These tests must be completely self-contained.

4.29 How does a manual applet test indicate success or failure?

Just as with main tests, an applet may throw an exception at any time to indicate test failure. A done test applet, for example, can check for failure in the java.applet.Applet.destroy method. If an applet doesn’t throw an exception, and if, in the case of a yesno test, the user clicks pass, then the test is considered to have passed.

Be very careful about where failure is checked. The AWT event thread does not propagate exceptions!

4.30 Can I (and should I) write shell tests?

Yes (and no). While jtreg supports the use of shell tests (that is, tests using @run shell actions), and while it was convenient at one time to be able to write such tests, the use of such tests is now deprecated. In practice, it is difficult to write tests that behave correctly and as intended, under all conditions on all platforms, especially when the item being tested may not be behaving as expected. There is also some amount of a performance penalty, since many of the operations that may be performed by a shell script can be performed faster, by relatively simple API calls, in a Java program. Therefore, it is now recommended to write Java code to perform the same work that might otherwise be done with a shell script, perhaps using JDK API or shared test library code to perform commonly-used operations such as file manipulation, executing commands in sub-processes when necessary, and analyzing the results of those commands.

jtreg provides a variant of @run main that can be useful in such situations: @run driver. This is the same as @run main with the exception that any VM options specified on the command line will not be used when running the specified class. Such code can start processes using the standard java.util.ProcessBuilder API. To build up the command line to be invoked, the code may want to reference details about the test (such as the class path) or values that were given on the jtreg command line (such as the JDK being tested, or the set of any VM options that were specified.) All these values are available in system properties, most of which have names beginning test.; the complete list is given in the tag specification.

If you still want to write a shell test, and if you wish to support the use of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to run such tests on Windows, you should use a suffix of .exe when specifying the path in the shell script for a JDK tool that was built to be run directly on Windows. To help with that, jtreg will set an environment variable EXE_SUFFIX that can be used when constructing the path for a tool. For example:

javac="${TESTJAVA+${TESTJAVA}/bin/}javac${EXE_SUFFIX}"

For more information on writing shell tests, see Shell Tests in jtreg.

4.31 When should I update the @bug entry in a test description?

When a new test is added to a test suite, it is generally considered good practice to add an @bug entry that identifies one or more bug numbers for the issue that the new test is addressing.

Sometimes, when fixing a bug, it may be more appropriate to modify an existing test than to write a completely new one. In this case, it is appropriate to add a bug number to the existing @bug entry, to indicate that this test is both a test for the original issue and for one or more additional issues.

If you’re modifying an existing test, check whether the @summary entry should be updated as well: if it is too specific to the original reason for the test, you should generalize the summary.

It can also happen that when you’re fixing a bug, you may break some existing, unrelated tests, such that you need to update those tests to work again. In this case, you should probably not update the @bug entry.

These guidelines can be summarized as follows:

4.32 When should I use the intermittent or randomness keyword in a test?”

The intermittent keyword should be used to mark tests that are known to fail intermittently.

Extra care should be taken to handle test failures of such tests.

For more details, see these email threads: March 2015, April 2015.

4.33 When should I use the randomnness keyword in a test?

The randomness keyword should be used to mark tests that use randomness such that the test cases will differ from run to run. (A test using a fixed random seed would not count as “randomness” by this definition.)

Extra care should be taken to handle test failures of tests using random behavior.

For more details, see these email threads: March 2015, April 2015.

4.34 What if a test does not apply in a given situation?

Sometimes a test should not be run in a particular situation. For example, a test may require the presence of specific modules in the JDK being tested, in order to function correctly; or, a test may specifically verify a behavior on one kind of platform (such as Windows), and not be relevant on other kinds of platform (such as Linux or macOS).

A test may specify the modules that need to be present in the JDK being tested using the @modules tag. A test may specify more general conditions to determine whether it should be run using the @requires tag, which can test the values of properties (such as system properties) that are determined in a JVM running the JDK being tested.

If jtreg determines that a test fails to meet the conditions expressed in @modules and @requires, no additional processing of the test will occur: in particular, none of the actions will be executed.

While @modules and @requires will cover many cases, there may be cases where the determination of whether the test is applicable needs to be determined by the test itself. For example, a test may want to check the presence of a shared library containing compiled native code, and to skip the main body of the test if the library is not available. In such cases, a test may throw an exception named jtreg.SkippedException. (To avoid any dependency on any jtreg library, so that the code can be run standalone, the exception should be defined in test library code.) This exception will be treated specially: unlike for any other exception, the test will be deemed to have passed, but the reason will be set to a message saying that the test was skipped instead of executing normally.

