OpenTAP on MacOS?

Technical
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Hi all, I received a request to run OpenTAP on a Mac. I see OpenTAP installation instructions for Windows and Linux, figured I’d ask the community if MacOS is possible.

Questions are:

  1. Can the OpenTAP engine run on MacOS?
  2. If so, do I need to develop plugins using .NET core in order to run on MacOS?
  3. If so, what GUI options do I have on a Mac? Editor?
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2

Mac OS is not something we currently test on or support, but we are monitoring it as something we would potentially support if there was enough demand. EditorX is our first step towards more support of non-Windows systems.

For you questions:

  1. OpenTAP is built with .NET Core, so this should be doable (because .NET Core supports Mac OS), but it is not part of our testing matrix today
  2. This would mean you would need to use either .NET Core plugins or the Python Plugin. Anything built with .NET framework would not work.
  3. The existing Editor is built with WPF, and will not ever work on Mac OS or Linux. There is not a great option today. Likely anything in the future from a UI perspective would need to be built around the REST API, which is not currently tested on Mac OS either.

First step I think would be verifying OpenTAP on Mac OS. I’m wondering what level of interest others in the community have. here and if anyone was willing to do some baseline investigation.

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Thanks so much @brennen_direnzo for the info. This is more exploratory for me, I was honestly hoping to rule it out macOS for now. :wink:

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Hi David

Check out MacPorts and HomeBrew

How to Install Linux Software on a Mac with MacPorts - Make Tech Easier

Bill

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You can also try the docker container for opentap and use the TUI for a GUI:

docker pull opentapio/opentap:9.15-ubuntu18.04
docker run --name myot -it opentapio/opentap:9.15-ubuntu18.04tap package install TUI --version any
tap tui

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@mescgroup have you successfully deployed the above on MacOS?

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Yes, we work on Macs and while waiting for our IT department to create some Windows VM’s for us to use for OpenTAP, I and another of my colleagues (also on a Mac) both downloaded the image, started up a container, and ran the TUI successfully.

This is a screen shot of running the container within a Mac terminal session, and then, inside the container, running the TUI and creating and running a simple test plan.

Inline image
Inline image1735×1183 98.8 KB

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Awesome! That is really cool to see.

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This is awesome! Also, thanks for the merge request @mescgroup :smiley:

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My pleasure, anything to help others understand. Thanks for including it.

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Thank you @mescgroup for this info, very cool to see.

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Looking good. Curious…does MacOS on Intel vs MacOS on M1 have any impact here?

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It “shouldn’t” (I’m sure you’ve heard that expression before) given that you’re running a docker container.

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I think you’ll run into issues (some are surmountable, others less so). You’ll need to use arm64 based docker images, not amd64. OpenTAP should work in that environment, and .NET Core 2.1 is available for arm64, but Keysight I/O will not work for example.

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Just FYI- there are a set of R/S drivers that work on Mac. It included a little app that was able to hit my connected SigGen:

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image1920×892 92.2 KB

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UPDATE 11-18: More info about successfully running OT/KS/TUI and ConEx from docker container running on a Mac host can be found at this topic/thread:

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I’m also trying the container option on Mac and able to get TUI to show, but it doesn’t look as nice as the screenshot posted here. Any tip regarding terminal emulation or such?
Thanks
Udi

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Can you explain a little more about what you tried? I can try to duplicate it

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The look of the TUI is very dependent on which terminal you are using. Are you using a special terminal on macOS?

Btw, the latest beta version of OpenTAP supports macOS natively (including Apple Silicon).

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