partitioner(1) - weight-based test primitive selection for primer
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partitioner - weight-based test primitive selection for primer
partitioner
[ options ... ] configuration-file ...
partitioner is an experimental
program to partition input test primitives (stimuli), associate weights
with the partitions, and to use those weights when a stimulus has to be
randomly chosen. In the TorX tool architecture it is placed between the
Driver and the Primer. partitioner ``speaks'' the torx-primer(5) interface on
its standard input and output, and it starts its Primer sub-program (process).
It is possible to have multiple partitioners, one after the other.
partitioner
partitions the input actions (stimuli) that it gets from the Primer based
on information that it reads from a configuration file. It then adds weight
information to the partitions, and uses this information when the Driver
asks it for a random input.
partitioner takes the command line options as
given in torx-primer(5). Most of these it just passes on to the Primer that
it invokes. On start-up, the partitioner reads its configuration-file which
is similar to the torx-config(4) configuration file, and the configuration
file of the intersector(1). partitioner looks for the entries PARTFILE (which
contains the name of the file containing the weights-patterns combination),
SPEC, SPECFLAGS, RUNDIR and SEED.
partitioner supports the following
commandline options, which are all just passed to the torx-primer(5) that
it invokes.
- -s number
- the seed for the random number generator
- -i gates1,gate2,gate3,...
- the list of input gates. Note there are no spaces between the gates!
- -o gates1,gate2,gate3,...
- the list of output gates. Note there are no spaces between the gates!
- -S
algorithm
- the algorithm which can be ioco, traces or simulation.
- -d delta-event-tag
- the delta-event-tag is used for quiescense in the interface.
The configuration file consists of a number of single-line entries as
in torx-config(4). Several entries have a field id. An id is just an arbitrary
name, that is intended to group together entries that describe information
about the same Primer: these entries should contain the same value for
id.
- PARTFILE filename
- the name of the file that contains the association
between actions (action patterns) and the weights. The format of this file
is described in the section PARTITION FILE below.
- SPEC id filename
- The filename
of explorer/primer program id. The explorer/primer program will be started
from the directory given with the RUNDIR entry for id. Note that the default
value for RUNDIR is not the current working directory!
- SPECFLAGS id arguments
- (Additional) arguments that will be given as arguments to the explorer/primer
program of id when it is started. Default value: unset
- RUNDIR id directory
- The directory from which the explorer/primer program of id will be started.
Default value: the directory containing the explorer/primer program as
specified in the SPEC entry for id.
- SEED number
- specifies the seed for the
random number generator, and is also passed down the the invoked Primer.
Note: it is better to not specify this in the configuration file, but to
just use the value given with the --seed flag.
The partition
file format is experimental. Currently, it just contains Tcl commands to
associate names and weights to patterns. The command to make the association
is em_add_pattern pattern [list name weight]
(where the square brackets
[ and ] are part of the Tcl command). The name gives the partition name,
and weight gives the weight for that partition. The weight can be the empty
string () which is interpreted as ``1 diveded by the number of partitions''.
The weight of an individual input action is then computed as ``1 divided
by the number of elements in its partition''. The Tcl variable PARCOUNT is
set to the number of partititions.
The partition
names and the weights of the individual actions is shown in the output
of the C_INPUTS torx-primer(5) command. The partitioner extends the output
that it gets from its Primer with two additional fields:
- partition=name1,name2,...
- where name is the name of the partition to which the event belongs. If there
are more partitioners between Primer and Driver, then each partitioner
adds its own partition name (preceded by a comma) to the right of the partition
name(s) already put their by its subprocess (Primer). Rephrased: the partition
names from partitioners from Primer to Driver appear in order, from left
to right, separated by commas.
- weight=value
- the weight of the individual
action. The weights are normalised: the sum of all weights of the input
actions should be 1.
We give here as example the configuration files
and partition files for a two-level partition scheme, i.e. we have a ``top-level''
partitioner and a ``level-1'' partititoner. The ``top-level'' partitioner is supposed
to be invoked by the Driver, and the ``level-1'' partititoner invokes the Primer.
#==============================================
SPEC s ./partitioner
SPECFLAGS s lvl1.cfg
PARTFILE top.part
#==============================================
#==============================================
# initialise patterns
set user 1
while {$user < 20} {
# em_add_pattern "*!*!user$user" [list user$user {1.0 / $PARCOUNT}]
em_add_pattern "*!*!user$user" [list user$user "1.0 / $user"]
incr purid
}
#==============================================
#==============================================
SPEC s dir/sub/spec/SUT.expr8
PARTFILE lvl1.part
#==============================================
#==============================================
em_add_pattern "*!A!*" [list a "0.1"]
em_add_pattern "*!B!*" [list b "0.1"]
em_add_pattern "*!C!*" [list c "0.8"]
em_add_pattern "*!D!*" [list d ""]
em_add_pattern "*!E!*" [list e ""]
em_add_pattern "*!F!*" [list f ""]
em_add_pattern "*!error!*" [list err "0.1"]
#==============================================
Below follows an example of output
of the C_INPUTS torx-primer(5) command using the configuration and partition
files shown above.
C_INPUTS
A_INPUTS_START
A_EVENT event=cin!A!user13 channel=in partition=a,user13 weight=0.00268762549161
A_EVENT event=cin!C!user13 channel=in partition=c,user13 weight=0.0215010039329
A_EVENT event=cin!A!user12 channel=in partition=a,user12 weight=0.00291159428257
A_EVENT event=cin!C!user12 channel=in partition=c,user12 weight=0.0232927542606
...
A_INPUTS_END
torx-intro(1), torx-primer(5), intersector(1)
Th implementation
is built reusing parts of already existing programs, and thus contains
quite some ``dead'' code, even in the configuration file format (the id parameter
was introduced in the intersector(1) but is not used here).
There should
be a simpler format for the partition file. On the other hand, the full
expressivity of Tcl may have advantages too, as demonstrated with the while
construct in the example ``top.part'' partition file.
By Email: <torx_support@cs.utwente.nl>
This manual page documents version 3.9.0 of torx.
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Appendix D: TorX Manual Pages: mscviewer(1) - view a Message Sequence Chart
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Appendix D: TorX Manual Pages: preprocmkprimer(1) - preprocess input before invoking mkprimer
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