4.35 Can I put more than one test in a file?

Yes. You may place one or more separate test descriptions near the head of a test source file. Each test description should be in its own comment block, and begin with @test. By convention, the comment blocks should appear after any leading legal header, and before any executable code in the file. The feature is supported in normal Java tests, in shell tests, and in legacy applet tests. (It is not supported in JUnit or TestNG tests, which do not use explicit test descriptions.)

The test descriptions are independent of each other, and may be used to run a test class with different arguments, such as in the following examples:

Example: MyJavaTest.java 
/* Copyright (C) A.N.Other. */

/* @test
 * @run main MyJavaTest 1 2 3
 */

/* @test
 * @run main MyJavaTest a b c
 */

public class MyJavaTest {
    public static void main(String... args) {
        System.out.println(java.util.Arrays.toString(args));
    }
}
Example: MyShellTest.sh 
#!/bin/sh
# Copyright (C) A.N.Other

# @test
# @shell MyShellTest 1 2 3

# @test
# @shell MyShellTest a b c

echo $*

How are the tests named?

If there is only one test description in a file, the test is named according to the path of the file relative to the top level directory of the test suite, that contains the TEST.ROOT file.

If there is more than one test description in a file, each one is named by appending a URL-style “fragment identifier” to the path of the file relative to the top level directory of the test suite. Each fragment identifier is of the form idN, starting from N equal to 0.

Examples:

MyJavaTest.java#id0
MyJavaTest.java#id1

How are the test results organized?

The fragment identifier is incorporated into the name of the result (.jtr) file and any directory containing test-specific results, replacing the # with _.

Examples:

MyJavaTest_id0.jtr
MyJavaTest_id1.jtr

How do I list the tests in an exclude file, such as ProblemList.txt?

Specify the test names, using the fragment identifier form.

Example:

MyJavaTest.java#id0   1234567 generic-all This test is broken!

Note: It is currently not possible to exclude all the tests in a file with a single entry. See CODETOOLS-7902265.

4.36 Can I run tests differently, depending on the circumstances?

Yes; one way is to use a combination of putting multiple tests in a file, and @requires to select which one will be run. For example, the following simple, somewhat contrived, example shows how to run a class with different parameters depending on the platform being tested:

/* @test
 * @requires os.family == windows
 * @run main MyJavaTest --root C:
 */

/* @test
 * @requires os.family != windows
 * @run main MyJavaTest --root /
 */

jtreg does not support any sort of conditional flow within the sequence of actions. You can use @run driver to run a class that provides more complex logic, if needed.

4.37 My test uses “preview features”: how do I specify the necessary options?

Tests that use preview features must use the --enable-preview to compile and run the code. In addition, to compile the code you must also specify the appropriate source level.

To provide these options, you can either do so explicitly, in @compile and @run main actions, or you can use the @enablePreview declarative tag, in which case jtreg will automatically add any necessary options.

Using explicit options in @compile and @run main actions can be inconvenient and disruptive to the test description when the test can otherwise be set up to use implicit @build actions and the ensuing @compile actions. In these situations, the use of @enablePreview is generally recommended.

The equivalent of @enablePreview can be set on all the tests in a directory and its subdirectories by configuring an entry for enablePreview in the TEST.properties file in an enclosing directory. Any value set in a TEST.properties file can be overridden in individual tests by using @enablePreview.

5 Organizing tests

5.1 How are the OpenJDK test suites organized?

For mostly historical reasons, the OpenJDK tests are grouped into three test suites: test/hotspot/jtreg, test/jdk and test/langtools.

5.2 What is the test root directory?

The test root directory, or test suite root directory is the root directory of the overall test suite. In OpenJDK terms, this means a directory like test/jdk or test/langtools in a recent OpenJDK repo.

The test root directory for any test is determined by finding the smallest enclosing directory containing a marker file called TEST.ROOT. The TEST.ROOT file can also be used to define some global properties for the test suite.

5.3 Why is the “test root directory” important?

Within the test suite, tests are uniquely identified by their path relative to the test root directory. This relative path is used to generate test-specific directories and files within the work directory, and to identify test results within the report directory.

