Phoronix Test Suite

www.phoronix-test-suite.
com
Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0 (Gamvik)

User Manual
Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Test Client Documentation
Getting Started
Overview
The Phoronix Test Suite is the most comprehensive testing and benchmarking platform available for
Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, and BSD operating systems. The Phoronix Test Suite allows for carrying out
tests in a fully automated manner from test installation to execution and reporting. All tests are meant to
be easily reproducible, easy-to-use, and support fully automated execution. The Phoronix Test Suite is
open-source under the GNU GPLv3 license and is developed by Phoronix Media in cooperation with
partners. Version 1.0 of the Phoronix Test Suite was publicly released in 2008.
The Phoronix Test Suite client itself is a test framework for providing seamless execution of test profiles
and test suites. There are more than 200 tests available by default, which are transparently available
via OpenBenchmarking.org integration. Of these default test profiles there is a range of sub-systems
that can be tested and a range of hardware from mobile devices to desktops and worksrtations/servers.
New tests can be easily introduced via the Phoronix Test Suite's extensible test architecture, with test
profiles consisting of XML files and shell scripts. Test profiles can produce a quantitative result or other
qualitative/abstract results like image quality comparisons and pass/fail. Using Phoronix Test Suite
modules, other data can also be automatically collected at run-time such as the system power
consumption, disk usage, and other software/hardware sensors. Test suites contain references to test
profiles to execute as part of a set or can also reference other test suites. Test suites are defined via an
XML schema.
Running the Phoronix Test Suite for the first time can be as simple as issuing a command such as
phoronix-test-suite benchmark c-ray, which would proceed to install a simple CPU test, execute the
test, and report the results. Along with the results, the system's hardware/software information is
collected in a detailed manner, relevant system logs, and other important system attributes such as
compiler flags and system state. Users can optionally upload their results to OpenBenchmarking.org for
sharing results with others, comparing results against other systems, and to carry out further analysis.
OpenBenchmarking.org
OpenBenchmarking.org is an open, collaborative testing platform that makes the Phoronix Test Suite
an even more extensible platform for conducting automated tests with complete integration into
Phoronix Test Suite test client. OpenBenchmarking.org serves as a repository for storing test profiles,
test suites, and result data. Test profiles and suites are stored in the OpenBenchmarking.org cloud to
allow for new/updated tests to be seamlessly obtained via the Phoronix Test Suite without needing to
manually update the Phoronix Test Suite client. OpenBenchmarking.org also makes it easy to facilitate
side-by-side comparisons with any other results stored in the OpenBenchmarking.org cloud. Any
Phoronix Test Suite user is permitted to upload their test results, test profiles, and suites to
OpenBenchmarking.org.
When finding a set of results on OpenBenchmarking.org (e.g. an example result file), it's as easy as
running the Phoronix Test Suite with that OpenBenchmarking.org ID to perform an automated
side-by-side comparison (e.g. phoronix-test-suite benchmark 1203160-BY-NVTEGRA3785).
Thanks to the wealth of test data (results, system logs, etc) from crowd-sourced benchmarking via the
www.phoronix-test-suite.com

Phoronix Test Suite, a plethora of analytical features are also available from OpenBenchmarking.org.
Phoromatic
Phoromatic is a remote management system for the Phoronix Test Suite that allows the automatic
scheduling of tests, remote installation of new tests, and the management of multiple test systems all
through an intuitive, easy-to-use web interface. Tests can be scheduled to automatically run on a
routine basis across multiple test systems. Phoromatic can also interface with revision control systems
to offer support for issuing new tests on a context-basis, such as whenever a Git commit has been
pushed or new daily image available. The test results are then available from this central, secure
location.
Phoromatic is an add-on to the Phoronix Test Suite that's primarily intended for enterprise users when
facilitating tests across a wide-spectrum of hardware within a test lab or when needing to carry out tests
on a routine basis.

User Options
The following options are currently supported by the Phoronix Test Suite client. A list of available
options can also be found by running phoronix-test-suite help.
Test Installation
install [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...
This option will install the selected test(s) inside the testing environment directory. The install process
from downloading of the test files to the installation is fully automated. The install option needs to be
supplied with the test name or suite as an argument. Optionally, a OpenBenchmarking.org ID or the
name of a saved results file can be supplied as well and the test(s) to install will automatically be
extracted from that information. If the test is already installed and was run by the latest version of the
installation process, no action will be taken. Multiple arguments can be supplied to install additional
tests at the same time.
install-dependencies [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option will install the external dependencies needed by the selected test(s) using the distribution's
package management system. For example, some tests depend upon GCC for compiling code. If GCC
is not detected on the system, the Phoronix Test Suite will attempt to install GCC using the distribution's
package management system. If you are running this command as a local user, you may be prompted
for the root password while the process is running. For unsupported distributions, the dependency
names will be displayed along with common names for the package. The install-dependencies option
needs to be supplied with the test name or suite as an argument. When using the install option, the
external dependencies are automatically checked.
make-download-cache
This option will create a download cache for use by the Phoronix Test Suite. The download cache is
created of test files already downloaded to the local system. If passing any test/suite names to
make-download-cache, the needed files for those test profiles will first be automatically downloaded
before creating the cache.
remove-installed-test [Test]
This option will permanently remove a installed test by the Phoronix Test Suite.
Testing
auto-compare
This option will autonomously determine the most relevant test(s) to run for any selected sub-system(s).
The tests to run are determined via OpenBenchmarking.org integration with the global results pool.
Related test results from OpenBenchmarking.org are also merged to provide a straight-forward and

effective means of carrying out a system comparison. If wishing to find comparable results for any
particular test profile(s), simply pass the test profile names as additional arguments to this command.
benchmark [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option will install the selected test(s) (if needed) and will proceed to run the test(s). This option is
equivalent to running phoronix-test-suite with the install option followed by the run option. Multiple
arguments can be supplied to run additional tests at the same time and save the results into one file.
finish-run [Test Result]

This option can be used if a test run had not properly finished running all tests within a saved results
file. Using this option when specifying a saved results file where all tests had not completed will attempt
to finish testing on the remaining tests where there are missing results.
run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option will run the selected test(s).
run-random-tests
This option will query OpenBenchmarking.org to run random benchmarks and result comparisons on
the system. This test can be used for simply supplying interesting results from your system onto
OpenBenchmarking.org, stressing your system with random workloads, seeding new
OpenBenchmarking.org results, etc. Basic options are provided at start-up for tuning the randomness of
the testing when running this command.
run-tests-in-suite
This option can be used if you wish to run all of the tests found in a supplied suite, but you wish to
re-configure each of the test options rather than using the defaults supplied by the suite.
stress-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option will run the passed tests/suites in the multi-process stress-testing mode. The stress-run
mode will not produce a result file but is rather intended for running multiple test profiles concurrently to
stress / burn-in the system. The number of tests to run concurrently can be toggled via the
PTS_CONCURRENT_TEST_RUNS environment variable and by default is set to a value of 2.
Batch Testing
batch-benchmark [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...
This option and its arguments are equivalent to the benchmark option, but the process will be run in the
Phoronix Test Suite batch mode.
batch-install [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

