RE: Simulator for GCC Testing [was: RE: [Fwd: Re: [avr-gcc-list]GCC-AVR Register optimisations]]

[Paulo Marques]

Quoting William Rivet <address@hidden>:

> For what it is worth, I would prefer that simulavrxx proper could be
> used, even if it was just built as an separate executable along with the
> full-up code. This is one point of view of course.

Maybe I caused the wrong impression, but I did look into simulavrxx 
before taking on this task, becaue that was my initial thought too.

The thing is, I think of avrtest more of a "test tool" rather than a 
simulator. A test tool that we can tweak in any way that simplifies the 
setup needed to run the testsuite.

> I also however know that libbfd is a pain for us the way we use it
> becuase over time it changes in ways we often don't care about, but
> cuases trouble for our simulavrxx users who have to cause it to be built
> and installed...then simulavrxx has to find and use it x-p
>
> I'm pretty sure one of my build clean-up activities should include just
> including a suitable version of libbfd sources in simulavrxx and
> dispense with the special build requirements we have today. Hence I'm
> actually contemplating doing just what you did. (and I've been told this
> is a wrong approach too ;-p )

Please note that I took just a small function from simulavrxx, and one 
that I probably still want to re-write someday, anyway. Most of the 
code is written from scratch to be much simpler than the simulavrxx 
version (just compare the almost 5000 lines of code for just the 
decode.* part of simulavrxx vs 1400 for the complete avrtest).

I'm not going to tell you that it is the wrong approach, but you should 
look at avrtest, too ;)

> So in the end I say, more power to you. Thanks for posting. The free and
> open communication certainly is in the spirit of FSF and OSS. It's all
> good.

Thanks :)

> BTW: Where would you host your new tool?

I still didn't look into it, but my idea was to host in place that gave 
the idea of "this is what you need to run the gcc testsuite for gcc" 
and not so much "this is where you can find yet another avr simulator". 
I was just trying to make it work myself before thinking about an 
official release.

> For my own information, how do
> you use it in conjunction with the GCC testsuite? Feel free to take this
> part offline or ignore if you prefer.

At this point I'm still reading dejagnu documentation and trying to 
figure out how everything fits together. From what I've already seen it 
looks like avrtest can indeed be very helpful, in terms of simplifying 
the total setup, increasing execution speed and improving portability.

As soon as I get some concrete results, I'll post them on the list, 
together with the steps needed to reproduce them. Just give me a few 
more days.

--
Paulo Marques


----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.