However, note that tests can be specified on the command line by any valid file system path, either absolute or relative to the current directory.

5.4 Can I have more than one TEST.ROOT?

In general, no. Each test is uniquely associated with exactly one test root directory, which is the smallest enclosing directory containing a marker file called TEST.ROOT. In general, a test run will consist of tests from a single test suite, identified by a single test root directory.

It is possible to run tests from multiple test suites (such as test/jdk and test/langtools) in the same invocation of jtreg, but this is not common.

The directories within a test suite may be used for a number of different purposes:

Given all those possibilities: here are some guidelines to follow.

Some guidelines follow from this one fundamental guideline:

5.6 What is “tiered testing”?

“Tiered testing” is a policy used in OpenJDK test suites to categorize tests according to their importance and reliability. The tiers are implemented as jtreg groups:

For more details, see these email threads: March 2015, April 2015, June 2015.

6 TestNG and JUnit tests

6.1 What is a “package root”?

“package root” refers the root of the package hierarchy in which a Java source is placed. It is the directory you would put on the javac source path if you wanted javac to compile the file explicitly.

Most jtreg tests are written in the “unnamed package” (i.e. without a package statement) and so for most jtreg tests, the directory directly containing the test is the package root for the test. This is different from other test suites using other test harnesses (such as TestNG or JUnit) in which all the tests of a test suite are placed in a single package hierarchy, often mirroring the package hierarchy of API being tested.

6.2 How does jtreg support TestNG and JUnit tests?

jtreg supports TestNG and Junit tests in two ways.

  1. Tests can be written with a full test description (the comment beginning /* @test....*/) and can use one of the following action tags to run a test class with TestNG or JUnit:

    @run testng classname args
@run junit classname args

    Such a test is otherwise similar to a standard test using @run main. You can use other tags such as @library and @build, just as you would for @run main. These tests should normally be in the unnamed package (i.e. no package statement.) These tests can be freely intermixed with other tests using @run main, @run shell, @run applet and so on.

    You may place multiple tests containing such actions in a file.

  2. If you have a group of TestNG or JUnit tests written in their own package hierarchy, you can include that entire package hierarchy as a subdirectory under the main test root directory. To do this, you must identify the root directory of that package hierarchy to jtreg, so that it knows to treat all the files in that package hierarchy specially.

    In such a group of tests, you do not need to provide test descriptions in each test, but you may optionally provide a test description if you choose to do so, if you wish to specify information tags such as@bug, @summary and @keyword. You must not specify any action tags, such as @run, @compile, and so on, since the actions are implicit for every test in the group of tests.

    At most one such test description may be provided in each file in the group.

6.3 How do I identify a group of TestNG or JUnit tests in their own directory?

Add a line specifying the directory to TEST.ROOT; the line is the same for both TestNG and JUnit tests:

TestNG.dirs = dir1 dir2 dir3 ...

Include the package root directory for each group of TestNG or JUnit tests, and specify the package root directory relative to the test root directory.

You can also override the value in TEST.ROOT by using the TEST.properties file in any subdirectory of the test root directory that contains the package root. If you put the declaration in a TEST.properties file, you must specify the path relative to the directory containing the TEST.properties file. In particular, instead of declaring the directory in TEST.ROOT, you could place the declaration in a TEST.properties file in the package root directory for the group of tests, in which case the declaration would be simply:

TestNG.dirs = .

You can mix TestNG and JUnit tests in the same group of tests, although it may not be good style to do so.

6.4 How does jtreg run TestNG and JUnit tests?

Tests using @run testng are compiled in the standard way, with TestNG libraries on the classpath. The test is run using the class org.testng.TestNG.

Tests using @run junit are compiled in the standard way, with JUnit libraries on the classpath. The test is run using the class org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.

For any JUnit or TestNG tests in a group of TestNG or JUnit tests, any tests in the group that need compiling are compiled together, before any test in the group is run. Then, the selected test classes are run one at a time using org.testng.TestNG. If the class imports JUnit classes, it will be run with TestNG “mixed mode” enabled. Each test that is run will have its results stored in a corresponding *.jtr file. Note: it is not possible to reliably determine via static analysis which files may contain TestNG or JUnit tests and which do not. As a result, jtreg may run some classes only to have TestNG report that no tests were found in the file. If there are many such classes in the group, you may want to move those classes to a separate library that can be used by the tests in the group; this will avoid jtreg running the library classes in case they contain tests.

