Autopkgtest - Defining tests for Debian packages
================================================

This document describes how the autopkgtest tester core (the program
``adt-run``) interprets and executes tests found in Debian source
packages.

Overview
--------

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-testbed

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 unpacked but not 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 ``$ADTTMP`` 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).

If tests want to create artifacts which are useful to attach to test
results, such as additional log files or screenshots, they can put them
into the directory specified by the ``$ADT_ARTIFACTS`` environment
variable. When using the ``--output-dir`` option, they will be copied
into ``outputdir/artifacts/``.

Tests must declare all applicable Restrictions - see below.

Control fields
--------------

The fields which may appear in debian/tests/control stanzas are:

Tests: name-of-test [name-of-another-test ...]
    This field names the tests which are defined by this stanza, and map
    to executables/scripts in the test directory. All of the other
    fields in the same stanza apply to all of the named tests. Either
    this field or ``Test-Command:`` must be present.

    Test names are separated by whitespace and should contain only
    characters which are legal in package names. It is permitted, but
    not encouraged, to use upper-case characters as well.

Test-Command: shell command
    If your test only contains a shell command or two, or you want to
    re-use an existing upstream test executable and just need to wrap it
    with some command like ``dbus-launch`` or ``env``, you can use this
    field to specify the shell command directly. It will be run under
    ``bash -e``. This is mutually exclusive with the ``Tests:`` field.

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 dependency field syntax
    Declares that the specified packages must be installed for the test
    to go ahead. This supports all features of dpkg dependencies (see
    https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html),
    plus the following extensions:

    ``@`` 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).

    ``@builddeps@`` will be replaced by the package's
    ``Build-Depends:``, ``Build-Depends-Indep:``, and
    ``build-essential``. This is useful if you have many build
    dependencies which are only necessary for running the test suite and
    you don't want to replicate them in the test ``Depends:``. However,
    please use this sparingly, as this can easily lead to missing binary
    package dependencies being overlooked if they get pulled in via
    build dependencies.

    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``. I. e., the tests are run by executing
    ``built/source/tree/path/testname``. ``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.

Classes: class-1, class-2, ...
    Most package tests should work in a minimal environment and are
    usually not hardware specific. However, some packages like the
    kernel, X.org, or graphics drivers should be tested on particular
    hardware, and also run on a set of different platforms rather than
    just a single virtual testbeds.

    This field can specify a list of abstract class names such as
    "desktop" or "graphics-driver". Consumers of autopkgtest can then
    map these class names to particular machines/platforms/policies.
    Unknown class names should be ignored.

    This is purely an informational field for autopkgtest itself and
    will be ignored.

Any unknown fields will cause the whole stanza to be skipped.

Defined restrictions
--------------------

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.

build-needed
    The tests need to be run from a built source tree. The test runner
    will build the source tree (honouring the source package's build
    dependencies), before running the tests. However, the tests are
    *not* entitled to assume that the source package's build
    dependencies will be installed when the test is run.

    Please use this considerately, as for large builds it unnecessarily
    builds the entire project when you only need a tiny subset (like the
    tests/ subdirectory). It is often possible to run ``make -C tests``
    instead, or copy the test code to ``$ADTTMP`` and build it there
    with some custom commands. This cuts down the load on the Continuous
    Integration servers and also makes tests more robust as it prevents
    accidentally running them against the built source tree instead of
    the installed packages.

allow-stderr
    Output to stderr is not considered a failure. This is useful for
    tests which write e. g. lots of logging to stderr.

isolation-container
    The test wants to start services or open network TCP ports. This
    commonly fails in a simple chroot/schroot, so tests need to be run
    in their own container (e. g. adt-virt-lxc) or their own machine/VM
    (e. g. adt-virt-qemu or adt-virt-null). When running the test in a
    virtualization server which does not provide this (like
    adt-virt-schroot) it will be skipped.

isolation-machine
    The test wants to interact with the kernel, reboot the machine, or
    other things which fail in a simple schroot and even a container.
    Those tests need to be run in their own machine/VM (e. g.
    adt-virt-qemu or adt-virt-null). When running the test in a
    virtualization server which does not provide this it will be
    skipped.

needs-recommends
    Enable installation of recommended packages in apt for the test
    dependencies. This does not affect build dependencies.

Defined features
----------------

There are no currently defined Features.

Source package header
---------------------

To allow test execution environments to discover packages which provide
tests, their source packages should have a ``Testsuite:`` header
containing ``autopkgtest`` (which is currently the only defined value).
Multiple values get comma separated, as usual in control files.

This tag is added automatically by dpkg-source version 1.17.11 or later.
For earlier Debian/Ubuntu releases you need to set it manually in
debian/control by adding

::

    XS-Testsuite: autopkgtest

in the ``Source:`` paragraph.

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