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 starts a local site that connects to the supervisor and is then tested. Similarly, when testing a supervisor, it starts a local supervisor that is 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:

SITE_CONFIG=config/gem_tlc.yaml AUTO_SITE_CONFIG=config/simulator/tlc.yaml bundle exec rsmp-validator test/site/core

Or automatically start a supervisor to be tested:

SUPERVISOR_CONFIG=config/gem_supervisor.yaml AUTO_SUPERVISOR_CONFIG=config/simulator/supervisor.yaml bundle exec rsmp-validator test/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 and local node loggers.

Interleaved Output (Default)

By default, output from the auto node is interleaved with the validator’s output. 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

Enable RSMP logging with the --log flag:

bundle exec rsmp-validator test/site --log

Or write RSMP logs to a file:

bundle exec rsmp-validator test/site --log 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 through the validator log stream controlled by --log
The two output streams are completely independent

This means the auto node’s logs are written to the configured file independently from sus output.

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
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