Re: Testing of MVCC

Matt Miller <mattm@epx.com> writes:
> The attached patch allows src/test/regress/pg_regress.sh to recognize
> lines that begin with "curr_test:" in the schedule file.  Tests named on
> such a line are run concurrently across multiple connections.

This doesn't seem like any advance over the existing parallel-test
facility.  Synchronizing the test starts slightly more closely
isn't really going to buy anything: you still can't control or even
predict relative progress.

> Maybe the simplest solution is to force test writers to generate output
> that does not depend on the relative progress of any concurrent tests.

Well, that's exactly the situation we have now, and it's not really
adequate.

What we really need is a test program that can issue a command on one
connection (perhaps waiting for it to finish, perhaps not) and then
issue other commands on other connections, all according to a script.
I am unsure that the existing pg_regress infrastructure is the right
place to start from.  Perhaps we should look at Expect or something
similar.
        regards, tom lane