Debugging and testing your code

Ensuring that your code is correct can be very difficult, so IMP provides a number of tools to help you out.

The first set are assert-style macros to use in the C++ code:

• IMP_USAGE_CHECK() which should be used to check that arguments to functions and methods satisfy the preconditions.
• IMP_INTERNAL_CHECK() which should be used to verify internal state and return values to make sure they satisfy pre and post-conditions.

See the checks page for more details. As a general guideline, any improper usage should produce at least a warning and all return values should be checked by such code.

The second is logging macros such as:

• IMP_LOG() which allows controlled display of messages about what the code is doing. See logging for more information.

Finally, each module has a set of unit tests. The tests are located in the modules/modulename/test directory. These tests should try, as much as possible, to provide independent verification of the correctness of the code. Any file in that directory or a subdirectory whose name matches test_*.{py,cpp}, medium_test_*.{py,cpp} or expensive_test_*.{py,cpp} is considered a test. Normal tests should run in at most a few seconds on a typical machine, medium tests in 10 seconds or so and expensive tests in a couple of minutes.

Some tests will require input files or temporary files. Input files should be placed in a directory called input in the test directory. The test script should then call

self.get_input_file_name(file_name) 

to get the true path to the file. Likewise, appropriate names for temporary files should be found by calling

self.get_tmp_file_name(file_name) 

. Temporary files will be located in build/tmp. The test should remove temporary files after using them.