What is the JavaTest Harness Command-Line Interface?

The JavaTest harness is a powerful test harness that provides two interfaces, a GUI and a command-line interface. The command-line interface provides test harness functionality for configuring and executing tests as well as creating reports without using the GUI. This allows you to use the JavaTest harness to run tests in build scripts and other automated processes. See the JavaTest Harness User's Guide: Graphical User Interface for a description of the JavaTest harness GUI.

JavaTest Harness Command-Line Interface Features

Features of the command-line interface include the following capabilities:

For the New JavaTest Harness User

The JavaTest harness is designed to run test programs on a wide-variety of Java platforms. To run the tests, the JavaTest harness uses a configuration file that contains the required information about how the tests are run on a particular test platform. The JavaTest harness uses a specific work directory to contain all of the results from running the tests of a testsuite. See the Glossary for detailed descriptions of the terms test suite, work directory, and configuration file.

Providing Configuration Information

The JavaTest harness uses the GUI Configuration Editor to collect configuration information (both test environment and parameter values) in a single configuration file. While it is possible for existing test suites to use environment files (.jte) in the Configuration Editor, parameter files (.jtp) are no longer used. The JavaTest harness uses the Configuration Editor to include the parameter values with the values of the .jte file in a single configuration file (.jti).

For backwards compatibility, older test suites can continue to use environment and parameter files in the command line. See the Glossary for detailed descriptions of the terms .jte file, .jtp file, and .jti file.

Online Documentation and Context Sensitive Help

The JavaTest harness provides extensive online documentation that is available from the command line. To see the available command-line options, type the following at a system prompt:

java -jar test_suite/lib/JavaTest harness.jar -help

Include the path of the directory where the javatest.jar file is installed (represented as [test_suite/] in the example). The javatest.jar file is usually installed in the test suite lib directory when the JavaTest harness is bundled with a test suite.

See Information Commands for detailed information about searching for and displaying command-line information without starting the JavaTest harness GUI.