Linux kernel mirror (for testing)
git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
kernel
os
linux
1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3===========
4Using KUnit
5===========
6
7The purpose of this document is to describe what KUnit is, how it works, how it
8is intended to be used, and all the concepts and terminology that are needed to
9understand it. This guide assumes a working knowledge of the Linux kernel and
10some basic knowledge of testing.
11
12For a high level introduction to KUnit, including setting up KUnit for your
13project, see Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/start.rst.
14
15Organization of this document
16=============================
17
18This document is organized into two main sections: Testing and Common Patterns.
19The first covers what unit tests are and how to use KUnit to write them. The
20second covers common testing patterns, e.g. how to isolate code and make it
21possible to unit test code that was otherwise un-unit-testable.
22
23Testing
24=======
25
26What is KUnit?
27--------------
28
29"K" is short for "kernel" so "KUnit" is the "(Linux) Kernel Unit Testing
30Framework." KUnit is intended first and foremost for writing unit tests; it is
31general enough that it can be used to write integration tests; however, this is
32a secondary goal. KUnit has no ambition of being the only testing framework for
33the kernel; for example, it does not intend to be an end-to-end testing
34framework.
35
36What is Unit Testing?
37---------------------
38
39A `unit test <https://martinfowler.com/bliki/UnitTest.html>`_ is a test that
40tests code at the smallest possible scope, a *unit* of code. In the C
41programming language that's a function.
42
43Unit tests should be written for all the publicly exposed functions in a
44compilation unit; so that is all the functions that are exported in either a
45*class* (defined below) or all functions which are **not** static.
46
47Writing Tests
48-------------
49
50Test Cases
51~~~~~~~~~~
52
53The fundamental unit in KUnit is the test case. A test case is a function with
54the signature ``void (*)(struct kunit *test)``. It calls a function to be tested
55and then sets *expectations* for what should happen. For example:
56
57.. code-block:: c
58
59 void example_test_success(struct kunit *test)
60 {
61 }
62
63 void example_test_failure(struct kunit *test)
64 {
65 KUNIT_FAIL(test, "This test never passes.");
66 }
67
68In the above example ``example_test_success`` always passes because it does
69nothing; no expectations are set, so all expectations pass. On the other hand
70``example_test_failure`` always fails because it calls ``KUNIT_FAIL``, which is
71a special expectation that logs a message and causes the test case to fail.
72
73Expectations
74~~~~~~~~~~~~
75An *expectation* is a way to specify that you expect a piece of code to do
76something in a test. An expectation is called like a function. A test is made
77by setting expectations about the behavior of a piece of code under test; when
78one or more of the expectations fail, the test case fails and information about
79the failure is logged. For example:
80
81.. code-block:: c
82
83 void add_test_basic(struct kunit *test)
84 {
85 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 1, add(1, 0));
86 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 2, add(1, 1));
87 }
88
89In the above example ``add_test_basic`` makes a number of assertions about the
90behavior of a function called ``add``; the first parameter is always of type
91``struct kunit *``, which contains information about the current test context;
92the second parameter, in this case, is what the value is expected to be; the
93last value is what the value actually is. If ``add`` passes all of these
94expectations, the test case, ``add_test_basic`` will pass; if any one of these
95expectations fails, the test case will fail.
96
97It is important to understand that a test case *fails* when any expectation is
98violated; however, the test will continue running, potentially trying other
99expectations until the test case ends or is otherwise terminated. This is as
100opposed to *assertions* which are discussed later.
101
102To learn about more expectations supported by KUnit, see
103Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/api/test.rst.
104
105.. note::
106 A single test case should be pretty short, pretty easy to understand,
107 focused on a single behavior.
108
109For example, if we wanted to properly test the add function above, we would
110create additional tests cases which would each test a different property that an
111add function should have like this:
112
113.. code-block:: c
114
115 void add_test_basic(struct kunit *test)
116 {
117 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 1, add(1, 0));
118 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 2, add(1, 1));
119 }
120
121 void add_test_negative(struct kunit *test)
122 {
123 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 0, add(-1, 1));
124 }
125
126 void add_test_max(struct kunit *test)
127 {
128 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, INT_MAX, add(0, INT_MAX));
129 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, -1, add(INT_MAX, INT_MIN));
130 }
131
132 void add_test_overflow(struct kunit *test)
133 {
134 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, INT_MIN, add(INT_MAX, 1));
135 }
136
137Notice how it is immediately obvious what all the properties that we are testing
138for are.
139
140Assertions
141~~~~~~~~~~
142
143KUnit also has the concept of an *assertion*. An assertion is just like an
144expectation except the assertion immediately terminates the test case if it is
145not satisfied.
