[pacman-dev] [PATCH] Add valgrind usage for testing purpose into the HACKING guide

[Laszlo Papp]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 6:41 AM, Allan McRae <allan at archlinux.org> wrote:
> Laszlo Papp wrote:
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Laszlo Papp <djszapi at archlinux.us>
>> ---
>>  HACKING |   10 ++++++++++
>>  1 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
>> index 09e782d..954d4b7 100644
>> --- a/HACKING
>> +++ b/HACKING
>> @@ -133,6 +133,16 @@ For pacman:
>>  #include "anythingelse.h"
>>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>  +How to test pacman more using valgrind?
>> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> +
>> +Try to run some commands using valgrind with a command like:
>> +
>> +valgrind --leak-check=full --trace-children=yes --
>> src/pacman/.libs/pacman -Syu
>> +
>> +Be careful, valgrind reports lots of errors, even some errors that may
>> not be related to
>> +pacman. You should have a little experience of valgrind to ignore the
>> noise.
>> +
>>  /////
>>  vim: set ts=2 sw=2 syntax=asciidoc et:
>>  /////
>
> Why would we provide instructions on how to use valgrind?  That seems to  be
> a job for the valgrind authors...
>

Yeah, but git usage (e.g.) is described too on the wiki and in the
documentations.

> Anyway, I believe the pactest suite is set up to use valgrind so you would
> be better using that to detect leaks.  Also,  we have a valgrind.supp file
> to suppress a lot of the false positives.
>
> Allan
>
>

I didn't know pactest suite can check all the facilities that valgrind
can services, but maybe it's better for valgrind users to use it, as
they use it daily, than debug/test which pactest suite does this task.

Maybe it's quicker to use directly valgrind in a given situation
sometimes than doing a full pactest suite, or deciding which one is
good for the current requirement.

In summary it's an attention for the developers/users they can use
valgrind too, so it's not a change for pactest suites, but more
facility to debug/test the application. It's not a pactest suite vs.
valgrind question. The person who aren't interested in using/learning
pactest suite, but he knows valgrind, he can take valgrind-like
testings/debuggings too, which could be very useful too.

Best Regards,
Laszlo Papp