Smoke testing
Smoke testing or smoke test is a term from English, commonly used in the craft sector (e.g. in gas / water installation, electronics or in the construction of woodwind instruments ) as well as in software development . It describes the first test run after a repair or the first implementation of a new algorithm to ensure that the device or the program function does not fail in the beginning. After a smoke test without incidents, the apparatus can be checked in more detail.
- In “plumbing”, smoke is passed through newly laid pipes in order to find any leaks before water is let into the pipes.
- When repairing woodwind instruments, one end of the instrument used to be plugged and smoke was blown into it to find holes or cracks in the material.
- In electronics , the smoke test is the first time that the circuit is connected to a voltage source. This can sometimes produce smoke if serious wiring mistakes are made.
- In programming , smoke testing refers to the first basic test run of a software that is supposed to reveal simple problems that are serious enough to revise the program again and thwart a possible release .
Smoke test in sanitary facilities
Smoke tests in the home, but also in chemical factories, are used to find places where liquid can leak. In drainage systems this is done to see where groundwater or rainwater can get into the pipes. The non-toxic smoke escapes from leaks. Smoke testing is particularly useful where complete, permanent sealing of the entire system is undesirable or senseless, for example in ventilated sewage systems.
When smoke testing sanitary facilities, it is helpful to isolate the part of the system to be tested, for example with sandbags, which are lowered into the sewer shaft and then brought into position. A complete blockage of all pipes, however, could cause a build-up of remaining water, which in turn can prevent the smoke from escaping.
Large blowers are placed on open manholes, at both ends of the pipe section to be tested. Then smoke, either from a smoke bomb or liquid smoke, is drawn into the pipes via the fans. If all the siphons in the connected households work, the smoke should escape through other manhole covers or through the ventilation shafts of the sewer pipes. Defective sewage pipes or dry siphons allow smoke to enter the house.
If clouds of smoke appear anywhere other than in the sewage ventilation of the houses or on the edges of manhole covers, these places are marked, measured, noted and, if necessary, photographed.
Checks in the repair of woodwind instruments
In the smoke test, one end of the wind instrument is closed and smoke, usually tobacco smoke , is blown into the other. Escaping smoke is a sure sign of improperly placed flaps or bad connectors. After this test, the instrument is cleaned to remove smoke residues such as nicotine. Of course, this practice is harmful to the health of the repairman and the player, and the method has hardly been used since the beginning of the century.
Tests in electronics and engineering
The terms smoke test or power on test are used in English-speaking electronics when a circuit under development is connected to a power source for the first time. This can well be done before the work is done, simply to make sure that no major mistakes have been made that would render all further work useless. With higher outputs (with SMD components a few watts can be sufficient) smoke can actually arise in a faulty circuit , e.g. B. when resistors burn out.
Smoke testing in software development
Smoke testing is done by developers before a first release, or by testers before they accept a build for further testing.
In general, a smoke test is a collection of tests that new or repaired software must go through. These tests are sometimes carried out automatically, e.g. B. from the development system that also compiles the software. In this context, smoke testing is the checking of changes in the source code before they are entered in the official repositories .
A smoke test , or, more formally, build verification test , is a superficial check of the program functions. The tester goes through the whole program and tries things like “Can you use this function at all?”, “Does this open a window here?”, “Do all the buttons on this window do something?”. As soon as a fundamental question like this can be answered with “no”, no further testing is necessary. The program is so incomplete or broken that further testing would be pointless. These logged tests can take place manually or automatically. The automatic test processes are usually carried out directly after compilation , mostly in the form of module tests .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Smoke test at enzyklo.de