How to pass extra arguments to tests

How to pass extra arguments to the regression test runner in cmake

To configure how ctest executes regression tests, the following cmake variables cam be used:

• RUNNER, which sets the parallel/serial test runner, used to run regression tests by ctest, default: charmrun
• RUNNER_NCPUS_ARG, the argument used to specify the number of processors for the test runner, default: +p,
• RUNNER_ARGS, which enables passing extra arguments to the parallel/serial test runner, default: "",
• POSTFIX_RUNNER_ARGS, which enables passing extra arguments to the parallel/serial test runner at the end of the test command line, default: "".

Example:

git clone https://codeberg.org/xyst/xyst.git && cd xyst
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -GNinja -DSMP=on -DRUNNER_ARGS="--bind-to none -oversubscribe" -DPOSTFIX_RUNNER_ARGS=+setcpuaffinity ../src
ninja
./charmrun +p3 Main/unittest -q +ppn 3 +setcpuaffinity && ctest -j4

The above example configures Charm++ to be built in SMP mode with some extra arguments preceding and following the test executable commands. As a result, an example test command becomes

ctest -R inciter:compflow_euler_pipe_u0.5_migr_pe4_ppn4 -V
...
230: Running test command: '/<absolute_path>/xyst/build/charm/install/bin/charmrun +p 4 --bind-to none -oversubscribe /<absolute_path>/xyst/build/Main/inciter -c pipe.q -i rectangle_01_1.5k.exo -u 0.5 -l 3 +balancer RecBipartLB +LBDebug 1 -q +ppn 4 +setcpuaffinity'
...

Another example that uses the slurm scheduler:

git clone https://codeberg.org/xyst/xyst.git && cd xyst
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -GNinja -DRUNNER=srun -DRUNNER_NCPUS_ARG=-n -DRUNNER_ARGS=--exact ../../src
ninja
srun -n 32 Main/unittest -q
ctest -j32

The above will build Charm++ in non-SMP mode (the default) and will execute regression tests using srun and its argument -n to specify the number of processors a single test should use. This is followed by executing the unit-, and regression tests each using 32 CPUs total.