The ATLAS check step

In this optional step, ATLAS runs various testers in order to make sure that the generated library is not producing completely bogus results. For each precision, ATLAS runs the standard BLAS testers (both C and F77 interface), and then various of ATLAS's homegrown testers that appear in ATLAS/bin. If you have installed without a FORTRAN compiler, then the standard BLAS testers cannot be run (the standard BLAS testers, downloadable from netlib, require FORTRAN even to test the C interface), and so your testing will be less comprehensive.

There are two possible targets, check which tests ATLAS's serial routines, and ptcheck which check the parallel routines. You cannot run ptcheck if you haven't installed the parallel libraries. This step is invoked from BLDdir by typing:

   make check      # test serial routines
   make ptcheck    # check parallel routines

Both of these commands will first do a lot of compilation, and then they will finish with results such as:

core2.home.net. make check
...................................................
..... A WHOLE LOT OF COMPILATION AND RUNNING ......
...................................................
DONE BUILDING TESTERS, RUNNING:
SCOPING FOR FAILURES IN BIN TESTS:
fgrep -e fault -e FAULT -e error -e ERROR -e fail -e FAIL \
        bin/sanity.out
8 cases: 8 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
4 cases: 4 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
8 cases: 8 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
4 cases: 4 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
8 cases: 8 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
4 cases: 4 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
8 cases: 8 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
4 cases: 4 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed
DONE
SCOPING FOR FAILURES IN CBLAS TESTS:
fgrep -e fault -e FAULT -e error -e ERROR -e fail -e FAIL \
        interfaces/blas/C/testing/sanity.out | \
                fgrep -v PASSED
make[1]: [sanity_test] Error 1 (ignored)
DONE
SCOPING FOR FAILURES IN F77BLAS TESTS:
fgrep -e fault -e FAULT -e error -e ERROR -e fail -e FAIL \
        interfaces/blas/F77/testing/sanity.out | \
                fgrep -v PASSED
make[1]: [sanity_test] Error 1 (ignored)
DONE
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/whaley/TEST/ATLAS3.7.36.0/obj64'

Notice that the Error 1 (ignored) commands come from make, and they indicate that fgrep is not finding any errors in the output files (thus this make output does not represent the finding of an error). When true errors occur, the lines of the form

8 cases: 8 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed

will have non-zero numbers for failed, or you will see other tester output discussing errors, such as the printing of large residuals.

As mentioned, this is really sanity checking, and it runs only a few tests on a handful of problem sizes. This is usually adequate to catch most blatant problems (eg., compiler producing incorrect output). More subtle or rarely-occurring bugs may require running the LAPACK and/or full ATLAS testers. The ATLAS developer guide [#!atlas-devel!#] provides instructions on how to use the full ATLAS tester, as well as help in diagnosing problems. The developer guide is provided in the ATLAS tarfile as ATLAS/doc/atlas_devel.pdf