6.5 How do I specify any libraries I want to use in TestNG and JUnit tests?

Tests using @run testng or @run junitcan use @library and @build in the standard way.For any test in a group of TestNG or JUnit tests, you can specify the library by adding a line specifying the library in the TEST.properties file in the package root directory for the group of tests.

lib.dirs = path-to-library ...

As with the @library tag, if the path begins with “/”, it will be evaluated relative to the test root directory; otherwise, it will be evaluated relative to the directory containing the TEST.properties file.

For any particular group of TestNG or JUnit tests, you can only specify libraries for the entire group: you cannot specify one library for some tests and another library for other tests. This is because the all the source files in the group are compiled together.

6.6 What version of TestNG and JUnit does jtreg support?

Run the command jtreg -version to see the version of jtreg and available components.

For OpenJDK, the policy is to use a supported, older version and not necessarily the latest and greatest version.

6.7 How do I find the path for the TestNG or JUnit jar files?

It should not be necessary to determine the path for the TestNG or JUnit jar files when using the jtreg built-in support to run TestNG or JUnit tests, because jtreg will automatically set up all the necessary paths. But sometimes it may be desirable for test code, such as a “driver” test, to run a set of TestNG or JUnit tests with some special set of options, perhaps in a separate JVM. In such situations, in may be necessary to construct a class path containing the paths for the necessary libraries.

The best way to determine the path of the jar file for a library is to use the protection domain and code source for a representative class in the library, such as with the following code:

import java.security.ProtectionDomain;
import java.security.CodeSource;

...

    public Path getPath(Class<?> libraryClass) {
        CodeSource cs = libraryClass.getProtectionDomain().getCodeSource();
        return Path.of(URI.create(cs.getLocation().toString()));
    }

Note that starting with jtreg version 7, the convention for naming the jar file for the library is to use the base name of the jar file that was specified when jtreg was built, and that this name may depend on the version of the library. For this reason, you should not assume a fixed name for the library jar file.

7 General Problems

7.1 My test only passes if I don’t use jtreg to run it. Why does it fail in jtreg?

By default, tests run using jtreg are each run in a separate JVM. By design, only a limited number of shell environment variables are passed down to the test’s JVM. This may affect how a test is run.

As per spec, the only shell environment variables that are automatically propagated into the test’s JVM are:

If your test needs to provide more environment variables or to override any values, use the -e option.

7.2 How do I set the CLASSPATH environment variable for my test?

The harness sets the CLASSPATH for the compile, main, and applet actions to be the system class path plus the test’s source and classes directory.

It is possible to set the classpath for the main/othervm action via the -classpath option to java. Any other modification of the CLASSPATH must be done using the shell action.

7.3 Why don’t you just pass all of my shell environment variables to the JVM running the test?

The approach of passing down a list of pre-defined environment variables helps guarantee consistent results across different people running the test(s).

7.4 Why is the default to run tests in another JVM?

Insulation from other tests. Most well-behaved tests do not modify the JVM; however, if a test does modify the JVM it is possible that this change will interfere with subsequent tests. Running each test in another JVM allows for the possibility of bad test suite citizens.

7.5 Why would I ever want to run in the same JVM?

Speed.

7.6 What is “agent VM” mode, and why would I want to use it?

It’s like “same VM” mode, but better. By default, tests will run in the same JVM. In between tests, jtreg will try to reset the JVM to a standard state, and if it cannot, it will discard the JVM and start another.

7.7 Should a test call the System.exit method?

NO! The default harness security manager prevents tests from calling System.exit. If the test is running in the same JVM as the harness and the harness was not permitted to install its own security manager, a call to System.exit will cause the harness itself to exit!

If the test is running in its own separate JVM, a call to System.exit may not allow the harness to properly handle test termination.

7.8 My test only applies to one platform and it will fail/not run in others. How do I prevent the harness from running it on the wrong platform?

The tag specification provides no way to indicate any platform requirements. If the test only applies to a single platform, then the test itself must determine the current platform and decide whether the test should be run there. If the test suite is running on the wrong platform, the test should pass (i.e. just return) otherwise, the test should proceed. A significant benefit to this approach is that the same number of tests in a testsuite will always be run if the same arguments are given to jtreg regardless of the particular platform.

For tests that are written in Java code (i.e. applet and main tests), you may determine the platform via the system properties. The following code fragment may be used to distinguish between SunOS sparc, SunOS x86, Windows, etc.

