Why are Common Test modules introduced?

Questions / Help
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1

As per Common Test User’s Guide, Black-box testing of target systems of any type can be performed through standard O&M interfaces such as SNMP, HTTP, CORBA, and Telnet. I understand that “various ct_ modules such as ct_netconfc, ct_snmp, ct_ftp, etc are implemented to provide the OAM interface”.

Can an application be developed directly based on ct_ modules similar to the applications developed using Erlang libraries stdlib, kernel, etc.?

Unlike stdlib and kernel, Common test modules are named with the prefix “ct_”. Hence, I have this query.

2

ct_snmp etc are wrappers around the erlang applications providing those protocols to help with things like default setups and also somewhat mimic “telnet-based command line testing” for other protocols. This was done when common_test initially was aimed to test non-erlang systems with an erlang-based test framework working similar to OTPs internal test server. Later it became the front end of our test server. So ct modules are not designed to be used in real applications.