How to save Robot framework test run logs in some folder with timestamp?

Question

I am using Robot Framework, to run 50 Testcases. Everytime its creating following three files as expected:

c:\users\<user>\appdata\local\output.xml
c:\users\<user>\appdata\local\log.html
c:\users\<user>\appdata\local\report.html

But when I run same robot file, these files will be removed and New log files will be created.

I want to keep all previous run logs to refer in future. Log files should be saved in a folder with a time-stamp value in that.

NOTE: I am running robot file from command prompt (pybot test.robot). NOT from RIDE.

Could any one guide me on this?

Answer 1

Using the built-in features of robot

The robot framework user guide has a section titled Timestamping output files which describes how to do this.

From the documentation:

All output files listed in this section can be automatically timestamped with the option --timestampoutputs (-T). When this option is used, a timestamp in the format YYYYMMDD-hhmmss is placed between the extension and the base name of each file. The example below would, for example, create such output files as output-20080604-163225.xml and mylog-20080604-163225.html:

robot --timestampoutputs --log mylog.html --report NONE tests.robot

To specify a folder, this too is documented in the user guide, in the section Output Directory, under Different Output Files:

...The default output directory is the directory where the execution is started from, but it can be altered with the --outputdir (-d) option. The path set with this option is, again, relative to the execution directory, but can naturally be given also as an absolute path...

Using a helper script

You can write a script (in python, bash, powershell, etc) that performs two duties:

1. launches pybot with all the options you wan
2. renames the output files

You then just use this helper script instead of calling pybot directly.

Answer 2

I'm having trouble working out how to create a timestamped directory at the end of the execution. This is my script it timestamps the files, but I don't really want that, just the default file names inside a timestamped directory after each execution?

CALL "C:\Python27\Scripts\robot.bat" --variable BROWSER:IE --outputdir C:\robot\ --timestampoutputs --name "Robot Execution" Tests\test1.robot