    String name = System.getProperty("os.name");
    if (name.equals("Linux")) {
        System.out.println("Linux");
    } else if (name.contains("OS X")) {
        System.out.println("(Mac) OS X");
    } else if (name.equals("SunOS")) {
        System.out.println("Solaris");
    } else if (name.startsWith("Windows")) {
        System.out.println("Windows");
    } else {
        throw new RuntimeException("unrecognized OS:" +
                " os.name == " + name);
    }

This approach is not suitable for shell tests. In this case, you can determine the platform via uname. The following code accomplishes the same task as above.

OS=`uname -s`
case "$OS" in
    CYGWIN* )
        echo "Windows (Cygwin)" ;;
    Darwin )
        echo "(Mac) OS X" ;;
    Linux )
        echo "Linux" ;;
    SunOS )
        echo "Solaris" ;;
    Windows* )
        echo "Windows" ;;
    * )
        echo "unrecognized system: $OS" ; exit 1 ;;
esac

7.9 How can I make applet and main action tests read from data files?

When jtreg is executed, it cd’s into a scratch area to ensure that a test can not alter the test suite. Thus, a direct reference to a data file without some sort of indicator as to where the test was originally located will fail.

The system property test.src contains the name of the directory where the test source resides. The following example illustrates how to read the data file foo which is contained in the test source directory. Note that the default value of "." allows this test to run both with the harness, and without (in the source directory).

File f = new File(System.getProperty("test.src", "."), "foo");
InputStream in = new File(f);

7.10 Can I use package statements in my tests?

Yes… but you probably don’t want to. The harness searches for class files in a class directory with components which are parallel to the source directory. It will be unable to locate packaged class files when the test is invoked via reflection. Use of the package statement is not recommended unless the test is intended to test package statements.

Tests which test the package mechanism may use package statements; however, it will be the responsibility of the test writer to properly execute the compiled class as necessary.

7.11 Why can’t multiple test source files in the same directory have package-private classes of the same name?

In the Java language, package private classes defined in different files in the same directory are interpreted as duplicate class definitions. The contents of the class files depends on the order of compilation. To avoid compilation order dependency problems, we recommend that you define auxiliary classes as inner classes.

For performance reasons, the harness does not automatically remove class files between individual tests or build each test within its own unique subdirectory. This allows us to cache class files across test runs and share code between tests in the same directory.

7.12 Should a test catch Throwable, Exception, or Error?

Ideally, only specific, anticipated exceptions should be caught by a test. Any other exception which is provoked during testing should be propagated back to the harness.

In the event that a very general exception is caught in test code, a certain amount of care will need to be exercised. For example if a user wants to stop the harness during a test run, an InterruptedException is used to interrupt the test. If that exception is caught by a test and not re-thrown to the harness, the stop request will be lost and the tests will not stop!

Here is a list of exceptions that may need to be re-thrown:

7.13 My test requires that I use information printed to System.out or System.err to determine whether a test passed or failed. When I run my test in the harness, I can’t seem to find these output streams.

Currently, information sent to System.out or System.err is only available after the test has finished running.

Note that this question indicates that the test itself can not determine whether it passed or failed (i.e. it needs human intervention). Thus, the test uses the manual option. The suggestions provided for the applet action may apply.

7.14 My test does tricky things that are not supported by jtreg. Can I still write a regression test?

Yes. Most tests can be written using a series of main, clean, build, applet, and compile actions. However, there have been a few tests that need to do things like run a specific application or access specific environment variables. The shell action allows a user to invoke a Bourne shell-script which can run arbitrary commands, including running java and javac.

Warning! All tests, including shell-script tests, may be run on multiple platforms including Linux, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X. The shell-script should be written to with this in mind. The following code fragment may be useful in defining various platform-dependent variables.

OS=`uname -s`
case "$OS" in
    SunOS | Linux | *BSD | Darwin )
        NULL=/dev/null
        PATHSEP=":"
        FILESEP="/"
        TMP=/tmp
        ;;
    CYGWIN* )
        NULL=/dev/null
        PATHSEP=";"
        FILESEP="/"
        TMP=/tmp
        ;;
    Windows* )
        NULL=NUL
        PATHSEP=";"
        FILESEP="\\"
        TMP=$TEMP
        ;;
    * )
        echo "Unrecognized system!"
        exit 1;
        ;;
esac

If the shell action still does not provide the flexibility needed to write the regression test, then use the ignore action. It is also advisable to include a comment with sufficient detail to allow a person to run the test and verify its behavior.

