Auto Node Feature

The auto node feature allows you to programmatically start a local site or supervisor to be tested, instead of connecting to an external one.

This is an advanced feature primarily useful for:

  • Developing or debugging the RSMP gem itself
  • Developing or testing the validator test suite

For testing real equipment or production systems, you should connect to external equipment as described in the Testing documentation.

How It Works

Usually, when testing a site, the validator starts a supervisor and waits for the external site to connect.

With the auto node feature, the validator start a local site which connect to the supervisor and is then tested. Similarly, when testing a supervisor, it will start a local supervisor which will be tested.

The auto site/supervisor runs inside the same Async reactor as the validator.

Configuration

There are two ways to enable the auto node feature. Environment variables take precedence over the config/validator.yaml file settings.

config/validator.yaml

Add either auto_site or auto_supervisor to your config/validator.yaml file:

# ...
# automatically start a site to be tested
auto_site: config/simulator/tlc.yaml

Or:

# ...
# automatically start a supervisor to be tested
auto_supervisor: config/simulator/supervisor.yaml

Environment Variables

You can also enable the auto node feature using environment variables.

Automatically start a site to be tested:

AUTO_SITE_CONFIG=config/simulator/tlc.yaml bundle exec rspec spec/site/core

Or automatically start a supervisor to be tested:

AUTO_SUPERVISOR_CONFIG=config/simulator/supervisor.yaml bundle exec rspec spec/supervisor

Configurations

The auto node config file should contain the settings for the site or supervisor you want to start. See the rsmp gem for details.

You can use these as templates:

  • config/simulator/tlc.yaml
  • config/simulator/supervisor.yaml

Logging

Auto nodes create their own logger instance, which allows you to control their output independently from the validator/supervisor logger.

Interleaved Output (Default)

By default, output from the auto node is interleaved with the validator’s output using the same RSpec formatter. To distinguish between the validator and auto node output, you can use the prefix option in the auto node’s log configuration:

# config/simulator/tlc.yaml
log:
  prefix: '[TLC]       '  # Prefix to identify auto site output
  json: true
  acknowledgements: false
  watchdogs: false

When you run tests with a formatter like --format Validator::Details, both the validator and auto node output will be formatted consistently and appear in the same stream, differentiated by the prefix.

RSpec’s --out flag controls where the interleaved output goes:

# Both validator and auto node output go to details.log
bundle exec rspec --format Validator::Details --out logs/details.log

You can use multiple formatters, and the interleaved output will go through all of them:

# Interleaved output goes to both progress.log and details.log
bundle exec rspec --format progress --out logs/progress.log \
                  --format Validator::Details --out logs/details.log

Separate Log File

Alternatively, you can direct the auto node’s output to a separate file using the path option:

# config/simulator/tlc.yaml
log:
  path: 'logs/auto_site.log'  # Direct output to separate file
  debug: true
  json: true

With this configuration:

  • Auto node logs are written directly to logs/auto_site.log
  • Validator logs continue to go through the RSpec formatters (controlled by --out flags)
  • The two output streams are completely independent

This means the auto node’s logs bypass the RSpec formatter system entirely and are written to the configured file regardless of any --out flags used.

Log Configuration Options

The auto node’s log section accepts all the same options as the RSMP logger. See the rsmp gem documentation for complete details. Common options include:

  • path: File path for log output (bypasses RSpec formatters)
  • prefix: Text to prepend to each log line
  • debug: Enable debug messages
  • json: Include JSON representation of messages
  • acknowledgements: Show acknowledgement messages
  • watchdogs: Show watchdog messages
  • timestamp: Show timestamps
  • component: Show component information