X-Git-Url: https://gerrit.fd.io/r/gitweb?a=blobdiff_plain;f=test%2Fdoc%2Foverview.rst;h=2ef942684e9289d47ec35264470a3b58f876e560;hb=5d440d9cb6a51c6658f4be855008b91f05d294c6;hp=7b70ededc2e0b953e5a5148aa748dc84fe5059f3;hpb=ed6814b57f680fbf1f33ecc9fb8c3deb0e3fffba;p=vpp.git

diff --git a/test/doc/overview.rst b/test/doc/overview.rst
index 7b70ededc2e..2ef942684e9 100644
--- a/test/doc/overview.rst
+++ b/test/doc/overview.rst
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@
 .. _virtualenv: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/dev/virtualenvs/
 .. _scapy: http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/
 .. _logging: https://docs.python.org/2/library/logging.html
+.. _process: https://docs.python.org/2/library/multiprocessing.html#the-process-class
+.. _pipes: https://docs.python.org/2/library/multiprocessing.html#multiprocessing.Pipe
+.. _managed: https://docs.python.org/2/library/multiprocessing.html#managers
 
 .. |vtf| replace:: VPP Test Framework
 
@@ -70,6 +73,29 @@ To control the messages printed to console, specify the V= parameter.
    make test V=1     # moderate verbosity
    make test V=2     # maximum verbosity
 
+Parallel test execution
+#######################
+
+|vtf| test suites can be run in parallel. Each test suite is executed
+in a separate process spawned by Python multiprocessing process_.
+
+The results from child test suites are sent to parent through pipes_, which are
+aggregated and summarized at the end of the run.
+
+Stdout, stderr and logs logged in child processes are redirected to individual
+parent managed_ queues. The data from these queues are then emitted to stdout
+of the parent process in the order the test suites have finished. In case there
+are no finished test suites (such as at the beginning of the run), the data
+from last started test suite are emitted in real time.
+
+To enable parallel test run, specify the number of parallel processes:
+
+.. code-block:: shell
+
+   make test TEST_JOBS=n       # at most n processes will be spawned
+   make test TEST_JOBS=auto    # chosen based on the number of cores
+                               # and the size of shared memory
+
 Test temporary directory and VPP life cycle
 ###########################################
 
@@ -214,7 +240,7 @@ packets, it should specify either None or a custom filtering function
 as the value to the 'filter_out_fn' argument.
 
 Common API flow for sending/receiving packets:
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 We will describe a simple scenario, where packets are sent from pg0 to pg1
 interface, assuming that the interfaces were created using
@@ -360,7 +386,7 @@ basic IPv4 forwarding.
                      ip = packet[IP]
                      udp = packet[UDP]
                      # convert the payload to packet info object
-                     payload_info = self.payload_to_info(str(packet[Raw]))
+                     payload_info = self.payload_to_info(packet[Raw])
                      # make sure the indexes match
                      self.assert_equal(payload_info.src, src_if.sw_if_index,
                                        "source sw_if_index")