7.15 What happens if my test returns when there are still threads running?

The harness runs the main action’s main method in its own thread group. The thread group will be destroyed by the harness when the main method returns. It is the responsibility of the test to return only after the appropriate tasks have been completed by its subsidiary threads.

7.16 If my bug hasn’t been fixed, and the test is run, the JVM crashes. How do I make sure that the test doesn’t cause the harness to crash?

If the symptom of a bug is a JVM crash, then the test’s description should include the othervm option. This will allow the harness to continue running any subsequent tests, write its reports, and exit normally.

7.17 The JavaTest harness is running into problems running the test because of issues with the JDK I’m trying to test. What can I do?

When the harness is used to run tests, two possibly different versions of the JDK are used: the JDK version used to run the harness and the JDK version used to run the test(s) themselves.

To run the harness with one version of the JDK and the tests with another, use the -othervm option in conjunction with the -testjdk option. The -testjdk option will specify the version of the JDK to run the tests. The environment variables JT_JAVA or JAVA_HOME will specify the version of the JDK for the harness.

7.18 My test requires that I install my own security manager, but it appears that the JavaTest harness has already installed one. What do I do?

The harness normally installs its own rather permissive security manager in self-defense to prevent tests from interfering with each other. The harness’ security manager is designed to prevent changes to the JVM’s state that would impact other tests. Most tests will not find the standard harness security manager a hindrance.

A test which must install its own security manager will always need to run in its own separate JVM. To do this, add the othervm option to the main action in the test description.

7.19 Can I automate running regtests or can I run the tests on a regular basis?

Yes. If you are using a UNIX system, man crontab is your friend. Other platforms have similar facilities (often third party) for automated command scheduling.

7.20 I run all (or a huge part) of the regression test suite as part of a cron job or other nightly process. I’d like to generate my own reports or I’d like to send myself e-mail whenever a test fails. Do I have to parse the verbose output or the .jtr file?

No. The harness supports an observer interface. APIs exist to query test results at the conclusion of the test’s execution. A user can write their own observer to record and act on information as desired.

8 Tag Problems

8.1 How do I decide whether my test should use the compile action or the build action?

The build action will compile the specified class only if the classfile doesn’t exist or is older than its source. The compile action always invokes the compiler. Typically, the compile action is used only to test the compiler, while the build action is used for tests that make use of multiple sources or for API tests.

8.2 When do I need to specify the build action?

Each main and applet action contains an implied build action. The harness will build the class specified by the main or applet actions as needed without any prompting. If the test requires additional class(es), every additional class must be associated with an explicit build action.

8.3 How do I decide whether my applet test should use the main action or the applet action?

Ultimately, that decision is left to the person writing the test; however, the following should be considered.

Tests which use the applet action are not necessarily restricted to tests which must run in a browser. Any Swing/AWT code which can be written such that it derives from java.applet.Applet or javax.swing.JApplet is a potential applet test.

For tests which test graphics functionality, there are three major advantages to selecting the applet action over the main action: expanded manual support leading to less duplicated code per test, thread synchronization, and cleanup.

Frequently, tests which test graphics functionality need some sort of user interaction to determine whether the test behaves as expected. The applet action takes care of providing a user interface which contains instructions for the user and the appropriate interface to indicate pass, fail, or done as indicated by the manual option. User instructions are taken from the .html file referenced in the applet action. Each main action which tests graphics functionality must implement their own version of this interface. This path leads to more code needed per test and less consistency across tests in the test suite.

A main action test is deemed to be completed when the main method returns. A test which requires multiple threads must take care not to allow the main method to return before those other threads have completed. The applet action handles basic AWT thread synchronization.

Finally, the applet action handles test cleanup. If a test can not or does not dispose top-level windows or any AWT threads, they will be eliminated by the harness after the test completes.

8.4 I put in an ignore tag into my test description but my test wasn’t ignored.

The ignore tag should be used for tests that are too complex for the currently defined set of tags or for tests that should be temporarily ignored. The ignore tag instructs the harness to ignore that and any subsequent tags. Check the location of the ignore tag.

