TIMEOUT_AFTER_MATCH

Change a test’s timeout duration after a matching line is encountered in its output.

Usage

add_test(mytest ...)
set_property(TEST mytest PROPERTY TIMEOUT_AFTER_MATCH "${seconds}" "${regex}")

Description

Allow a test seconds to complete after regex is encountered in its output.

When the test outputs a line that matches regex its start time is reset to the current time and its timeout duration is changed to seconds. Prior to this, the timeout duration is determined by the TIMEOUT property or the CTEST_TEST_TIMEOUT variable if either of these are set. Because the test’s start time is reset, its execution time will not include any time that was spent waiting for the matching output.

TIMEOUT_AFTER_MATCH is useful for avoiding spurious timeouts when your test must wait for some system resource to become available before it can execute. Set TIMEOUT to a longer duration that accounts for resource acquisition and use TIMEOUT_AFTER_MATCH to control how long the actual test is allowed to run.

If the required resource can be controlled by CTest you should use RESOURCE_LOCK instead of TIMEOUT_AFTER_MATCH. This property should be used when only the test itself can determine when its required resources are available.