If you wish to run the install process in the Phoronix Test Suite batch mode but do not wish to run any

tests at this time. Running the install process in the batch mode will use the default values and not
prompt the user of any possible options, to ensure the process is fully automated.
batch-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option and its arguments are equivalent to the run option, but the process will be run in the
Phoronix Test Suite batch mode.
batch-setup
This option is used to configure the batch mode options for the Phoronix Test Suite, which is
subsequently written to the user configuration file. Among the options are whether to automatically
upload the test results to OpenBenchmarking.org and prompting for the saved file name.
default-benchmark [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option will install the selected test(s) (if needed) and will proceed to run the test(s) in the defaults
mode. This option is equivalent to running phoronix-test-suite with the install option followed by the
default-run option.
default-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option will run the selected test(s). The name of the test or suite must be supplied or the
OpenBenchmarking.org ID or saved local file name. Multiple arguments can be supplied to run
additional tests at the same time and save the results in a suite-like fashion. Unlike the normal run
option, the default-run will not prompt the user to select from the available test options but will instead
use the default options as automatically set by pts-core or the test profile. Use batch-run to
automatically test all of the available options.
internal-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option and its arguments pre-set the Phoronix Test Suite batch run mode with sane values for
carrying out benchmarks in a semi-automated manner and without uploading any of the result data to
the public OpenBenchmarking.org.
OpenBenchmarking.org
clone-result [OpenBenchmarking ID] ...
This option will download a local copy of a file that was saved to OpenBenchmarking.org, as long as a
valid public ID is supplied.
list-recommended-tests
This option will list recommended test profiles for benchmarking sorted by hardware sub-system. The
recommended tests are determined via querying OpenBenchmarking.org and determining the most
popular tests for a given environment based upon the number of times a test profile has been
downloaded, the number of test results available on OpenBenchmarking.org for a given test profile, the
age of the test profile, and other weighted factors.

make-openbenchmarking-cache
This option will attempt to cache the test profile/suite meta-data from OpenBenchmarking.org for all
linked repositories. This is useful if you're going to be running the Phoronix Test Suite / Phoromatic
behind a firewall or without any Internet connection. Those with unrestricted Internet access or not
utilizing a large local deployment of the Phoronix Test Suite / Phoromatic shouldn't need to run this
command.
openbenchmarking-changes
This option will list recent changes to test profiles of enabled OpenBenchmarking.org repositories.
openbenchmarking-launcher
This option is called automatically with the .openbenchmarking MIME file extension support for
launching OpenBenchmarking.org operations.
openbenchmarking-login
This option is used for controlling your Phoronix Test Suite client options for OpenBechmarking.org and
syncing the client to your account.
openbenchmarking-refresh
This option is used for refreshing the stored OpenBenchmarking.org repostory information and other
data. The Phoronix Test Suite will automatically refresh this data every three days or when other
thresholds are exceeded, but this command can be used to manually refresh/updates the data.
openbenchmarking-repositories
This option will list the OpenBenchmarking.org repositories currently linked to this Phoronix Test Suite
client instance.
upload-result [Test Result]

This option is used for uploading a test result to OpenBenchmarking.org.
upload-test-profile
This option can be used for uploading a test profile to your account on OpenBenchmarking.org. By
uploading your test profile to OpenBenchmarking.org, others are then able to browse and access this
test suite for easy distribution in a seamless manner by other Phoronix Test Suite clients.
upload-test-suite
This option can be used for uploading a test suite to your account on OpenBenchmarking.org. By
uploading your test suite to OpenBenchmarking.org, others are then able to browse and access this
test suite for easy distribution.

System
detailed-system-info
Display detailed information about the installed system hardware and software information as detected
by the Phoronix Test Suite Phodevi Library.
diagnostics
This option will print information that is useful to developers when debugging problems with the
Phoronix Test Suite and/or test profiles and test suites.
interactive
A simple text-driven interactive interface to the Phoronix Test Suite.
system-info
Display the installed system hardware and software information as detected by the Phoronix Test Suite
Phodevi Library.
system-sensors
Display the installed system hardware and software sensors in real-time as detected by the Phoronix
Test Suite Phodevi Library.
Information
info [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result]
This option will show details about the supplied test, suite, virtual suite, or result file.
list-available-suites
This option will list all test suites that are available from the enabled OpenBenchmarking.org
repositories.
list-available-tests
This option will list all test profiles that are available from the enabled OpenBenchmarking.org
repositories.
list-available-virtual-suites
This option will list all available virtual test suites that can be dynamically created based upon the
available tests from enabled OpenBenchmarking.org repositories.
list-installed-dependencies

This option will list all of the packages / external test dependencies that are already installed on the
system that the Phoronix Test Suite may potentially depend upon by test profiles.
list-installed-suites
This option will list all suites that are currently installed on the system.
list-installed-tests
This option will list all test profiles that are currently installed on the system.
list-missing-dependencies
This option will list all of the packages / external test dependencies that are missing from the system
that the Phoronix Test Suite may potentially need by select test profiles.
list-possible-dependencies
This option will list all of the packages / external test dependencies that are are potentially used by the
Phoronix Test Suite.
list-saved-results
This option will list all of the saved test results found on the system.
list-test-usage
This option will list various details about installed tests and their usage.
list-unsupported-tests
This option will list all available test profiles that are available from the enabled OpenBenchmarking.org
repositories but are NOT SUPPORTED on the given hardware/software platform. This is mainly a
debugging option for those looking for test profiles to potentially port to new platforms, etc.
Asset Creation
debug-benchmark [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...
This option is intended for use by test profile writers and is identical to the <em>run</em> option but
will yield more information during the run process that can be used to debug issues with a test profile or
to verify the test profile is functioning correctly.
debug-install [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option is intended for use by test profile writers and is identical to the install option but will yield
more information during the run process that can be used to debug issues with a test profile installer or
to verify the test profile is functioning correctly.

debug-test-download-links [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result]

This option will check all download links within the specified test profile(s) to ensure there are no broken
URLs.
download-test-files [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This will download the selected test file(s) to the Phoronix Test Suite download cache but will not install
the tests.
force-install [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

This option will force the installation (or re-installation) of a test or suite. The arguments and process is
similar to the install option but even if the test is installed, the entire installation process will
automatically be executed. This option is generally used when debugging a test installation problem.
result-file-to-suite [Test Result]

This option will guide the user through the process of generating their own test suite, which they can
then run, that is based upon an existing test results file.
validate-result-file
This option can be used for validating a Phoronix Test Suite result file as being compliant against the
OpenBenchmarking.org specification.
validate-test-profile
This option can be used for validating a Phoronix Test Suite test profile as being compliant against the
validate-test-suite
This option can be used for validating a Phoronix Test Suite test suite as being compliant against the
Result Management
auto-sort-result-file [Test Result]
This option is used if you wish to automatically attempt to sort the results by their result identifier string.
edit-result-file [Test Result]

This option is used if you wish to edit the title and description of an existing result file.
extract-from-result-file [Test Result]

This option will extract a single set of test results from a saved results file that contains multiple test

results that have been merged. The user is the prompted to specify a new result file name and select
which result identifier to extract.
merge-results [Test Result] ...

This option will manually merge multiple sets of test results generated by the Phoronix Test Suite.
refresh-graphs [Test Result]

This option will re-render and save all result graphs within a saved file. This option can be used when
making modifications to the graphing code or its color/option configuration file and testing the changes.
remove-from-result-file [Test Result]

This option is used if there is a set of test results you wish to remove/delete from a saved results file.
The user must specify a saved results file and then they will be prompted to select the results identifier
associated with the results they wish to remove.
remove-result [Test Result]

This option will permanently remove the saved file set that is set as the first argument.
rename-identifier-in-result-file [Test Result]

This option is used if you wish to change the name of the identifier in a test results file that is shown in
the Phoronix Test Suite Results Viewer and the contained graphs.
rename-result-file [Test Result]

This option is used if you wish to change the name of the saved name of a result file.
reorder-result-file [Test Result]

This option is used if you wish to manually change the order in which test results are shown in the
Phoronix Test Suite Results Viewer and the contained graphs. The user must specify a saved results
file and then they will be prompted to select the results identifiers one at a time in the order they would
like them to be displayed from left to right.
result-file-to-csv [Test Result]

This option will read a saved test results file and output the system hardware and software information
along with the results to a CSV output. The CSV (Comma Separated Values) output can then be loaded
into a spreadsheet for easy viewing.
result-file-to-json [Test Result]

This option will read a saved test results file and output the basic result information to JSON (JavaScript
Object Notation).

result-file-to-pdf [Test Result]

along with the results to a PDF file.
result-file-to-text [Test Result]

to the terminal. The test results are also outputted.
show-result [Test Result]

