Re: package testing, autopkgtest, and all that
I wrote:
> * A specification which allows a source package to declare that it
> contains tests, and how those tests need to be run. This
> specification was discussed extensively on debian-devel at the
> time and a copy is in the autopkgtest package, but I'll follow up
> this email with a copy of it.
Here it is.
Ian.
AUTOPKGTEST - DEFINING TESTS FOR PACKAGES
=========================================
This document describes how the autopkgtest tester core (the program
`adt-run') interprets and executes tests found in source packages.
The source package provides a test metadata file
debian/tests/control. This is a file containing zero or more
RFC822-style stanzas, along these lines:
Tests: fred bill bongo
Restrictions: needs-root breaks-computer
This example defines three tests, called `fred', `bill' and `bongo'.
The tests will be performed by executing debian/tests/fred,
debian/tests/bill, etc. Each test program should, on success, exit
with status 0 and print nothing to stderr; if a test exits nonzero, or
prints to stderr, it is considered to have failed.
The cwd of each test is guaranteed to be the root of the source
package which will have been built. HOWEVER note that the tests must
test the INSTALLED version of the program. Tests may not modify the
source tree (and may not have write access to it).
If the file to be executed has no execute bits set, chmod a+x is
applied to it (this means that tests can be added in patches without
the need for additional chmod; contrast this with debian/rules).
During execution of the test, the environment variable TMPDIR will
point to a directory for the execution of this particular test, which
starts empty and will be deleted afterwards (so there is no need for
the test to clean up files left there).
Tests must declare all applicable Restrictions - see below.
The fields which may appear in the RFC822-style stanza are:
Tests: <name-of-test> [<name-of-another-test> ...]
This field is mandatory. It names the tests which are defined by
this stanza. All of the other fields in the same stanza apply to
all of the named tests.
Test names are separated by whitespace and should contain only
characters which are legal in package names, plus `/'.
Restrictions: <restriction-name> [<another-restriction-name> ...]
Declares some restrictions or problems with the tests defined in
this stanza. Depending on the test environment capabilities, user
requests, and so on, restrictions can cause tests to be skipped or
can cause the test to be run in a different manner. Tests which
declare unknown restrictions will be skipped. See below for the
defined restrictions.
Features: <feature-name> [<another-feature-name> ...]
Declares some additional capabilities or good properties of the
tests defined in this stanza. Any unknown features declared will
be completely ignored. See below for the defined features.
Depends: <dpkg dependcy field syntax>
Declares that the specified packages must be installed for the
test to go ahead. `@' stands for the package(s) generated by the
source package containing the tests; each dependency (strictly,
or-clause, which may contain `|'s but not commas) containing `@'
is replicated once for each such binary package, with the binary
package name substituted for each `@' (but normally `@' should
occur only once and without a version restriction).
If no Depends field is present, `Depends: @' is assumed. Note
that the source tree's Build-Dependencies are _not_ necessarily
installed, and if you specify any Depends, no binary packages from
the source are installed unless explicitly requested.
Tests-Directory: <path>
Replaces the path segment `debian/tests' in the filenames of the
test programs with <path>. Ie, the tests are run by executing
/path/to/built/source/tree/<path>/<name-of-test>. <path> must be
a relative path and is interpreted starting from the root of the
built source tree.
This allows tests to live outside the debian/ metadata area, so
that they can more palatably be shared with non-Debian
distributions.
Any unknown fields will cause the whole stanza to be skipped.
The defined Restrictions are:
rw-build-tree
The test(s) needs write access to the built source tree (so it may
need to be copied first). Even with this restriction, the test is
not allowed to make any change to the built source tree which (i)
isn't cleaned up by debian/rules clean, (ii) affects the future
results of any test, or (iii) affects binary packages produced by
the build tree in the future.
breaks-testbed
The test, when run, is liable to break the testbed system. This
includes causing data loss, causing services that the machine is
running to malfunction, or permanently disabling services; it does
not include causing services on the machine to temporarily fail.
When this restriction is present the test will usually be skipped
unless the testbed's virtualisation arrangements are sufficiently
powerful, or alternatively if the user explicitly requests.
needs-root
The test script must be run as root.
The currently defined Features are:
no-build-needed
The tests can run in an unbuilt tree.
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