Command Line Reference

Command Line Reference

eCrash can be used from the command line. The list of available parameters is presented next. The support for other parameters is also under development.

You can download the current ecrash.jar from here.


Alert: The installation of the Java Development Kit (JDK) is mandatory; the JRE installation won't work. You can download it from here.

Command Line Syntax:

java [Java VM Options] ecrash.jar  -testclass <class under test> [optional eCrash's parameters]

eCrash's Command line parameters

Parameter	Required	Description	Default Value
testclass	yes	Full qualified name for the class under test. Usage: -testclass <fullqualifiedname>	No default value.
projectpath	no	Specify the directory for the project under test. Usage: -projectpath <fullpath>	The current directory.
bindir	no	Specify the relative path for the directory containing the binary code for the project. Usage: -bindir <binaryfoldername>	The default value is "bin"
libdir	no	Specify the list of relative paths for the directories containing dependencies for the project under test. The list is separated by ‘:’ in Unix systems and ‘;’ in Windows systems.	The default value is "lib".
testfoldername	no	Name of the directory to which the test cases should be written. If the folder already exists, then a new folder is created with the name format: <testfoldername> + #number. Usage: -testfoldername <testfoldername>	The default value is "testEcrash".
generations	no	Specifies the number of generations that the genetic algorithm will create.	The default value is 30.
population	no	Specifies the population size that the genetic algorithm will create.	The default value is 25.
seed	no	Specifies the seed used during the test data generation process (by default a new random seed is used when seed is not specified).	No default value.
notquit	no	When specified, the generation does not quits on run complete (ECJ Configuration)	No default value.
junit4	no	When specified, the tests will be saved on the JUnit 4.x format. Otherwise, the JUnit 3.x is used. Usage: -junit4	No default value.
verbosity	no	When specified, Outputs information about the test cases' generation. Usage: -verbosity	No default value.
help	no	Print the list of parameters. Usage: -help	No default value.
version	no	Print the version information. Usage: -version	No default value.

Java VM Options

VM Argument	Required	Description
-XX:MaxPermSize	no, but you may need to specify it.	Size of the Permanent Generation. Usage: -XX:MaxPermSize=1024m
-XX:+UseGCOverheadLimit	no, but you may need to specify it.	Use a policy that limits the proportion of the VM's time that is spent in GC before an OutOfMemory error is thrown.
-Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax	yes (whenever the class under test deals with arrays)	This VM argument is required to avoid problems when loading classes with array syntax. For instance ClassLoader.loadClass() throws java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: [Ljava.lang.String; when the argument is not specified and you are dealing with arrays. In this particular case we were trying to load a array of String objects. Usage: -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true
-XX:-UseSplitVerifier	no, but you may need to specify it	This may be required when you are using the JDK 7 and you are dealing with classes that are compatible with JDK <=1.6 .

Tutorials/Examples

Example for the Stack Project:

1 Download the Stack Project from here.
2 Extract the project
2 Place the ecrash's jar in the root folder.
3 Execute the following command:

java -XX:MaxPermSize=1024m -XX:-UseGCOverheadLimit -XX:+UseSplitVerifier -Dsun.lang.ClassLoader.allowArraySyntax=true ecrash.jar -testclass myjava.util.Stack -verbosity -seed 123 -generations 50 -testfoldername myUnitTests 

This example creates unit tests for the public methods and constructors available in the class Stack, which is a container class available in the JDK.
Note: In order to avoid conflicts, the package for the Stack Project was renamed (myjava.util instead of java.util).