Open up the test results in the Phoronix Test Suite Result Viewer or on OpenBenchmarking.org.
Result Analytics
analyze-all-runs [Test Result]
This option will generate a candlestick graph showing the distribution of results from all trial runs. The
candlestick graph is similar to the Japanese candlestick charts used by the financial industry, except
instead of representing stock data it is numerical result data from all trial runs.\n\nThe tip of the
upper-wick represents the highest value of the test runs with the tip of the lower-wick representing the
lowest value of all test runs. The upper-edge of the candle body represents the first or last run value
and the lower-edge represents the first or last run value. Lastly, if the last run value is less than the first
run value, the candle body is the same color as the graph background, otherwise the last run value is
greater.
Other
build-suite
This option will guide the user through the process of generating their own test suite, which they can
then run. Optionally, passed as arguments can be the test(s) or suite(s) to add to the suite to be
created, instead of being prompted through the process.
debug-dependency-handler
This option is used for testing the distribution-specific dependency handler for external dependencies.
debug-render-test
This option is used during the development of the Phoronix Test Suite software for testing of the result
and graph rendering code-paths This option will download a large number of reference test results from
LinuxBenchmarking.com.
debug-self-test
This option is used during the development of the Phoronix Test Suite software for testing of internal
interfaces, commands, and other common code-paths. The produced numbers should only be

comparable for the same version of the Phoronix Test Suite, on the same hardware/software system,
conducted on the same day of testing. This isn't intended as any scientific benchmark but simply to
stress common PHP code-paths and looking for hot areas to optimize, etc.
enterprise-setup
This option can be run by enterprise users immediately after package installation or as part of an
in-house setup script. Running this command will ensure the phoronix-test-suite program is never
interrupted on new runs to accept user agreement changes and defaults the anonymous usage
reporting to being disabled and other conservative defaults.
help
This option will display the list of available Phoronix Test Suite commands.
network-setup
This option allows the user to configure how the Phoronix Test Suite connects to
OpenBenchmarking.org and other web-services. Connecting through an HTTP proxy can be configured
through this option.
user-config-reset
This option can be used for resetting the Phoronix Test Suite user configuration file to its default state.
user-config-set
This option can be used for setting an XML value in the Phoronix Test Suite user configuration file.
version
This option will display the Phoronix Test Suite client version.
Web / GUI Support

gui
Launch the Phoronix Test Suite HTML5 web user-interface in the local GUI mode (no remote web
support) and attempt to auto-launch the web-browser.
start-remote-gui-server
Start the GUI web server and WebSocket server processes for remote (or local) access via the
web-browser. The settings can be configured via the Phoronix Test Suite's XML configuration file.
start-ws-server
Manually start a WebSocket server for communication by remote Phoronix Test Suite GUIs, the
Phoronix Test Suite Multi-System Commander, and other functionality. This function checks the

PTS_WEBSOCKET_PORT and PTS_WEBSOCKET_SERVER environment variables for configuration.
Modules
list-modules
This option will list all of the available Phoronix Test Suite modules on this system.
module-info [Phoronix Test Suite Module]

This option will show detailed information on a Phoronix Test Suite module such as the version,
developer, and a description of its purpose.
module-setup [Phoronix Test Suite Module]

This option will allow you to configure all available end-user options for a Phoronix Test Suite module.
These options are then stored within the user's configuration file. Not all modules may have options that
can be configured by the end-user.
test-module [Phoronix Test Suite Module]

This option can be used for debugging a Phoronix Test Suite module.
Phoromatic
start-phoromatic-server
Start the Phoromatic web server for controlling local Phoronix Test Suite client systems to facilitate
automated and repeated test orchestration and other automated features targeted at the enterprise.

Module Options
The following list is the modules included with the Phoronix Test Suite that are intended to extend the
functionality of pts-core. Some of these options have commands that can be run directly in a similiar
manner to the other Phoronix Test Suite user commands. Some modules are just meant to be loaded
directly by adding the module name to the LoadModules tag in ~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml or
via the PTS_MODULES environmental variable. A list of available modules is also available by running
phoronix-test-suite list-modules.
Dummy Module
This is a simple module intended for developers to just demonstrate some of the module functions.
phoronix-test-suite dummy_module.dummy-command
Graphics Event Checker

This module checks a number of events prior to and and after running a test to make sure the graphics
sub-system was not put in a sour or unintended state by the application. For instance, it makes sure
syncing to vBlank is not forced through the driver and that a graphics test has not left the display in an
unintended mode.
Graphics Override
This module allows you to override some graphics rendering settings for the ATI and NVIDIA drivers
while running the Phoronix Test Suite.
This module utilizes the following environmental variables: FORCE_AA, FORCE_AF.
Linux Perf Framework Reporter

Setting LINUX_PERF=1 will auto-load and enable this Phoronix Test Suite module. The module also
depends upon running a modern Linux kernel (supporting perf) and that the perf binary is available via
standard system paths.
This module utilizes the following environmental variables: LINUX_PERF.
MATISK
My Automated Test Infrastructure Setup Kit
phoronix-test-suite matisk.run
phoronix-test-suite matisk.template
Performance Per Dollar/Cost Calculator


Setting the COST_PERF_PER_DOLLAR= environment variable to whatever value of the system

cost/component you are running a comparison on will yield extra graphs that calculate the
performance-per-dollar based on the test being run. The COST_PERF_PER_DOLLAR environment
variable is applied just to the current test run identifier.
This module utilizes the following environmental variables: COST_PERF_PER_DOLLAR.
Phoromatic Client
The Phoromatic client is used for connecting to a Phoromatic server (Phoromatic.com or a locally run
server) to facilitate the automatic running of tests, generally across multiple test nodes in a routine
manner. For more details visit http://www.phoromatic.com/. This module is intended to be used with
Phoronix Test Suite 5.2+ clients and servers.
phoronix-test-suite phoromatic.connect
phoronix-test-suite phoromatic.explore
phoronix-test-suite phoromatic.upload-result
phoronix-test-suite phoromatic.set-root-admin-password
phoronix-test-suite phoromatic.list-results
phoronix-test-suite phoromatic.clone
phoronix-test-suite phoromatic.export-results-for-account-schedules
Pushover.net
Submit notifications to your iOS/Android mobile devices of test results in real-time as push notifications,
etc. Using the Pushover.net API.
This module utilizes the following environmental variables: PUSHOVER_NET_USER.
Result Notifier
A notification module.
System Monitor
This module contains sensor monitoring support.
This module utilizes the following environmental variables: MONITOR, PERFORMANCE_PER_WATT,
MONITOR_INTERVAL, MONITOR_PER_RUN.

Timed Screenshot
This is a module that will take a screenshot of the system at a pre-defined interval. ImageMagick must
be installed onto the system prior to using this module.
This module utilizes the following environmental variables: SCREENSHOT_INTERVAL.
Toggle Screensaver
This module toggles the system's screensaver while the Phoronix Test Suite is running. At this time, the
GNOME and KDE screensavers are supported.
This module utilizes the following environmental variables: HALT_SCREENSAVER.
Update Checker
This module checks to see if the Phoronix Test Suite -- and its tests and suites -- are up to date.

