autotest: reimplement -P functionality for SITL

[ohyaiamhere]

To solve the old issue #6114 , the file sim_vehicle.py was modified to also take -P as a parameter to pass one parameter and its value to SITL.

It does this by creating a new.parm file in the build folder, and using the same logical flow as the add_param_file option, to append it to the parameter files list. The parameter, tested with single vehicle SITL, is succcessfully passed into the simulation. This is similar to what has been suggested at the end of pull request #6040

Example commands:

sim_vehicle.py -v Plane -P SIM_SPEEDUP=8 -D -G -B _set_param_default

sim_vehicle.py -v Plane -P SIM_RC_FAIL=1 -D -G -B _set_param_default

The command must not have any spaces in the param or around the = sign, else it throws an error.

[peterbarker]

This doesn't work:

pbarker@crun:~/rc/ardupilot((HEAD detached at ohyaiamhere/pCommand))$ ./Tools/autotest/sim_vehicle.py -v Plane --gdb --debug -P LOG_DISARMED=16 -P LOG_REPLAY=17,LOG_MAX_FILES=78^C
pbarker@crun:~/rc/ardupilot((HEAD detached at ohyaiamhere/pCommand))$ cat build/new.parm 
LOG_REPLAY 17,LOG_MAX_FILES 78pbarker@crun:~/rc/ardupilot((HEAD detached at ohyaiamhere/pCommand))$ 

Please split on commas to allow a csl.... need a newline for neatness in that file.

A small autotest which customises the SITL command-line as I have there and makes sure that the values come up correctly will make sure this behaviour doesn't break (again).

Thanks for working on this, will be useful.

[ohyaiamhere]

This doesn't work:

pbarker@crun:~/rc/ardupilot((HEAD detached at ohyaiamhere/pCommand))$ ./Tools/autotest/sim_vehicle.py -v Plane --gdb --debug -P LOG_DISARMED=16 -P LOG_REPLAY=17,LOG_MAX_FILES=78^C
pbarker@crun:~/rc/ardupilot((HEAD detached at ohyaiamhere/pCommand))$ cat build/new.parm 
LOG_REPLAY 17,LOG_MAX_FILES 78pbarker@crun:~/rc/ardupilot((HEAD detached at ohyaiamhere/pCommand))$ 

Please split on commas to allow a csl.... need a newline for neatness in that file.

A small autotest which customises the SITL command-line as I have there and makes sure that the values come up correctly will make sure this behaviour doesn't break (again).

Thanks for working on this, will be useful.

Happy to help.

I had an idea for implementing this. Essentially, a loop where the new params get appended to the file instead of being written all in one go. I will try to see if I can get it to work next week.

[khancyr]

Hello,

That doesn't address that issue as this just add -P on sim_vehicle.py which isn't sitl .
It could be a good idea thus. So the implementation should be just creating a new param file and append it to the list to load as default.

as we are in python, we could probably use a tmpfile feature to not polute the workspace and garantee to not load those parameter if they aren't passed on cmdline !

[ohyaiamhere]

Hello,

That doesn't address that issue as this just add -P on sim_vehicle.py which isn't sitl . It could be a good idea thus. So the implementation should be just creating a new param file and append it to the list to load as default.

as we are in python, we could probably use a tmpfile feature to not polute the workspace and garantee to not load those parameter if they aren't passed on cmdline !

Hello Pierre,

A temporary file was tried for this purpose, as used for opt.gdb and other applications. This recommended change has been implemented and tested for the command below:

./Tools/autotest/sim_vehicle.py -v Plane --gdb --debug -P LOG_DISARMED=16 -P LOG_REPLAY=17,LOG_MAX_FILES=78,SIM_SPEEDUP=5

Where the value of SIM_SPEEDUP would be varied and the parameter checked using a Mavlink GCS (like QGC), to see that the value is as expected.

[khancyr]

probably not need as those files will be cleaned up on /tmp and the creation guarantee they won't be reused

[ohyaiamhere]

Pardon me, I don't follow which line is verbose. The delete parameter has been set to false (line 818), and at exit, this file can be deleted by the line 819 (atexit called at line 1446). File creating and deletion flow created to be similar to other temporary files in the script.

Is there something here that we can perhaps do without?