Hello! I have a question about timeouts implementation in Boost::Test. Please take a look at a simple example I wrote to demonstrate the problem: krivenok@develop2 16:50:52 /tmp/boost_test $ cat main.cpp #include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp> using namespace boost::unit_test; using boost::unit_test::framework::master_test_suite; //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// void some_test_case() { BOOST_TEST_CHECKPOINT("About to enter an infinite loop!"); while(1); } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// void another_test_case() { BOOST_TEST_CHECKPOINT("About to enter an infinite loop 2!"); while(1); } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// boost::unit_test::test_suite* create_test_suite() { boost::unit_test::test_suite *ts = new boost::unit_test::test_suite("Some test suite"); if(!ts) return 0; ts->add(BOOST_TEST_CASE(&some_test_case), 0, 5); ts->add(BOOST_TEST_CASE(&another_test_case), 0, 10); return ts; } /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// test_suite* TestSuitesInit(int argc, char* argv[]) { master_test_suite().add(create_test_suite(), 0, 3); return 0; } /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// int main(int argc, char** argv) { return unit_test_main(&TestSuitesInit, argc, argv); } /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// krivenok@develop2 16:50:53 /tmp/boost_test $ I compiled it as follows: krivenok@develop2 16:56:12 /tmp/boost_test $ g++-4.4.1 -Wall -I/usr/local/dev/boost-1.40.0/include main.cpp /usr/local/dev/boost-1.40.0/lib/libboost_unit_test_framework-mt.a krivenok@develop2 16:56:15 /tmp/boost_test $ And the run: krivenok@develop2 16:58:17 /tmp/boost_test $ time ./a.out Running 2 test cases... unknown location(0): fatal error in "some_test_case": signal: SIGALRM (timeout while executing function) main.cpp(10): last checkpoint: About to enter an infinite loop! unknown location(0): fatal error in "another_test_case": signal: SIGALRM (timeout while executing function) main.cpp(18): last checkpoint: About to enter an infinite loop 2! *** 2 failures detected in test suite "Master Test Suite" real 0m15.002s user 0m14.920s sys 0m0.030s krivenok@develop2 16:58:36 /tmp/boost_test $ According to timings measurement I concluded that Boost::Test supports timeouts on per-test-case basis. Test suite timeout (3 sec) is ignored. Is it a bug? P.S. I also found that timeouts are implemented using alarm system call: krivenok@develop2 16:58:36 /tmp/boost_test $ strace -fF ./a.out 2>&1 | grep alarm alarm(0) = 0 alarm(5) = 0 alarm(0) = 0 alarm(0) = 0 alarm(10) = 0 alarm(0) = 0 krivenok@develop2 17:02:03 /tmp/boost_test $ As I know you can't start two or more timers using alarm since alarm uses exactly one internal timer. The following simple program demonstrates the problem: krivenok@develop2 17:06:38 /tmp/boost_test/alarm $ cat main.c #include <unistd.h> int main() { alarm(2); alarm(5); while(1); return 0; } krivenok@develop2 17:06:42 /tmp/boost_test/alarm $ gcc-4.4.1 main.c krivenok@develop2 17:06:44 /tmp/boost_test/alarm $ time ./a.out Alarm clock real 0m5.001s user 0m4.990s sys 0m0.000s krivenok@develop2 17:06:51 /tmp/boost_test/alarm $ strace -fF ./a.out 2>&1 | grep alarm alarm(2) = 0 alarm(5) = 2 krivenok@develop2 17:07:00 /tmp/boost_test/alarm $ This makes the implementation of mixed timeouts difficult and unreliable. For example, consider the following test tree: MasterTestSuite (timeout = T0) -- TestSuite1 (timeout = T1) -- TestCase11(timeout = T11) -- TestCase12(timeout = T12) -- TestSuite2 (timeout = T2) -- TestCase21(timeout = T21) -- TestCase212(timeout = T22) Actual timeout of any test case depends on timeouts of all nodes in the path. -- Sincerely yours, Dmitry V. Krivenok Orange System Co., Ltd. Saint-Petersburg, Russia work phone: +7 812 332-32-40 cellular phone: +7 921 576-70-91 e-mail: krivenok@orangesystem.ru web: http://www.orangesystem.ru skype: krivenok_dmitry jabber: krivenok_dmitry@jabber.ru icq: 242-526-443