Installation Instructions
Setup Overview
The Phoronix Test Suite supports Linux, Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Hurd, BSD, and
other operating system environments. The only Linux distribution-specific code deals with the external
dependencies support feature that are set by individual test profiles. If you are not running one of the
supported Linux distributions, Solaris, BSD, or Mac OS X, you may need to install a package manually
(as instructed by the Phoronix Test Suite) in order for a test to run. An example of an external
dependency would be GCC and the OpenGL Utility Toolkit being needed for test profiles that build an
OpenGL benchmark from source-code.
Among the distributions where the Phoronix Test Suite has been officially tested include Ubuntu,
Fedora, Mandriva / Mageia, Gentoo, PCLinuxOS, Arch Linux, Pardus, OpenSuSE, Optware, webOS,
Zenwalk, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, Scientific Linux, Debian, Mint, MEPIS, and
Amazon Linux EC2.
Among the tested BSD distributions are FreeBSD, PC-BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Debian
GNU/kFreeBSD, and DragonflyBSD. Tested Solaris distributions include OpenSolaris, Solaris Express
11, Oracle Solaris 11, OpenIndiana, Illumos, and Nexenta.
Dependencies
The only required dependency for the Phoronix Test Suite is PHP 5.3 or newer. On Linux distributions,
the needed package is commonly called php5-cli or php-cli or php. It is important to note that only PHP
for the command-line is needed and not a web server (Apache) or other packages commonly
associated with PHP and its usage by web-sites. The PHP5 version required is PHP 5.3+ and can also
be found at www.php.net.
For installing PHP on Windows, the Microsoft Web Platform Installer provides an automated
alternative that will install PHP into the directory expected by Phoronix Test Suite. Users opting to install
PHP manually must extract the files to C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\ or a subdirectory.
As part of the PHP requirement, the following PHP extensions are required and/or highly recommended
in order to take advantage of the Phoronix Test Suite capabilities:
PHP DOM is needed for XML operations and must be installed for the Phoronix Test Suite to
function.
PHP ZIP is needed for file compression and decompression and specifically dealing with test
profiles and suites obtained via OpenBenchmarking.org or when uploading such tests and suites.
PHP OpenSSL is used for enabling HTTPS communication with Phoronix Test Suite /

OpenBenchmarking.org servers.
PHP GD is highly recommended for rendering of test data to JPEG and PNG image formats and
is selectively used in other image operations.
PHP Zlib is highly recommended for greater data compression when dealing with remote
OpenBenchmarking.org assets.
PHP PCNTL is used for multi-threaded system sensor monitoring support during the testing
process and other threaded tasks by the Phoronix Test Suite module framework.
PHP POSIX is used for reliably obtaining more system information in an efficient manner.
PHP CURL is supported as an alternative networking library for improved network performance in
downloading test files and other operations.
PHP FPDF is used to generate PDF reports of test data.
Without all of these extensions, some capabilities of the Phoronix Test Suite will not be available. Many
of these packages are enabled by default and do not require any additional installation steps on most
Linux distributions, otherwise they are often found in the package vendor's repository.
Notes
General
You may need to modify the php.ini file on your system in order to support uploading results to
OpenBenchmarking.org or logging into your OpenBenchmarking.org account. The allow_url_fopen,
file_uploads, and allow_url_include options must be set to true in the PHP configuration. See additional
information in this Phoronix Forums support thread.
Major updates to the Phoronix Test Suite are released on a quarterly basis. The latest stable and
development versions of the Phoronix Test Suite are available at Phoronix-Test-Suite.com. The Git
repository where the latest Phoronix Test Suite code is provided is hosted at
GitHub.com/phoronix-test-suite and can be cloned/pulled from the
https://github.com/phoronix-test-suite/phoronix-test-suite.git repository location. The latest upstream
development code is housed in the master tree while older Phoronix Test Suite releases are available
in their respective Git branches based upon the release's code-name.
If building the PHP package from upstream sources, it should just be a matter of running ./configure
with the --enable-zip flag (all other requirements should be apart of the stock PHP configuration) to
satisfy the PHP needs of the Phoronix Test Suite.

File Structure
If manually changing the location of the phoronix-test-suite launcher file, the PTS_USER_PATH
environment variable must be adjusted inside the file to reflect the absolute location that leads to the
root directory of the pts and pts-core folders. The pts-core directory contains the "engine" of the
Phoronix Test Suite.
Running Locally
The Phoronix Test Suite can be simply extracted from the downloaded .tar.gz or .zip file or it can also
be installed system-wide. If you just wish to run the Phoronix Test Suite without installing it, open a
terminal and run ./phoronix-test-suite <options> from the same directory.
Generic Installation
Running install-sh from the root directory of the Phoronix Test Suite will install the software for
system-wide access. By default the phoronix-test-suite executable is in /usr/bin/, the Phoronix Test
Suite files in /usr/share/phoronix-test-suite/, and the documentation in /
usr/share/doc/phoronix-test-suite/. Root access is required. The default installation prefix is /usr/ but
can be adjusted as the first argument (example: install-sh /home/user/ to install the Phoronix Test Suite
in your home directory).
Debian/Ubuntu Installation
Debian/Ubuntu users are able to follow the Generic Installation instructions or can obtain a Debian
Package from the Phoronix Test Suite web-site. The package contains the phoronix-test-suite
executable in /usr/bin/, the Phoronix Test Suite files in /usr/share/phoronix-test-suite/, and the
documentation in /usr/share/doc/phoronix-test-suite/.
A phoronix-test-suite package can also be found in the official Ubuntu universe repository beginning
with the Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) release, but it may be out of date compared to the latest upstream
version.
On Ubuntu 13.04 and newer if you experience an issue of system sensor monitoring not working, other
multi-process tasks, or related issues reported as PHP PCNTL missing, the pcntl functions need to be
removed from the disable_functions line within the /etc/php5/cli/php.ini file. This may also affect other
Linux distribution support too if the vendor disables access to the PCNTL functions.
Fedora / Red Hat Installation

The Phoronix Test Suite can be installed on Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and CentOS systems
using the generic installation method. Alternatively, a phoronix-test-suite package is available in recent
versions of the Fedora repository and in the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repository for
Red Hat Enterprise Linux. At this time, however, the Fedora-supplied package is vastly out of date.

Gentoo Installation
Gentoo ebuild's for the Phoronix Test Suite have been created by users and can be currently found in
the Gentoo BugZilla.
Mandriva Installation
Phoronix Test Suite packages are available through Mandriva Cooker starting with the Mandriva Linux
2009 release.
OpenSolaris Installation
The Phoronix Test Suite core (pts-core) is supported on Solaris and OpenSolaris platforms, but some
features may not fully function. Additionally, the PTS External Dependencies feature is supported on
OpenSolaris using IPS (the Image Packaging System). However, not all test profiles are supported on
Solaris / OpenSolaris, and it may be in violation of your end-user agreement to perform such
benchmarks on the Sun Solaris operating system. Using the OpenSolaris Image Packaging System,
installing SUNWphp524 will provide PHP, PHP GD, and related dependencies. The Phoronix Test Suite
has also been tested on Oracle Solaris 11 Express, OpenIndiana, StormOS, and Nexenta Core
Platform.
BSD Installation
The Phoronix Test Suite also supports *BSD operating systems. However, like the Solaris support, not
all test profiles are compatible with BSD operating systems, but pts-core has been tested against
FreeBSD 7.x/8.x/9.x, NetBSD, PC-BSD 7/8/9, DragonFlyBSD 3.0/3.2/3.4/3.6/4.2, and OpenBSD
4.4/4.6. The Phoronix Test Suite will also work with Debian GNU/kFreeBSD.
For DragonFlyBSD, it's a matter of just using pkg_radd with php5, php5-json, php5-dom, and php5-zip
or pkgsrc. With DragonFlyBSD using dports, the command is pkg install php5 php5-dom php5-zip
php5-json php5-simplexml. Under FreeBSD/PC-BSD, PHP can be obtained from the php5 and
php5-extensions Ports collection.
Mac OS X Installation
The Phoronix Test Suite is fully supported on Apple's Mac OS X operating system as of Mac OS X 10.5
with improved support under Mac OS X 10.6. PHP ships with Mac OS X by default so it's simply a
matter of downloading the Phoronix Test Suite package, extracting it, and running the executable. For
tests that rely upon a compiler, Apple's XCode with GCC and LLVM can be utilized.
Windows Installation
The Phoronix Test Suite support on Microsoft Windows is in development and will function just fine, but
is not yet feature complete compared to the other operating systems support. Only a small subset of
test profiles, mostly related to graphics, are supported. In terms of the version support, right now the

