irioCoreCpp

Table of contents

• irioCoreCpp
• Introduction
• Installation
• Compilation
  • Prerequisites
  • Instructions
• Generating packages manually
  • Converting RPM packages to deb
  • Prerequisites
  • Instructions
• Configure National Instrument package repository
• Run tests
  • Python execution
  • XML Test automation
  • Specific test execution
  • Run GoogleTest manually
  • Unittests
    • BFP
    • irioCoreCpp
    • irioCore (C wrapper)
  • Functional
    • Environment Variables
    • irioCoreCpp
    • irioCore (C wrapper)
• Third-Party Libraries

Introduction

NOTE

This project is a reimplementation of https://github.com/i2a2/irio-v2

National Instruments RIO devices are data acquisition devices implemented using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This project aims to facilitate their use by providing a series of classes and methods to simplify the interface with these devices.

There are three RIO devices: FlexRIO, compactRIO and RSeries. Each of these devices has a XILINX FPGA at its core, which can be reconfigured in virtually an infinite number of implementations. This renders it challenging, if not impossible, to entirely abstract the user from the specific implementation being used. While designing the C++ library, efforts were made to avoid possible problems. However, no all cases were to fully covered.

Installation

The recommended way is to download the appropiate packages from the release section.

NOTE

If installing through the rpms, it is necessary to have the national instrument package repository configured to resolve the dependencies appropriately (See Configure National Instrument package repository).

Alternatively the following packages could be installed manually:

• ni-flexrio-modulario-libs
• ni-syscfg-runtime

Compilation

Prerequisites

• The required packages for compiling the project are:
  • pugixml-devel
  • gtest-devel
  • rsync
  • cpplint (python3 module)
• If the generation of the documentation is required, it is also necessary to have installed the following packages:
  • doxygen
  • graphviz

• If the system requires the National Instruments drivers for RIO boards, these packages are also required:

  • ni-syscfg-devel
  • ni-flexrio-modulario-libs-devel

  NOTE
  

  It is necessary to have the national instrument package repository configured to install the packages related to NI (See Configure National Instrument package repository).

Instructions

To compile the project go to the root folder and execute:

make compile

This will compile the libraries, unittests, functional tests and examples.

Generating packages manually

NOTE

Package generation will only generate rpm for RHEL distributions. In other distributions it is necessary to install tools for managing rpm (in Debian it is usually the package rpm).

NOTE

It is also possible to convert these rpms into deb with alien (See Converting RPM packages to deb), but this has not been tested throughly.

To genearte the rpm go to the root folder and execute:

make package

This will generate rpm files in target/packages/

NOTE

Default installation directories are:

• /usr/local/lib : Libraries
• /usr/local/include : Header files

It is also possible to set the installation directory for the files once the rpm are installed by using the parameter InstallDir

make package InstallDir=<install directory>

Libraries will be placed in <InstallDir>/lib and headers in <InstallDir>/include. If InstallDir is not set, it defaults to /usr/local, unless CODAC_ROOT is set, in which case InstallDir will use the value of CODAC_ROOT

Converting RPM packages to deb

Prerequisites

• Packaging is done succesfully.
• Install alien package.

  Instructions

  1. Go to target/packages/x86_64
  2. Run the alien command:

     sudo alien -c *.rpm

  3. The .deb packages will be generated in the same folder

Configure National Instrument package repository

In order toaccess and install the requiredpackages ofNationalInstrument,it is recommended to add the pacakge repository. The following list explains how to do this:

1. Download the NI System Configuration repositories:

   • Visit NI System Configuration Downloads and download the relevant package.

2. Unzip the contents (.zip may have different name):

   unzip -o NILinuxDeviceDrivers NILinux2023Q4DeviceDrivers.zip

3. Navigate to the extracted folder:

   cd NILinuxDeviceDrivers

4. Install the package corresponding to your distribution

   • ni-\<distribution>-drivers-stream.rpm

     NOTE
     

     After this step, it may be required to update the repositories to find the NI packages

Run tests

The project contains several tests to try to test irioCoreCpp and its C wrapper. It has unit tests, to check each part of the application, as wll as functional tests, to verify the functionality of the entire application.

There are two ways to execute these tests, thorugh the use of XML and a Python script or running the GoogleTest manually

Python execution

XML Test automation

Tests can be automatically executed with a Python application. By default, the target/test/test-suites folder contains the unitary tests that do not run on the real hardware.

The functional tests that run on actual hardware must be generated with the generateFunctional.py application located in the target/test/test-suites folder. This application can be run in two ways:

• Interactive execution: Execute the application with no serial, device or verbose argument to have it ask the user for each parameter.
• Parametric execution: Use all the serial, device and verbose arguments to automatize the execution. They can be obtained using the -h flag.

This application supports the selection of the input and output folders with the -i and -o flags, but the default behaviour (input from test-suites/templates and output to test-suites) is recommended.

