description of tester

tester/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+The 'run-tests.sh' script is called by various testers to do the work of
+testing. Each test is actually fairly simple: it is a comparison of standard
+output and standard error, as per the program specification.
+
+In any given program specification directory, there exists a specific `tests/`
+directory which holds the expected standard output and error in files called
+`n.out` and `n.err` for each test `n`. The testing framework just starts at
+`1` and keeps incrementing tests until it can't find any more or encounters a
+failure. Thus, adding new tests is easy; just add the relevant files to the
+tests directory at the lowest available number.
+
+A couple of other files are needed to fully describe a test. The first is a
+run file (e.g., `n.run`) which shows exactly how to run the test; the second
+is a description file (e.g., `n.desc`) which just describes the test.
+
+In most cases, a wrapper script is used to call `run-tests.sh` to do the
+necessary work.
+
+The options for `run-tests.sh` include:
+* `-h` (the help message)
+* `-v` (verbose: print what each test is doing)
+* `-t n` (run only test `n`)
+* `-c` (continue even after a test fails)
+
+

tester/run-tests.sh

@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ run_and_check () {
 
 # usage: call when args not parsed, or when help needed
 usage () {
-    echo "usage: run-tests.sh [-h] [-v] [-t test]"
+    echo "usage: run-tests.sh [-h] [-v] [-t test] [-c]"
     echo "  -h                help message"
     echo "  -v                verbose"
     echo "  -t n              run only test n"