Testing With Record and Replay Options

Use the Start with Record and Replay option to record a sequence of significant events during a testing session, and to replay or view this information at a later time. Once a testing session is recorded, you can use this information to drive the SunVTS kernel so it reproduces the recorded sequence of events. These record and replay features are an effective way to reproduce testing conditions, a helpful debugging tool.

The Record with Replay option can closely reproduce the ordering of the testing events, but it cannot reproduce the time periods of these events because the execution times may vary from one run to another. When scheduling a replay using this option, give consideration only to the ordering and relative scheduling time differences between events during the original run.

These options are limited in the way that they replay a test session because you can only control the Replay option when a command starts, not after the command completes.

The Record with Replay option records the following test events:

• Starting

• Stopping

• Enabling and disabling intervention mode

• Selecting and deselecting

The events are recorded in a file called vts_replay_file, which is saved in a log directory that you specify. If no log directory is specified, the /var/opt/SUNWvts/logs directory is used by default.

The first part of the vts_replay_file consists of the SunVTS kernel and test options settings you used when you started recording. This information is used during the replay to restore the original option settings.

The events are recorded after the option settings are saved. Information is recorded in the following format for each event:

---

event_type rel_time target_object [instance_num] [event_specific]

---

The following table describes each event string.

Table 5-4 The vts_replay_file Event String Descriptions

Event String	Description
event_type	The type of event can be one of the following: START, STOP, SELECT, DESELECT, or INTERVENTION.
rel_time	The time (in seconds) since the preceding event.
target_object	The object involved in the event, for example, fpu (fputest). This field is ignored if the value is a dash (-) as in the case of an INTERVENTION event.
instance_num	The instance number of the test. A valid number is required for the START and STOP events. This field has a value of -1 for INTERVENTION, SELECT, and DESELECT events.
event_specific	Any additional event-specific information required to replay the event; this field contains the test command line arguments for the START event. For the INTERVENTION event, the value describes the state--either enabled or disabled. This field is blank in the case of STOP, SELECT, and DESELECT.