146
147For example:
148
149.. code-block:: c
150
151 static void mock_test_do_expect_default_return(struct kunit *test)
152 {
153 struct mock_test_context *ctx = test->priv;
154 struct mock *mock = ctx->mock;
155 int param0 = 5, param1 = -5;
156 const char *two_param_types[] = {"int", "int"};
157 const void *two_params[] = {¶m0, ¶m1};
158 const void *ret;
159
160 ret = mock->do_expect(mock,
161 "test_printk", test_printk,
162 two_param_types, two_params,
163 ARRAY_SIZE(two_params));
164 KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ret);
165 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, -4, *((int *) ret));
166 }
167
168In this example, the method under test should return a pointer to a value, so
169if the pointer returned by the method is null or an errno, we don't want to
170bother continuing the test since the following expectation could crash the test
171case. `ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(...)` allows us to bail out of the test case if
172the appropriate conditions have not been satisfied to complete the test.
173
174Test Suites
175~~~~~~~~~~~
176
177Now obviously one unit test isn't very helpful; the power comes from having
178many test cases covering all of a unit's behaviors. Consequently it is common
179to have many *similar* tests; in order to reduce duplication in these closely
180related tests most unit testing frameworks - including KUnit - provide the
181concept of a *test suite*. A *test suite* is just a collection of test cases
182for a unit of code with a set up function that gets invoked before every test
183case and then a tear down function that gets invoked after every test case
184completes.
185
186Example:
187
188.. code-block:: c
189
190 static struct kunit_case example_test_cases[] = {
191 KUNIT_CASE(example_test_foo),
192 KUNIT_CASE(example_test_bar),
193 KUNIT_CASE(example_test_baz),
194 {}
195 };
196
197 static struct kunit_suite example_test_suite = {
198 .name = "example",
199 .init = example_test_init,
200 .exit = example_test_exit,
201 .test_cases = example_test_cases,
202 };
203 kunit_test_suite(example_test_suite);
204
205In the above example the test suite, ``example_test_suite``, would run the test
206cases ``example_test_foo``, ``example_test_bar``, and ``example_test_baz``;
207each would have ``example_test_init`` called immediately before it and would
208have ``example_test_exit`` called immediately after it.
209``kunit_test_suite(example_test_suite)`` registers the test suite with the
210KUnit test framework.
211
212.. note::
213 A test case will only be run if it is associated with a test suite.
214
215``kunit_test_suite(...)`` is a macro which tells the linker to put the specified
216test suite in a special linker section so that it can be run by KUnit either
217after late_init, or when the test module is loaded (depending on whether the
218test was built in or not).
219
220For more information on these types of things see the
221Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/api/test.rst.
222
223Common Patterns
224===============
225
226Isolating Behavior
227------------------
228
229The most important aspect of unit testing that other forms of testing do not
230provide is the ability to limit the amount of code under test to a single unit.
231In practice, this is only possible by being able to control what code gets run
232when the unit under test calls a function and this is usually accomplished
233through some sort of indirection where a function is exposed as part of an API
234such that the definition of that function can be changed without affecting the
235rest of the code base. In the kernel this primarily comes from two constructs,
236classes, structs that contain function pointers that are provided by the
237implementer, and architecture-specific functions which have definitions selected
238at compile time.
239
240Classes
241~~~~~~~
242
243Classes are not a construct that is built into the C programming language;
244however, it is an easily derived concept. Accordingly, pretty much every project
245that does not use a standardized object oriented library (like GNOME's GObject)
246has their own slightly different way of doing object oriented programming; the
247Linux kernel is no exception.
248
249The central concept in kernel object oriented programming is the class. In the
250kernel, a *class* is a struct that contains function pointers. This creates a
251contract between *implementers* and *users* since it forces them to use the
252same function signature without having to call the function directly. In order
253for it to truly be a class, the function pointers must specify that a pointer
254to the class, known as a *class handle*, be one of the parameters; this makes
255it possible for the member functions (also known as *methods*) to have access
256to member variables (more commonly known as *fields*) allowing the same
257implementation to have multiple *instances*.
258
259Typically a class can be *overridden* by *child classes* by embedding the
260*parent class* in the child class. Then when a method provided by the child
261class is called, the child implementation knows that the pointer passed to it is
262of a parent contained within the child; because of this, the child can compute
263the pointer to itself because the pointer to the parent is always a fixed offset
264from the pointer to the child; this offset is the offset of the parent contained
265in the child struct. For example:
266
267.. code-block:: c
268
269 struct shape {
270 int (*area)(struct shape *this);
271 };
272
273 struct rectangle {
274 struct shape parent;
275 int length;
276 int width;
277 };
278
279 int rectangle_area(struct shape *this)
280 {
281 struct rectangle *self = container_of(this, struct shape, parent);
282
283 return self->length * self->width;
284 };
285
286 void rectangle_new(struct rectangle *self, int length, int width)
287 {
288 self->parent.area = rectangle_area;
289 self->length = length;
290 self->width = width;
291 }
292
293In this example (as in most kernel code) the operation of computing the pointer
294to the child from the pointer to the parent is done by ``container_of``.