Phoronix Test Suite is developed and tested solely against Microsoft Windows 7 x64 and Microsoft
Windows 8 x64.
At this time the Phoronix Test Suite client is dependent upon the php.exe executable being installed to
C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\ or one of its subdirectories (see PHP installation notes above). Once this
requirement is met, simply download the Phoronix Test Suite package, extract it to a directory of your
choice, and run phoronix-test-suite.bat
The Phoronix Test Suite also uses CPU-Z for much of the hardware detection support on Windows and
is dependent upon CPU-Z being installed to C:\Program Files\CPUID\CPU-Z\cpuz.exe if you wish to
utilize this hardware reporting feature.
NOTE: because of lack of external dependencies support, it is necessary to manually download and
install the files for some test profiles, such as the Unigine graphics benchmarks. See Troubleshooting
for more information.
Facebook HipHop
The Phoronix Test Suite can use Facebook's HipHop HHVM virtual machine as an alternative to the de
facto PHP implementation. The Phoronix Test Suite has been tested against HHVM 2.0. If HHVM is
present on the system but not PHP, it will automatically be used by the Phoronix Test Suite.
Alternatively, the PHP_BIN environment variable can be set to point to an alternative hhvm binary.
The Phoronix Test Suite also supports the older version of Facebook HipHop that serves as a PHP to
C++ translator and compiler with GCC. This support though is primitive and not officially supported. To
compile the Phoronix Test Suite using HipHop/GCC, run find . -name "*.php" > files.list && hphp
--input-list=files.list -k 1 --log=3 --include-path="." --cluster-count=50 -v "AllDynamic=true" -v
"AllVolatile=true" from the root phoronix-test-suite/ directory. It can then be executed in the form of
/tmp/hphp_XXX/program -f pts-core/phoronix-test-suite.php system-info.

External Dependencies
The Phoronix Test Suite has a feature known as "External Dependencies" where the Phoronix Test
Suite can attempt to automatically install some of the test-specific dependencies on supported
distributions. If running on a distribution where there is currently no External Dependencies profile, the
needed package name(s) are listed for manual installation.
Below are a list of the operating systems that currently have external dependencies support within the
Phoronix Test Suite for the automatic installation of needed test files.
Amazon
Angstrom
Arch Linux
CentOS
ClearOS
ClearOS Core Server
Debian
DragonFlyBSD
Fedora
Fluxbuntu
FreeBSD
GNU KFreeBSD
Gentoo
Goobuntu
HP
Joli Cloud
Linaro
Linux Mint
MEPIS
Mac OS X
MacPorts
Mageia
Mandriva
MeeGo
Moblin
Mythbuntu
NetBSD
Nexenta Core
OLPC
OpenIndiana
OpenMandriva

OpenSolaris
OpenSuSE
Optware
Oracle Server
PCLinuxOS
PTS Desktop Live
PTS Linux Live
Palm
Pardus Linux
Red Hat Enterprise
Red Hat Enterprise Server
SUSE
SUSE Linux
Scientific
ScientificSL
Ubuntu
Zenwalk
gNewSense

Configuration
User Files & Folders
~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml
This is a per-user configuration file. Among the information stored here is the test options, locations for
storing files, and batch mode options. This file is formatted in XML.
~/.phoronix-test-suite/graph-config.json
This is a per-user configuration file for storing graph attributes. The adjustable options include HTML
hex color codes for different areas of the graph, dimensions of the graph, and font sizes. This file is
formatted in JSON.
~/.phoronix-test-suite/download-cache/
This directory contains test packages that have been downloaded for test profiles. For more information
on the download cache.
~/.phoronix-test-suite/installed-tests/
This directory is where tests are installed by default. Each test has its own directory within a
sub-directory of installed-tests/ based upon its OpenBenchmarking.org repository. In the test's folder is
a pts-install.xml file used for managing the installation.
~/.phoronix-test-suite/test-results/
This directory is where tests results are saved by default. Each saved file has its own directory. In the
saved directory is then a composite.xml file containing the useful results while in the test-X.xml files are
back-ups of the results.
~/.phoronix-test-suite/modules-data/
This is the directory where any Phoronix Test Suite modules should save any files to, within a
sub-directory of the module's name. The module configuration settings are also stored within this
directory.
~/.phoronix-test-suite/test-profiles/
This is the directory where test profiles are stored.
~/.phoronix-test-suite/test-suites/

This is the directory where test suites are stored.
Environment Variables
TEST_RESULTS_NAME
When this variable is set, the value will be used as the name for automatically saving the test results.
TEST_RESULTS_IDENTIFIER
When this variable is set, the value will be used as the test identifier when automatically saving the test
results.
TEST_RESULTS_DESCRIPTION
When this variable is set, the value will be used as the test results description when saving the test
results.
PRESET_OPTIONS
For setting any test option(s) from an environment variable rather than being prompted for the options
when running a test. Example: PRESET_OPTIONS="stream.run-type=Add" ./phoronix-test-suite
benchmark stream. Multiple options can be passed to this environment variable when delimited by a
semicolon.
SKIP_TESTS
If there are any test(s) to exempt from the testing process, specify them in this variable. Multiple tests
can be waived by delimiting each test identifier by a comma. A test hardware type (i.e. Graphics) can
also be supplied for skipping a range of tests.
RUN_TESTS_IN_RANDOM_ORDER
Setting this environment variable will cause the tests to be run in a random order.
SKIP_TESTING_SUBSYSTEMS
If you are running a set of benchmarks (namely a result file) but wish to skip some of the tests that don't
belong to a certain test type group, you can set the hardware types to test via this environment variable.
E.g. setting SKIP_TESTING_SUBSYSTEMS=Graphics will skip all test profiles to run that are not of the
graphics test group. Multiple types should be delimited by a comma.
PTS_MODULE_SETUP
This variable can be used to load Phoronix Test Suite module settings automatically when using the

module-setup option. An example would be:

PTS_MODULE_SETUP="phoromatic.remote_host=http://www.phoromatic.com/;
phoromatic.remote_account=123456; phoromatic.remote_verifier=ABCD" phoronix-test-suite
module-setup phoromatic.
PTS_MODULES
If there are any Phoronix Test Suite modules to additionally load, they can be specified here. Multiple
modules can be supplied by delimiting them with a comma. The more appropriate way of loading
Phoronix Test Suite modules for longer periods of time is by using the
~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml configuration.
NO_PHODEVI_CACHE
This is a debugging option to disable the Phodevi cache from being loaded of cached
software/hardware information. Instead, all software/hardware will be polled from the Phodevi library
without caching.
EXTERNAL_PHODEVI_CACHE
This option can be used for loading an external Phodevi cache. Such as loading the native
hardware/software information from within a Windows Wine client from a native system host.
PTS_DISPLAY_MODE
If you wish to load a non-default display mode for a single instance, specify the mode in this variable.
TOTAL_LOOP_TIME
When running any test(s), if you would like the test(s) to continue running as a loop until a certain time
has been reached, this variable can be used. The value should be the number of minutes to run the
testing process before the loop is ended. The testing will finish whenever the currently active test has
finished once the time has elapsed. The minimum value allowed is 10 minutes.
LIMIT_ELAPSED_TEST_TIME
If you want to ensure that the time for a given Phoronix Test Suite process doesn't elapse past a certain
number of minutes, specify the number of minutes for this environment variable. When the amount of
time spent testing exceeds that amount, the testing will end prematurely while still saving the tests that
were completed in time.
TOTAL_LOOP_COUNT
When running any test(s), if you would like the test(s) to continue running for a number of times, this
variable can be used. The value should be the number of times to loop the testing process before

ending.
FORCE_TIMES_TO_RUN
If you wish to override the number of times to run each test -- rather than the Phoronix Test Suite using
the number of times specified in each test profile -- this variable can be used.
FORCE_MIN_TIMES_TO_RUN
This is similar to the FORCE_TIMES_TO_RUN option but will only be used if the test profile's run count
is less than this defined value.
NO_FILE_HASH_CHECKS
To disable MD5/SHA256 check-sums from being checked when downloading test files, set this variable
to 1. This variable used to be known as NO_MD5_CHECKS, which is still honored but was changed to
NO_FILE_HASH_CHECKS to reflect other kind of file hash sum checks.
NO_HTTPS
Set this environment variable to 1 if you don't wish to use HTTPS download links for test profiles (or the
system/network lacks HTTPS support). When enabled, HTTPS links will then be done over HTTP.
PTS_DOWNLOAD_CACHE
While non-standard Phoronix Test Suite download caches can be specified within the user-config.xml
file, an additional directory to look for potential Phoronix Test Suite download files can be specified by
this variable.
GRAPH_HIGHLIGHT
If this variable is set with a valid test identifer from a result file whether you are using the refresh-graphs
command or any other related to the rendering of test results on a bar graph, the specified test
identifier's result will be highlighted in a different color than the other rendered test results. Multiple
identifiers can be specified when delimited by a comma.
VIDEO_MEMORY
If Phodevi fails to detect the system's video memory capacity or is incorrectly detected, the video
memory capacity (in MB) can be specified by this variable.
OVERRIDE_VIDEO_MODES
If Phodevi fails to detect all of the system's monitor video modes or a separate set of modes would be
preferred, the modes can be specified in this variable. Example:

OVERRIDE_VIDEO_MODES=800x600,1024x768,1280x1024 phoronix-test-suite benchmark nexuiz.