8.5 Can I use the @author, @run, etc. tags in other files?

Yes. The tags may be used for documentation purposes in any file. Only those comments whose leading tag is @test is considered a test description

9 Applet Problems

9.1 My /manual test sends events to System.out/System.err so that the user can determine whether the test behaved properly. How do I write my test if I can’t see these output streams?

The test code should be written to determine whether a test has passed or failed based on events generated during a given time-frame. Use the /manual=done option of the applet action to set the time frame. If the user has not generated the expected event before the done button has been pressed, the test should detect this in the destroy method and throw an exception.

While this approach takes potentially more time to implement, it avoids user error which may occur in checking the event. This scheme also avoids string comparison of events. (A much safer way to determine whether the expected event has been received is to check the event type, coordinates, modifiers, etc.)

Warning! The AWT event thread does not propagate exceptions! It is recommended that all exceptions indicating failure of the test be thrown from one of the methods called by the harness. (i.e. init(), start(), stop(), destroy())

The following simple applet test illustrates the recommended behavior.

Basic .html test description file.

<html>
    <body>
        <!--
            @test
            @bug 2997924
            @summary Sample test that verifies an event
            @run applet/manual=done SampleTest.html
        -->
        <applet code=SampleTest width=200 height=50></applet>
        Select the "pick me" check box.
    </body>
</html>

The sample test code.

import java.applet.Applet;
import java.awt.Checkbox;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.Panel;
import java.awt.event.ItemEvent;
import java.awt.event.ItemListener;

// WARNING! The AWT event thread does not propagate exceptions!
// It is recommended that all exceptions indicating failure
// of the test be thrown from one of the methods called by the harness.
// (i.e. init(), start(), stop(), destroy())

public class SampleTest extends Applet {
    public void init() {
        setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        add(new TestPanel(this));
    }

    public void destroy() {
        if (myEvent == null)
            throw new RuntimeException("no events");
        else {
            Checkbox cb = (Checkbox)(myEvent.getItemSelectable());
            if (!(cb.getLabel().equals("pick me!") &amp;&amp; cb.getState()))
                throw new RuntimeException("unexpected last event");
        }
    }

    class TestPanel extends Panel {
        Checkbox pickMe, notMe;
        Listener listener = new Listener();
        Applet applet;

        public TestPanel(Applet myApplet) {
            applet = myApplet;
            pickMe = new Checkbox("pick me!");
            notMe  = new Checkbox("not me");

            pickMe.addItemListener(listener);
            notMe.addItemListener(listener);

            add(pickMe);
            add(notMe);
        }

        class Listener implements ItemListener {
            // Don't throw an exception here.  The awt event thread
            // will NOT propagate your exception!
            public void itemStateChanged(ItemEvent event) {
                System.out.println("event: " + event);
                myEvent = event;
            }
        }
    }

    private ItemEvent myEvent;
}

9.2 I threw an exception, the output was sent to System.err, but my test still passed. What happened?

Verify that the exception was not thrown by the event thread. The event thread does not propagate exceptions. Furthermore, the event thread is in a separate thread group and the harness cannot catch exceptions thrown from there. It is strongly recommended that all exceptions indicating failure of the test be thrown from one of the methods called by the harness. (i.e. init(), start(), stop(), destroy())

9.3 My applet action test didn’t run my main method!

applet action tests do not call main. A test which uses the applet action is run by invoking its init, start, and setVisible(true) methods. Depending on the value of manual, the harness will pause either for a few seconds or until the user clicks on the pass, fail, or done buttons. Finally, the harness will invoke the stop and destroy methods.

The main method of an applet action will only be used if the test was run directly, outside the harness.

9.4 If I have an applet test, do I put the test description in the .html file or the .java file?

It doesn’t matter. When jtreg is run on a test suite or directory, the test description will be found regardless of the file particulars. When running a single test, jtreg must be invoked on the file which contains the test description.

9.5 For my /manual tests, how do I provide the user instructions to run the test?

User instructions should be provided in the applet’s HTML file. The uninterpreted HTML file will be displayed by the applet action in a TextArea labelled html file instructions:.

9.6 For /manual tests, how is the initial size of the running applet determined?

The size of the applet is statically determined by the height and width attributes provided to the HTML applet tag. The applet interface provides a way to dynamically change the size of the applet by setting the applet size: to “variable”.

10 Deciphering Common Harness Errors

10.1 Failed. Unexpected exit from test

Answer: The test has completed in an unexpected manner. This could be caused by some sort of fault (e.g. a segmentation fault) or because the harness has detected a call to System.exit from the test.

