Neuron doesn't return exit code to command line when there is an error

[iomaganaris]

During creating tests for NEURON I found out that when there is an error and NEURON quits from the HOC interpreter, it doesn't return an exit code (1) to the command-line shell.
This would be a useful addition, especially for extending the unit tests.
Example:

magkanar:~/bbp/nrn_bbp/build$ bin/nrniv /home/magkanar/bbp/nrn_bbp/test/hoc_tests/connect_dend/connect_dend.hoc
NEURON -- VERSION 7.8.0-162-g597ea9dc+ catch_test (597ea9dc+) 2019-11-25
Duke, Yale, and the BlueBrain Project -- Copyright 1984-2019
See http://neuron.yale.edu/neuron/credits

bin/nrniv: Couldn't find: nrngui.hoc
 in /home/magkanar/bbp/nrn_bbp/test/hoc_tests/connect_dend/connect_dend.hoc near line 1
 load_file("nrngui.hoc")
                        ^
        0 
        1 
        Vector[1] 
        Vector[0] 
bin/nrniv: run undefined function
 in /home/magkanar/bbp/nrn_bbp/test/hoc_tests/connect_dend/connect_dend.hoc near line 58
 run()
      ^
        run()
sh: 1: /home/magkanar/bbp/nrn_bbp/build/install/share/nrn/lib/cleanup: not found
magkanar:~/bbp/nrn_bbp/build$ echo $?
0

Another related useful addition for testing would be a function in HOC or/and python like quit() to return specific values, like: quit(0) to return 0 to the command-line shell and quit(1) to return 1.

[Helveg]

I've also had to rely on parsing stderr and stdout to gain insight into the status of the process.

@iomaganaris Do you deploy NEURON on any Continuous Integration platforms? If so, which, and could you share your yaml configuration with me? I have trouble getting NEURON installed on Travis CI.

[iomaganaris]

Hello @Helveg ,

There is currently an open PR regarding the addition of the cmake build system in Neuron to make the building of the simulator easier which includes a Travis CI plan for building Neuron with autotools as before and with the new cmake system. You can find the PR here and the included travis.yml file here.
Please feel free to check the Travis CI plan and also test the cmake build and let us know if you need any further help.

[WeinaJi]

I recalled an earlier investigation similar to this issue reported in JIRA : the exit code of execerror is not correct in the non-mpi case.

For example

 > echo "execerror(\"HOC error\")" > test.hoc
 > nrniv test.hoc
 > echo $?
 0
 > srun -n 2 nrniv -mpi test.hoc
 > echo $?
 137

[WeinaJi]

The PR #1633 has been merged including two features:

• return proper exit code in hoc execution
• allow quit with user-defined code in hoc_quit(exit_code)

As proposed by @nrnhines , in the future we will extend the behavior to

$ nrniv -c '1/0'
NEURON -- VERSION 8.2.dev-12-gfa5ca235 weji/hoc_exitcode (fa5ca235) 2022-03-28
Duke, Yale, and the BlueBrain Project -- Copyright 1984-2021
See http://neuron.yale.edu/neuron/credits

nrniv: division by zero
 near line 1
 1/0
    ^
nrniv: arg not valid statement: 1/0
 near line 0
 ^
hines@hines-T7500:~/neuron/temp/build$ echo $?
0