SKIP_TEST_SUPPORT_CHECKS
If this environment variable is set, it will not honor the support checks made by individual test profiles.
I.e. test profiles that would normally be considered un-supported on a given platform are attempted to
install and run regardless.
SKIP_ALL_TEST_SUPPORT_CHECKS
If this environment variable is set, all tests will be permitted on the client for execution.
SKIP_ALL_TEST_SUPPORT_CHECKS is more liberal than SKIP_TEST_SUPPORT_CHECKS in
letting disk tests run on RAM-based file-systems, attempt to run 2D/3D tests on VESA display drivers,
and other special cases.
DEFAULT_VIDEO_MODE
If Phodevi fails to detect the system's monitor standard / default resolution, the mode can be specified
in this variable. Example: DEFAULT_VIDEO_MODE=1680x1050 phoronix-test-suite benchmark nexuiz
.
SKIP_EXTERNAL_DEPENDENCIES
To skip the Phoronix Test Suite external dependency checking/installation when installing a test, set
this environment variable to 1. If wishing to skip only certain external dependencies, set this variable's
value to the name of the external dependencies (the generic dependency names used by the Phoronix
Test Suite) to not install. Multiple dependencies to skip can be delimited by a comma.

General Information
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: May I use the Phoronix Test Suite when running benchmarks for my own publication or blog?
Are there any publishing restrictions?
A: Anyone is more than welcome to use the Phoronix Test Suite for their own publication or purpose.
While the Phoronix Test Suite came out of our internal test tools for carrying out Linux hardware
reviews at Phoronix.com, we invite other hardware review web-sites, technology journals, and
independent publications to use our software too. While not required, we would just kindly ask that you
mention in your review/article that the Phoronix Test Suite was used for carrying out your testing, and
ideally to link to www.phoronix-test-suite.com so that your readers will know where to obtain the
software if they are interested in running the tests. You are also more than welcome to upload your
results to OpenBenchmarking.org so that others may compare their results against yours in an easy
manner.
We also try to make the Phoronix Test Suite easy-to-use by independent publications. For example, if
you would like to watermark your web-site's URL into the graphs containing your test results, that can
be easily modified in ~/.phoronix-test-suite/graph-config.json. The colors and other graph settings are
also stored in this XML file. If you are a publication and run into any issues with the Phoronix Test Suite
or have a feature request, please let us know.
A partial list of other publications using the Phoronix Test Suite can be found in this forum thread.
Q: Why does the Phoronix Test Suite not use my distribution's package management system for
acquiring all needed packages?
A: The tests themselves are generally downloaded from source and built locally on the machine, rather
than fetching any distribution-specific packages. This is done to ensure more comparable results across
operating systems / releases, etc. The distribution packager could be applying a number of unknown
patches to the software, building the software with unique build options, or making other changes to the
software that could skew the results.
Q: Besides being a developer, documentation writer, or having any other unique technical
abilities, how else can I contribute to the Phoronix Test Suite?
A: Independent code contributions are very welcome as well as creating your own test profiles and
suites. We also appreciate any feedback, comments, or other ideas either by emailing us, posting on
the forums, or sending a message to the mailing list. You can also see this (outdated) forum thread.
Q: Do you offer technical support for the Phoronix Test Suite

A: Paid, professional support is available and is done via our commercial services. We also offer
Phoromatic licenses for use within a corporate intranet and other custom services. Free, community
support is offered via our mailing list, IRC channel (#phoronix on FreeNode.net, and the Phoronix
Forums.
Q: May I put the Phoronix Test Suite logo on my company's web-site or on my product
packaging?
A: Contact us for licensing information and details regarding the Phoronix Certification & Qualification
Suite.
Q: How often is the Phoronix Test Suite updated?
A: We provide major updates on a quarterly basis with an occasional point release to fix outstanding
bugs or address other issues. The latest work going into the Phoronix Test Suite is accessible via our
Git repository at GitHub.com/phoronix-test-suite.
Tips & Tricks

General
- The desktop's screensaver will automatically be shutdown when a test is running and will be restored
to its previous state upon the test's completion. This is supported for GNOME, KDE, and other
XDG-supportive desktop environments.
- If you have many computers you wish to benchmark, once all of your tests have been downloaded,
run phoronix-test-suite make-download-cache to generate a copy of these files at
~/.phoronix-test-suite/download-cache/. A download cache is used for conserving time and bandwidth
by eliminating the need for the Phoronix Test Suite to download files that have already been
downloaded once. Copy this folder to the other systems or copy it to a DVD or USB hard drive, connect
it to the next test system, and the Phoronix Test Suite will automatically use this local download cache.
Or store these files on a local HTTP/FTP server and then update your
~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml file to reflect the location of this download cache directory.
Running
- When running a test in batch mode (through the use of the batch-run or batch-benchmark options)
that normally has end-user options (such as the sub-test to run or resolution), the Phoronix Test Suite
will run the test with each unique combination of options possible, if configured appropriately.
- When running a test where you are prompted to enter any test options, multiple selections can be
performed -- which will result in multiple test runs for each combination of the selected option(s) -- by
separating each intended test option / number with a comma.
- When being prompted for the test identifier or the file name for saving the results, several user

variables are supported. These include $VIDEO_RESOLUTION, $VIDEO_CARD,

$OPERATING_SYSTEM, $PROCESSOR, $MOTHERBOARD, $CHIPSET, and $KERNEL_VERSION.
If any of these variables are entered, the Phoronix Test Suite will replace them with their respective
values before saving the results.
- If RemoveDownloadFiles is set to TRUE within the user-config.xml file, once a test has been installed
the originally downloaded files for that test will be automatically removed. This conserves disk space
but will cause these files to be re-downloaded the next time the test needs to be re-installed. This will
also not back up the downloaded files to the Phoronix Test Suite download cache. Enabling this option
is just recommended for users with very limited disk space.
- If the amount of video memory for your graphics card is incorrectly reported by the Phoronix Test
Suite (you can check by running phoronix-test-suite diagnostics), you can use the VIDEO_MEMORY=
environment variable for overriding the video memory capacity (in Megabytes) used by the Phoronix
Test Suite.
- If the DISPLAY environment variable is not set or NO_GRAPHICS_TESTS environment variable is
set, tests of type Graphics will not be run. Likewise, if NO_SYSTEM_TESTS environment variable is
set, tests of type System will not run. This applies to all test types where NO_<TEST TYPE>_TESTS is
set.
- If while running multiple tests you want to quit the testing prematurely, in a new terminal window type
touch ~/.phoronix-test-suite/halt-testing. All results for tests that had already run will be saved
(permitting you opted to save the results), except for the test currently being run.
- If you wish to stop the current test run prematurely but continue the testing process, in a new terminal
window type touch ~/.phoronix-test-suite/skip-test.
- If you want the specified test(s) to run in a loop for a set period of time, use the TOTAL_LOOP_TIME
environment variable. For instance, running TOTAL_LOOP_TIME=120 phoronix-test-suite benchmark
ffmpeg would keep running the ffmpeg test profile for 120 minutes.
- If you want the specified test(s) to run in a loop for a set number of times, use the
TOTAL_LOOP_COUNT environment variable. For instance, running TOTAL_LOOP_COUNT=3
phoronix-test-suite benchmark ffmpeg would keep running the ffmpeg test profile three times.
- When any tests are being installed and when tests are being run, a lock is created in the system's
temporary directory with the name phoronix-test-suite.active (i.e. /tmp/phoronix-test-suite.active) and is
removed upon completion. Thus if you have any system scripts that you wish to run when tests are not
running or being installed as to not impact the results, one simple way to handle this is by having the
script check for the existence of this lock.
Troubleshooting
- If a test profile fails immediately after starting, check the test profile's directory in

