Bug Detection and Reporting

bug_report () — Function

Prints out Maxima and Lisp version numbers, and gives a link to the Maxima project https://sourceforge.net/p/maxima/bugsbug report web page. The version information is the same as reported by build_005finfo.

When a bug is reported, it is helpful to copy the Maxima and Lisp version information into the bug report.

bug_report returns an empty string "".

See also: build_info.

build_info () — Function

Returns a summary of the parameters of the Maxima build, as a Maxima structure (defined by defstruct). When the pretty-printer is enabled (via display2d), the structure is displayed as a short table.

The fields of the structure are:

version Maxima version

timestamp Time at which Maxima was compiled

host Type of system Maxima is running on

lisp_name Name of the Lisp implementation

lisp_version Version of the Lisp implementation

maxima_userdir User directory (value of maxima_userdir)

maxima_tempdir Directory for temporary files (value of maxima_tempdir)

maxima_objdir Directory for compiled files of share packages (value of maxima_objdir)

maxima_frontend Name of user interface, if any (value of maxima_frontend)

maxima_frontend_version User interface version when maxima_frontend is present (value of maxima_frontend_version)

See also bug_005freport.

Examples:

(%i1) build_info ();
(%o1) 
Maxima-version: "5.48.1"
Maxima build date: "2025-08-23 10:39:15"
Host type: "x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
Lisp implementation type: "CLISP"
Lisp implementation version: "2.49.93+ (2024-07-04) (built 3935171094) (memory 3964959574)"
User dir: "/home/dodier/.maxima"
Temp dir: "/tmp"
Object dir: "/home/dodier/.maxima/binary/5_48_1/clisp/2_49_93___2024_07_04___built_3935171094___memory_3964959574_"
Frontend: false


(%i2) x : build_info ()$
(%i3) x@version;
(%o3)                               5.48.1


(%i4) x@timestamp;
(%o4)                         2025-08-23 10:39:15


(%i5) x@host;
(%o5)                         x86_64-pc-linux-gnu


(%i6) x@lisp_name;
(%o6)                                CLISP


(%i7) x@lisp_version;
(%o7)        2.49.93+ (2024-07-04) (built 3935171094) (memory 3964959574)


(%i8) x;
(%o8) 
Maxima-version: "5.48.1"
Maxima build date: "2025-08-23 10:39:15"
Host type: "x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
Lisp implementation type: "CLISP"
Lisp implementation version: "2.49.93+ (2024-07-04) (built 3935171094) (memory 3964959574)"
User dir: "/home/dodier/.maxima"
Temp dir: "/tmp"
Object dir: "/home/dodier/.maxima/binary/5_48_1/clisp/2_49_93___2024_07_04___built_3935171094___memory_3964959574_"
Frontend: false

The Maxima version string (here 5.48.1) can look very different:

(%i1) build_info();
(%o1) 
Maxima version: "branch_5_37_base_331_g8322940_dirty"
Maxima build date: "2016-01-01 15:37:35"
Host type: "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu"
Lisp implementation type: "CLISP"
Lisp implementation version: "2.49 (2010-07-07) (built 3605577779) (memory 3660647857)"

In that case, Maxima was not build from a released sourcecode, but directly from the Git checkout of the source code. In the example, the checkout is 331 commits after the latest Git tag (usually a Maxima release, 5.37 in our example) and the abbreviated commit hash of the last commit was “8322940”.

User interfaces for maxima can add information about currently being used by setting the variables maxima_frontend and maxima_frontend_version accordingly.

See also: display2d, bug_report.

run_testsuite ([options]) — Function

Run the Maxima test suite. Tests producing the desired answer are considered “passes,” as are tests that do not produce the desired answer, but are marked as known bugs.

run_testsuite takes the following optional keyword arguments

display_all — Display all tests. Normally, the tests are not displayed, unless the test fails. (Defaults to false). display_known_bugs — Displays tests that are marked as known bugs. (Default is false). tests — This is a single test or a list of tests that should be run. Each test can be specified by either a string or a symbol. By default, all tests are run. The complete set of tests is specified by testsuite_005ffiles. time — Display time information. If true, the time taken for each test file is displayed. If all, the time for each individual test is shown if display_all is true. The default is false, so no timing information is shown. share_tests — Load additional tests for the share directory. If true, these additional tests are run as a part of the testsuite. If false, no tests from the share directory are run. If only, only the tests from the share directory are run. Of course, the actual set of test that are run can be controlled by the tests option. The default is false. answers_from_file — Read answers to interactive questions from the source file. May only be false or true (default). See also batch_005fanswers_005ffrom_005ffile.

For example run_testsuite(display_known_bugs = true, tests=[rtest5]) runs just test rtest5 and displays the test that are marked as known bugs.

run_testsuite(display_all = true, tests=["rtest1", rtest1a]) will run tests rtest1 and rtest2, and displays each test.

run_testsuite changes the Maxima environment. Typically a test script executes kill to establish a known environment (namely one without user-defined functions and variables) and then defines functions and variables appropriate to the test.

run_testsuite returns done.

See also: testsuite_files, batch_answers_from_file, kill.

share_testsuite_files — Variable

share_testsuite_files is the set of tests from the share directory that is run as a part of the test suite by run_005ftestsuite..

See also: run_testsuite.

testsuite_files — Variable

testsuite_files is the set of tests to be run by run_005ftestsuite. It is a list of names of the files containing the tests to run. If some of the tests in a file are known to fail, then instead of listing the name of the file, a list containing the file name and the test numbers that fail is used.

For example, this is a part of the default set of tests:

["rtest13s", ["rtest14", 57, 63]]

This specifies the testsuite consists of the files “rtest13s” and “rtest14”, but “rtest14” contains two tests that are known to fail: 57 and 63.

See also: run_testsuite.