Change Pax Probe location and sorroundings: an explorative adventure

[Massimo Bono]

Hi all,

I'm exploring the pax-exam project because I want to change the location of the pax-exam probe generated (location in the file system and possibly its name): I'm using a karaf container to actually test and in that project in order to configure the probe itself I need to specify a method annotated with "@ProbeBuilder". By looking where the annotation "@ProbeBuilder" was actually used I discovered the methods `overwriteWithUserDefinition` and `createProbeBuilder` in `TestProbeBuilder` which , apparently, creates a probe implementation from a template (i.e., system.createProbe()). Looking at the method interface it seems that I just need to change the tem dir via the method `setTempDir`.

However, there is a problem: the associated method `getTempDir`, technically used to retrieve such a temp directory, is not used in the project at all (or at least, a search in my IDE gave no usage result).

Since I couldn't find usages of `getTempDir` method, I turn my attention on `system.createProbe()`. The only implementation I found was in `ReactorManager.createProbeBuilder`.

Here I noticed that the `tempDir` field of the pax-probe is populated by a temporary folder via the line `cache = createTemp(new File(work.getWorkingDirectory()));` whereas the `store` variable may represents an abstract storage location. Inspecting further the standard implementation of `TestProbeBuilderImpl.build()` seems to reveal that such a variable is responsible to decide where the probe is actually stored.

In particular, it seems that  the only implementation of `Store`, `TemporaryStore`, actually creates the probe in temp file via `createTempFile` and only then transfer it in a given location `TemporaryStore.getLocation()`. So changing the return value of such a method should do the trick.

My questions are:

 - what is the real purpose of `getTempDir` method in `TestProbeBuilder`? Is is really useless or it has an implicit need?

 - I've noticed that both the filename of such a probe and its symbolic name are hardcoded? Do you know any location in pax-exam (or karaf) where such hardcoded names are used? I ask this because if I can, I would like to change them :)

 - Is it indeed safe to change the instance of `Store` with another that allows me to change the actual probe-location?

 - If I want to add some javadoc documentation in some classes (like the totally undocumented `TestProbeBuilder`), what are the contribution rules? Can you give me a link to them so I can read them? On pax-exam site I couldn't find them, but maybe I'm just stupid :D

Thanks for any kind reply

[Oliver Lietz]

On Tuesday, April 7, 2020 6:39:17 PM CEST Massimo Bono wrote:
> Hi all,

Hi Massimo,

> I'm exploring the pax-exam project because* I want to change the location
> of the pax-exam probe generated* (location in the file system and possibly

Why do you want to access the probe as file?
You can change the symbolic name via TestProbeBuilder.

Regards,
O.

[Massimo Bono]

Hi Oliver,

As for my use case, I want to relocate the file generated by pax (or copy it) in a specific folder so I can view its contents while debugging, nothing too big or fancy. I initially thought such a task would be easy to do. As for the symbolic name, my fault: yes I meant the probe name, not the symbolic name. Sorry for the confusion.