~/.phoronix-test-suite/installed-tests/ to confirm that the needed files are present. On platforms without
External Dependencies support (Windows), it may be necessary to download the files manually and
place them in this directory. If this is the case, you will notice that the "Downloading" phase of test
installation completes instantly.
- Inspect the scripts inside the above test profile's directory and confirm that directories or search paths
for the test correspond to those on your system
- Try running the test profile with the debug-benchmark command, or reinstalling with the debug-install
command and make note of any unusual output.
Configuration
- The user configuration options for the Phoronix Test Suite are stored in
~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml. The batch mode options are also stored within this file and those
can be adjusted by running phoronix-test-suite batch-setup.
- The colors, size, and other attributes for the graphs found within the Phoronix Test Suite Results
Viewer can be modified via the file ~/.phoronix-test-suite/graph-config.json.
Test / Suite Writing

- The Phoronix Test Suite recursively determines tests/suites and allows a suite to call another suite.
Module Writing
- By writing a Phoronix Test Suite module, you can easily extend the functionality of the Phoronix Test
Suite. Some examples are being able to email the results upon completion, controlling the system's
screensaver, updating a text LCD panel with the current test status, etc.

Virtual Test Suites

Virtual test suites are not like a traditional test suite defined by the XML suite specification. Virtual test
suites are dynamically generated in real-time by the Phoronix Test Suite client based upon the specified
test critera. Virtual test suites can automatically consist of all test profiles that are compatible with a
particular operating system or test profiles that meet other critera. When running a virtual suite, the
OpenBenchmarking.org repository of the test profiles to use for generating the dynamic suite must be
prefixed.
Virtual test suites can be installed and run just like a normal XML test suite and shares nearly all of the
same capabilities. However, when running a virtual suite, the user will be prompted to input any
user-configuration options for needed test profiles just as they would need to do if running the test
individually. When running a virtual suite, the user also has the ability to select individual tests within the
suite to run or to run all of the contained test profiles. Virtual test suites are also only supported for an
OpenBenchmarking.org repository if there is no test profile or test suite of the same name in the
repository. Below is a list of common virtual test suites for the main Phoronix Test Suite repository, but
the dynamic list of available virtual test suites based upon the enabled repositories is available by
running phoronix-test-suite list-available-virtual-suites.
All PTS Tests pts/all

This is a collection of all test profiles found within the specified OpenBenchmarking.org repository.
Installed Tests pts/installed

This is a collection of test profiles found within the specified OpenBenchmarking.org repository that are
already installed on the system under test.
Linux Operating System Tests pts/linux

This is a collection of test profiles found within the specified OpenBenchmarking.org repository where
the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Linux Operating System.
Solaris Operating System Tests pts/solaris

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Solaris Operating System.
BSD Operating System Tests pts/bsd

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the BSD Operating System.

MacOSX Operating System Tests pts/macosx

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the MacOSX Operating System.
Windows Operating System Tests pts/windows

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Windows Operating System.
Hurd Operating System Tests pts/hurd

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Hurd Operating System.
System Subsystem Tests pts/system

the test profile is specified as being a test of the System sub-system.
Processor Subsystem Tests pts/processor

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Processor sub-system.
Graphics Subsystem Tests pts/graphics

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Graphics sub-system.
Other Subsystem Tests pts/other

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Other sub-system.
Utility Tests pts/utility

the test profile is specified as being a Utility software test.
Simulator Tests pts/simulator

the test profile is specified as being a Simulator software test.

Scientific Tests pts/scientific

the test profile is specified as being a Scientific software test.
Benchmark Tests pts/benchmark

the test profile is specified as being a Benchmark software test.
Application Tests pts/application

the test profile is specified as being a Application software test.
Game Tests pts/game

the test profile is specified as being a Game software test.
Smp Tests pts/smp

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing smp.
Cuda Tests pts/cuda

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing cuda.
Python Tests pts/python

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing python.
Go Tests pts/go
the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing go.
Mpi Tests pts/mpi

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing mpi.

Openmp Tests pts/openmp

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing openmp.
Vdpau Tests pts/vdpau

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing vdpau.
Video Tests pts/video

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing video.
All SYSTEM Tests system/all

This is a collection of all test profiles found within the specified OpenBenchmarking.org repository.
Installed Tests system/installed

This is a collection of test profiles found within the specified OpenBenchmarking.org repository that are
already installed on the system under test.
Linux Operating System Tests system/linux

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Linux Operating System.
Solaris Operating System Tests system/solaris

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Solaris Operating System.
BSD Operating System Tests system/bsd

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the BSD Operating System.
MacOSX Operating System Tests system/macosx

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the MacOSX Operating System.
Windows Operating System Tests system/windows


the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Windows Operating System.
Hurd Operating System Tests system/hurd

the test profile is specified as being compatible with the Hurd Operating System.
System Subsystem Tests system/system

the test profile is specified as being a test of the System sub-system.
Processor Subsystem Tests system/processor

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Processor sub-system.
Disk Subsystem Tests system/disk

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Disk sub-system.
Graphics Subsystem Tests system/graphics

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Graphics sub-system.
Memory Subsystem Tests system/memory

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Memory sub-system.
Network Subsystem Tests system/network

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Network sub-system.
Other Subsystem Tests system/other

the test profile is specified as being a test of the Other sub-system.
Utility Tests system/utility

the test profile is specified as being a Utility software test.
Simulator Tests system/simulator

the test profile is specified as being a Simulator software test.
Scientific Tests system/scientific

the test profile is specified as being a Scientific software test.
Benchmark Tests system/benchmark

the test profile is specified as being a Benchmark software test.
Application Tests system/application

the test profile is specified as being a Application software test.
Game Tests system/game

the test profile is specified as being a Game software test.
Opencl Tests system/opencl

the test profile is specified via an internal tag as testing opencl.

Component Testing
Compiler Testing & Masking
A majority of the test profiles provided by OpenBenchmarking.org to the Phoronix Test Suite are
source-based tests. Relying upon the upstream source-code for each program under test allows for the
tests to be easily brought to new platforms and architectures, avoids any out-of-tree / non-default
packaging differences by different distributions and operating systems, and to allow the Phoronix Test
Suite user to easily test new compilers and/or compiler options. For the source-based tests, the
Phoronix Test Suite relies upon a compiler (e.g. GCC, LLVM/Clang, Sun Studio, Open64, et al) being
present on the system under test. The Phoronix Test Suite does respect CC/CXX environment
variables and test profiles are expected to honor CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS and other compiler settings.
As of Phoronix Test Suite 3.8, a compiler masking method is utilized for logging compiler options and
other settings with each test profile installation. Prior to installing an open-source test, the Phoronix Test
Suite determines the intended compiler to be used based upon the pre-set environment variables or the
pre-set compiler(s) within the PATH environment variable. The Phoronix Test Suite then masks the
compiler to ensure that any options/flags submitted to the compiler are first passed through pts-core so
that they can be logged for later use, then is linked to the original, intended compiler. Additionally, other
compiler binary names of the same type are blacklisted to prevent their un-intended use (i.e. if a test
profile has hard-coded gcc in its build script, but clang is set as the compiler via CC, a sym-link will
automatically be created from gcc to the masked clang for the duration of its test installation).
The logged compiler data is then used by the Phoronix Test Suite following the test execution process
for automated result analysis. If there is a detected change in compiler settings, the differences are
automatically reported to the test result graphs. Additionally, key compiler information (e.g. the compiler
optimization level and key libraries that were linked at compile-time) is reported as a footnote on result
graphs. The Phoronix Test Suite handles all of this in a fully automated manner; test profiles require no
changes to take advantage of these compiler-reporting capabilities.
Separately, the Phoronix Test Suite attempts to automatically log the system compiler's build
configuration (i.e. GCC's gcc -v "Configured with") output. If the Phoronix Test Suite detects there is a
compiler build configuration change between test runs in a result file, it will report each compiler's build
configuration to the system information table within the results viewer. Reported to the table is a
reduced view of the build configuration options, with less relevant items being stripped away from this
view to reduce verbosity. Upon clicking the text, the raw compiler information output can be viewed in
full.
Disk / File-System Testing

By default tests are installed to ~/.phoronix-test-suite/installed-tests/. However, the location can be
updated from ~/.phoronix-test-suite/user-config.xml or dynamically via the
PTS_TEST_INSTALL_ROOT_PATH environment variable.

