[petsc-dev] How test system options are handled

[Matthew Knepley]

On Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM Mark Adams <mfadams at lbl.gov> wrote:

> It seems to me that if you want to override $args then you are changing
> the test and can just change the code. Or it does not seem like a use case
> that deserves to supported.
>

I use the test system all the time for development now, since it provides a
convenient path for baseline options, incremental rebuilds, and
verification. In this situation, overriding is very useful.

   Matt


> On Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 6:24 AM Matthew Knepley <knepley at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> We currently have two kinds of options in the test system. Options that
>> come from the "args" line in the TEST section of the example source, which
>> we will call $args, and options that come from the EXTRA_OPTIONS env var
>> when the test is executed, which we will call $extra_args.
>>
>> Right now, in petsc_harness.sh:109, we feed the example executable the
>> arguments
>>
>>   $extra_args $args
>>
>> This allows us to do things like declare EXTRA_OPTIONS="-fp_trap" for
>> linux-pkgs-dbg, and then allow it to be turned off for certain tests with
>> -fp_trap 0 in the argos line.
>>
>> This setup, however, does not allow us to override any options given in
>> $args while running a test, which seems very restrictive. Should we create
>> a third class of options?
>>
>>   Thanks,
>>
>>       Matt
>>
>> --
>> What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
>> experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
>> experiments lead.
>> -- Norbert Wiener
>>
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>>
>

-- 
What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
experiments lead.
-- Norbert Wiener

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