Custom test suites can also be created following the schema on target/test/testSchema.xsd. For example, to create a test that runs all the FlexRIO tests of the irioCore Funcional binary on a FlexRIO-7966 that has the serial 0x12345678 and no module attached is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<testplan
    xmlns="http://www.testLocation.com/test"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.testLocation.com/test ../testSchema.xsd">

    <test>
        <name>Test</name>
        <TestFilter>FlexRIO*</TestFilter>
        <TestType>irioCore Functional</TestType>
        <RIODevice>7966</RIODevice>
        <RIOSerial>0x12345678</RIOSerial>
        <RIOModule>noModule</RIOModule>
        <verbose>false</verbose>                        <!-- Optional -->
        <coupling>DC</coupling>                         <!-- Optional -->
        <maxIMAQiterations>65536</maxIMAQiterations>    <!-- Optional -->
    </test>
</testplan>

A testplan is a collection of tests to be run. The different tests inside will be run independently and the results are reported separetely. Each test contains the following fields:

• name: Name of the test. Only used for logging.
• TestFilter: GTest filter expression to select the desired tests. If not present, all the tests will be run.
• TestType: Test family to run. One of:
  • irioCore Unitary: Unitary tests of the C library (mocking).
  • irioCore Functional: Functional tests of the C library (real hardware).
  • irioCoreCpp Unitary: Unitary tests of the C++ library (mocking).
  • irioCoreCpp Functional: Functional tests of the C++ library (real hardware).
  • BFP: BitFile Parser tests.
  • Custom binary: Manually specify the route to the excutable. Requires the optional Binary element.
• RIODevice: (Only for functional tests) Model of the RIO device to test. One of: 7966, 7965, 7961 or 9159. If not present, a value of 7966 is used.
• RIOSerial: (Only for functional tests) Serial number of the device. Format: 0xABCD1234. If not present, a default value of 0x00000000 is used.
• RIOModule: Module connected to the device. Informative, has no impact on the tests. One of: noModule, NI1483, NI5761, NI5781, NI6581, NI5734, NI92xx.
• Binary: Absolute path to the executable to run, if the TestType field is set to CustomBinary.
• verbose: Boolean controlling the test verbosity. Optional, default is False.
• coupling: (Only for functional tests) Coupling for signal adquisition. Either AC or DC. Optional, default is AC.
• maxIMAQiterations: (Only for functional tests) Maximum counter for the image test. Optional, default to 65536.
• results: Field to store the count of passed tests. Should not be written by the user.
• summary: Field to store the string result of the test. Either PASS or FAIL. Should not be written by the user.
• failedTests: List of the names of the failed tests. Should not be written by the user.

Once the test is defined on the XML file, from the root of the project, run:

    target/test/automate_GT.py -i <XML file> [-a | -o <Output file>]

Either -a or -o <Output file> can be used to select the output destination for the tests. -a will append the results to the input file and -o will create or rewrite the destination file with the results.

The test output will be printed as specified on the verbose field of the test. If only a final summary is required, use the -S flag to supress test output and display a final count only.

Specific test execution

The same python application can be used to execute tests with custom filters. Use the help of the executable to get the possible arguments for the test:

 automate_GT.py -h

NOTE

If the --input-file or -i flag is present, the custom run arguments will be ignored and the tests from the XML will be run.

A test report can be generated with the -o <FILE> argument, and it will be generated on the same format as the XML files on the previous section.

For example, in order to run the functional FlexRIO tests from the irioCore library on a 7966 with the serial number 0x1234ABCD with full verbosity and creating a report on test.xml, use:

    target/test/automate_GT.py -d 7966 -s 0x1234ABCD -b target/test/c++/irioCore/test_irioCore -v -f "FlexRIO*" -o "test.xml"

Run GoogleTest manually

Unittests

NOTE

These tests have been implemented using mocking and therefore do not require real RIO boards to run them.

BFP

Test are in the following folder. Test should be run from this directory.

    target/test/c++/bfp

To execute all the tests, run:

    ./test_bfp

To execute specific tests use gtest filter functionality

    ./test_bfp --gtest_filter=<tests to run>

NOTE

To list available tests use the parameter --gtest_list_tests

irioCoreCpp

Test are in the following folder. Test should be run from this directory.

    target/test/c++/unittests/irioCoreCpp

To execute all the tests, run:

    ./test_ut_irioCoreCpp

To execute specific tests use gtest filter functionality

    ./test_ut_irioCoreCpp --gtest_filter=<tests to run>

NOTE

To list available tests use the parameter --gtest_list_tests

irioCore (C wrapper)

Test are in the following folder. Test should be run from this directory.

    target/test/c++/unittests/irioCore

To execute all the tests, run:

    ./test_ut_irioCore

To execute specific tests use gtest filter functionality

    ./test_ut_irioCore --gtest_filter=<tests to run>

NOTE

To list available tests use the parameter --gtest_list_tests

Functional

Environment Variables

Functional test require exporting environment variables.

Variable Name	Description	Example
RIODevice	Type of RIO device	7966
RIOSerial	Serial of the device. Can be obtained by using "lsni -v -e ni-rio"	0177A2AD
VerboseTest	Print info test messages (not used by irioCoreCpp tests)	0 or 1
VerboseInit	Print info of driver initialization (not used by irioCoreCpp tests)	0 or 1
maxCounter	Maximum counter used when acquiring images (only for IMAQ tests where images are acquired)	65536

irioCoreCpp

Test are in the following folder. Test should be run from this folder.

    target/test/c++/irioCoreCpp

To execute all the tests, run:

    ./test_irioCoreCpp

To execute specific tests use gtest filter functionality

    ./test_irioCoreCpp --gtest_filter=<tests to run>

NOTE

To list available tests use the parameter --gtest_list_tests

irioCore (C wrapper)

Test are in the following folder. Test should be run from this folder.

    target/test/c++/irioCore

To execute all the tests, run:

    ./test_irioCore

To execute specific tests use gtest filter functionality

    ./test_irioCore --gtest_filter=<tests to run>

NOTE

To list available tests use the parameter --gtest_list_tests

Third-Party Libraries

This project makes use of third-party libraries. These include:

• Fake Function Framework (fff)
  • Used for unittest mocking
  • https://github.com/meekrosoft/fff
  • License: MIT License (available here)