When any disk tests are executed, the Phoronix Test Suite will attempt to log the mount options and
scheduler of the disk/partition being used for testing. This information is subsequently displayed within
the system information table. If the scheduler / mount options are maintained the same throughout all
test runs, only a single line is displayed otherwise the options for each test run will be automatically
displayed. The file-system in use is always captured and shown in the system information table.

Phoromatic
Overview
The Phoronix Test Suite now features its own built-in Phoromatic server and client implementations.
See the phoromatic.pdf / phoromatic.html documentation for more information on this advanced
capability.

PTS Desktop Live

PTS Desktop Live 2010.1 "Anzhofen"
PTS Desktop Live and PTS Netbook Live are Linux-based operating systems designed to provide a
free software platform for carrying out system tests and hardware benchmarks in an automated,
reproducible, and effective manner. The Phoronix Test Suite operating systems are designed around
the Phoronix Test Suite with the operating system itself consisting of a stripped down Linux
environment, then built upon that is the Phoronix Test Suite with its test profiles and suites. This is not a
standard Linux desktop with the normal throng of packages.
Testing with PTS Desktop Live is intended to be via a Live DVD or Live USB (i.e. flash drive or memory
card) environment. PTS Netbook Live is similar to PTS Desktop Live but designed for testing on
lightweight x86 systems and netbooks. Both PTS Desktop Live and PTS Netbook Live make it very
easy to deploy the Phoronix Test Suite across an array of systems, isolates any software differences
when seeking to perform hardware comparisons, and is designed to be very easy to carry out these
Linux benchmarks even for a first-time Linux user.
The inaugural release of this operating system was PTS Desktop Live 2009.3 (codenamed
"Gernlinden") and was based upon the Phoronix Test Suite 2.0 release. The Gernlinden release
shipped with more than 50 open-source test profiles and all needed files being located on the disc
image. PTS Desktop Live uses the GTK2 GUI dialog for the Phoronix Test Suite by default, but the CLI
options are also accessible. PTS Desktop Live also features optimizations to the Linux kernel and
related components for use on the latest high-end hardware and other performance related tweaking.
PTS Netbook Live features optimizations for the Intel Atom processor.
The mission of the Phoronix Test Suite and related products will not be achieved until it has made Linux
benchmarking incredibly robust and innovative, drop dead easy to perform nearly any kind of
benchmark, and when it out-paces other leading operating systems for its benchmarking abilities.
These operating systems are being updated quarterly in conjunction with new Phoronix Test Suite
releases. The Phoronix Test Suite will continue to be supported under all other Linux distributions,
OpenSolaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and *BSD operating systems, but this is just another addition on top
of that.
PTS Desktop Live is designed to run on x86_64 compatible systems with 2GB or more of system
memory (ideally 4GB+ if you wish to run many of the tests in a live environment) being highly
recommended along with a modern CPU and graphics processor. No proprietary graphics drivers are
shipped with PTS Desktop Live at this time, so depending upon the hardware you may not have
OpenGL acceleration to run the few graphics-related tests that are included with this release. Only
graphics drivers are provided for ATI/AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel hardware. An Internet connection is not
required but is needed for communication with OpenBenchmarking.org and for utilizing some of the
other Phoronix Test Suite features.

PTS Netbook Live is designed for netbooks and nettop computers with an Intel Atom processor.
Quick Start Guide

When the operating system has fully booted, the end-user agreement for the Phoronix Test Suite will be
displayed, followed by initializing the main GTK user interface for the Phoronix Test Suite. The Phoronix
Test Suite has more than 100 test profiles while there are about 50 test profiles featured within live
environment, which are free software, do not pose significant install size problems, and are suitable for
benchmarking from a live environment. By default, PTS Desktop Live and PTS Netbook Live will only
show the test profiles and suites where all of the needed test files and dependencies ship with this
open-source operating system. However, to access any of the test profiles that may require
downloading additional files or external dependencies, use the View menu to toggle the different
options. The system's hardware and software information can also be viewed in a graphical window
from this menu.
From the Available Tests tab, any test/suite can be selected to view more information. If you wish to
install the test, simply click on the install button while waiting shortly for it to install. Afterwards, the test
can be run by selecting it again and clicking on the run/benchmark button. If you have a
OpenBenchmarking.org account, you can login from the File menu while Phoronix Test Suite settings
are adjustable from the Edit menu.
When the testing has completed, the graphical user interface will reappear. Via the buttons that appear
at the top of the interface, the test results can then be opened within the web browser. Depending upon
the test profile, it may also be possible to immediately compare the test result(s) against a set of
reference systems. If the completed test(s) do have reference results available, a list of the comparable
systems are shown, so that you can click on one or more of these reference systems to see how the
given system performs in comparison. Results from OpenBenchmarking.org can also be compared with
any of the test results.
Assuming you did not launch any commands from the terminal to alter the disk(s) or its contents or
carry out any other changes; PTS Desktop Live will have not touched your data or the installed
operating system(s). If you wish to archive any of your test results, upload the results to
OpenBenchmarking.org. Alternatively, when going to the Test Results tab and selecting a test, the File
menu presents options for exporting results to text, CSV, and PDF files. The contents of the
~/.phoronix-test-suite/test-results/ folder can also be backed up for preserving the test results.
If you wish to use the Phoronix Test Suite from the command-line, open a terminal and run
phoronix-test-suite.

Development Credits
The Phoronix Test Suite is based upon the extensive testing and internal tools developed by
Phoronix.com since 2004 along with support from leading tier-one computer hardware and software
vendors. The principal architects of the Phoronix Test Suite are Michael Larabel and Matthew Tippett.
The phoronix-test-suite, pts_Graph, Phoromatic, Phodevi, tandem_Xml, and nye_Xml are some of the
related open-source projects provided by Phoronix Media.

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www.phoronix-test-suite.

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0 (Gamvik)

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

install-dependencies [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

benchmark [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

finish-run [Test Result]

run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

stress-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

batch-install [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

batch-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

default-benchmark [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

default-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

internal-run [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

upload-result [Test Result]

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

debug-install [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

debug-test-download-links [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result]

download-test-files [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

force-install [Test | Suite | OpenBenchmarking.org ID | Test Result] ...

result-file-to-suite [Test Result]

edit-result-file [Test Result]

extract-from-result-file [Test Result]

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

merge-results [Test Result] ...

refresh-graphs [Test Result]

remove-from-result-file [Test Result]

remove-result [Test Result]

rename-identifier-in-result-file [Test Result]

rename-result-file [Test Result]

reorder-result-file [Test Result]

result-file-to-csv [Test Result]

result-file-to-json [Test Result]

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

result-file-to-pdf [Test Result]

result-file-to-text [Test Result]

show-result [Test Result]

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Web / GUI Support

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

Phoronix Test Suite v6.2.0

PTS_WEBSOCKET_PORT and PTS_WEBSOCKET_SERVER environment variables for configuration.