Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] check: Add -q <n> option to support unconditional looping.

["Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>]

On Thu, Apr 03, 2025 at 08:58:19AM +0000, Nirjhar Roy (IBM) wrote:
> This patch adds -q <n> option through which one can run a given test <n>
> times unconditionally. It also prints pass/fail metrics at the end.
> 
> The advantage of this over -L <n> and -i/-I <n> is that:
>     a. -L <n> will not re-run a flakey test if the test passes for the first time.
>     b. -I/-i <n> sets up devices during each iteration and hence slower.
> Note -q <n> will override -L <n>.

I'm wondering if we need to keep the current behavior of -I/-i.  The
primary difference between them and how your proposed -q works is that
instead of iterating over the section, your proposed option iterates
over each test.  So for example, if a section contains generic/001 and
generic/002, iterating using -i 3 will do this:

generic/001
generic/002
generic/001
generic/002
generic/001
generic/002

While generic -q 3 would do this instead:

generic/001
generic/001
generic/001
generic/002
generic/002
generic/002


At least for all of the use cases that I can think of where I might
use -i 3, -q 3 is strictly better.  So instead of adding more options
which change how we might do iterations, could we perhaps just replace
-i with your new -q?  And change -I so that it also works like -q,
except if any test fails, that we stop?

					- Ted