Tests are not allowed to call System.exit because the test must have the ability to run in the same JVM as the harness. Calling System.exit while the test is running in this manner would cause the harness itself to exit! Instead of calling System.exit(), throw an exception.

Be warned that the AWT event thread does not propagate exceptions, so if the test was exiting from the event thread, it is not sufficient to simply throw an exception. The test must set some variable which can be used to throw an exception from one of the methods called by the harness. (i.e. init(), start(), stop(), or destroy())

10.2 Error. Can't find 'main' method

More symptoms: In System.err, you get a stack trace for an java.lang.NoSuchMethodException and some harness messages.

java.lang.NoSuchMethodException
 at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java)
 at com.sun.javatest.regtest.MainWrapper$MainThread.run(MainWrapper.java:89)
 at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java)

JavaTest Message: main() method must be in a public class named
JavaTest Message: ClassNotPublic in file ClassNotPublic.java

Answer: The class defining the test must be declared public and the class name must be the basename of the .java file; otherwise the harness will not be able to use reflection to invoke the test.

10.3 Error. Parse Exception: No class provided for 'main'

Answer: An @run main tag was provided without the required class name. Either provide the name of the class or remove the line entirely if appropriate.

The line may be removed without impacting the test if all the following criteria are met:

In removing the line, we take advantage of the default action for .java files.

10.4 Error. Parse Exception: 'applet' requires exactly one file argument

Answer: The applet action requires a single argument which should be the name of the .html file which contains (at minimum) the HTML applet tag.

10.5 Error. Parse Exception: 'archive' not supported in file: …

More Symptoms: The test is an applet action test. The HTML applet tag includes the archive attribute.

Answer: The regression extensions to the harness do not support the archive attribute.

10.6 test results: no tests selected

More Symptoms: At a terminal window, you get:

test results: no tests selected
Report written to /home/iag/work/doc/JTreport/report.html
Results written to /home/iag/work/doc/JTwork

Answer: No test descriptions were found by jtreg in the file or directory specified. If the -automatic option to jtreg was provided, then there were no tests which did not include the /manual tag option.

Verify that the first tag of each test description is @test.

10.7 Test does not have unique name within work directory

More Symptoms: At a terminal window, you get:

Error:
 -- Test does not have unique name within work directory
 -- Test name: Duplicate
 -- Used by test: Duplicate.java
 -- And by test:  Duplicate.html
 -- Overwriting results of first test

A single directory contains more than one file with the same basename.

Answer: The two files contain descriptions of tests and the harness is unable to determine a unique .jtr filename so the harness will overwrite the results of the first test. It is possible to have a single directory with more than one file with the same basename; however, only one of those files may have a test description (@test is the first token of the comment).

If both files contain identical test descriptions, select one file to contain the primary test description. Disable the other test description by either removal of the entire comment or simply the @test tag.

If the files contain unique test descriptions, one of the basefile names must be changed.

10.8 Error. JUnit not available

To run JUnit tests within jtreg, you must have a copy of junit.jar available. To do this, you should do one of the following:

If you do not have a copy of junit.jar on your system, you can download it from the JUnit home page.

Note: recent builds of jtreg automatically include a copy of JUnit to run tests.

10.9 JavaTest Message: Problem cleaning up the following threads:

More symptoms: After the message, jtreg lists the stacktrace for one or more threads started by the test code.

Answer: When you run tests in agentVM mode, jtreg will try to ensure that any threads started by the test have terminated, so that they don’t affect any code that might run subsequently in the same JVM. It does this by checking for the presence of any threads in the thread group that was created to run the main test code. If there are any such threads, jtreg will periodically interrupt them, until a timeout has been reached, at which point the message in question will be reported and the test will be reported as having an error.

10.10 Incompatible kind of JDK used to compile or run tests (…) with that used to run jtreg (…)

Answer: When using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to run jtreg, or to run shell tests within jtreg, it is possible to run tests on either a Windows JDK or a Linux JDK. However, there is a restriction that to run tests on a Linux JDK, you must also use a Linux JDK to run jtreg itself. (It need not be the same instance or same version of JDK). Likewise, to run tests on a Windows JDK, you must also use a Windows JDK to run jtreg itself. (Again, it need not be the same instance or the same version.)

If you see this message, you are trying to run jtreg on one kind of JDK, and use a different kind of JDK to compile or run the tests.