User's Guide: Installation:Checking the Libraries

Checking the SPRNG Libraries

On building the SPRNG library, six executables will also be created for each SPRNG random number generator library available. Three of these test the three interfaces in FORTRAN and the other three repeat the process in C. These tests check, among other things, whether the expected stream of random numbers is reproduced on the user's machine. They also check whether SPRNG responds as per its specifications when the user gives invalid arguments.

We have provided a shell script called checksprng that calls all the test programs. Since we check the libraries for their response to erroneous usage by the programmer, the tests make SPRNG print out ERROR messages to stderr. We redirect stderr to /dev/null so as not to clutter up the screen with unnecessary information. checksprng is run in the Bourne shell since, unlike in the C shell, it is possible here to redirect standard error without redirecting the standard output.

The programs that check the generators do not make MPI calls, as a default. If users wish to test them with the MPI calls when the MPI version of SPRNG has been installed, then they should compile these programs after defining the macro USE_MPI and test each checking program individually. Users may get several ERROR and WARNING messages on the screen as SPRNG is checked for its response to erroneous input. These messages can be ignored. If SPRNG fails any test, the user will get a FAILED message rather than an ERROR message.

Please report any problems in porting SPRNG.