295
296Faking Classes
297~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
298
299In order to unit test a piece of code that calls a method in a class, the
300behavior of the method must be controllable, otherwise the test ceases to be a
301unit test and becomes an integration test.
302
303A fake just provides an implementation of a piece of code that is different than
304what runs in a production instance, but behaves identically from the standpoint
305of the callers; this is usually done to replace a dependency that is hard to
306deal with, or is slow.
307
308A good example for this might be implementing a fake EEPROM that just stores the
309"contents" in an internal buffer. For example, let's assume we have a class that
310represents an EEPROM:
311
312.. code-block:: c
313
314 struct eeprom {
315 ssize_t (*read)(struct eeprom *this, size_t offset, char *buffer, size_t count);
316 ssize_t (*write)(struct eeprom *this, size_t offset, const char *buffer, size_t count);
317 };
318
319And we want to test some code that buffers writes to the EEPROM:
320
321.. code-block:: c
322
323 struct eeprom_buffer {
324 ssize_t (*write)(struct eeprom_buffer *this, const char *buffer, size_t count);
325 int flush(struct eeprom_buffer *this);
326 size_t flush_count; /* Flushes when buffer exceeds flush_count. */
327 };
328
329 struct eeprom_buffer *new_eeprom_buffer(struct eeprom *eeprom);
330 void destroy_eeprom_buffer(struct eeprom *eeprom);
331
332We can easily test this code by *faking out* the underlying EEPROM:
333
334.. code-block:: c
335
336 struct fake_eeprom {
337 struct eeprom parent;
338 char contents[FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE];
339 };
340
341 ssize_t fake_eeprom_read(struct eeprom *parent, size_t offset, char *buffer, size_t count)
342 {
343 struct fake_eeprom *this = container_of(parent, struct fake_eeprom, parent);
344
345 count = min(count, FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE - offset);
346 memcpy(buffer, this->contents + offset, count);
347
348 return count;
349 }
350
351 ssize_t fake_eeprom_write(struct eeprom *parent, size_t offset, const char *buffer, size_t count)
352 {
353 struct fake_eeprom *this = container_of(parent, struct fake_eeprom, parent);
354
355 count = min(count, FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE - offset);
356 memcpy(this->contents + offset, buffer, count);
357
358 return count;
359 }
360
361 void fake_eeprom_init(struct fake_eeprom *this)
362 {
363 this->parent.read = fake_eeprom_read;
364 this->parent.write = fake_eeprom_write;
365 memset(this->contents, 0, FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE);
366 }
367
368We can now use it to test ``struct eeprom_buffer``:
369
370.. code-block:: c
371
372 struct eeprom_buffer_test {
373 struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom;
374 struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer;
375 };
376
377 static void eeprom_buffer_test_does_not_write_until_flush(struct kunit *test)
378 {
379 struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
380 struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer = ctx->eeprom_buffer;
381 struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom = ctx->fake_eeprom;
382 char buffer[] = {0xff};
383
384 eeprom_buffer->flush_count = SIZE_MAX;
385
386 eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
387 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0);
388
389 eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
390 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0);
391
392 eeprom_buffer->flush(eeprom_buffer);
393 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0xff);
394 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0xff);
395 }
396
397 static void eeprom_buffer_test_flushes_after_flush_count_met(struct kunit *test)
398 {
399 struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
400 struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer = ctx->eeprom_buffer;
401 struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom = ctx->fake_eeprom;
402 char buffer[] = {0xff};
403
404 eeprom_buffer->flush_count = 2;
405
406 eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
407 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0);
408
409 eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
410 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0xff);
411 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0xff);
412 }
413
414 static void eeprom_buffer_test_flushes_increments_of_flush_count(struct kunit *test)
415 {
416 struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
417 struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer = ctx->eeprom_buffer;
418 struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom = ctx->fake_eeprom;
419 char buffer[] = {0xff, 0xff};
420
421 eeprom_buffer->flush_count = 2;
422
423 eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
424 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0);
425
426 eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 2);
427 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0xff);
428 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0xff);
429 /* Should have only flushed the first two bytes. */
430 KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[2], 0);
431 }
432
433 static int eeprom_buffer_test_init(struct kunit *test)
434 {
435 struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx;
436
437 ctx = kunit_kzalloc(test, sizeof(*ctx), GFP_KERNEL);
438 KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ctx);
439
440 ctx->fake_eeprom = kunit_kzalloc(test, sizeof(*ctx->fake_eeprom), GFP_KERNEL);
441 KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ctx->fake_eeprom);
442 fake_eeprom_init(ctx->fake_eeprom);
443
444 ctx->eeprom_buffer = new_eeprom_buffer(&ctx->fake_eeprom->parent);
445 KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ctx->eeprom_buffer);
446
447 test->priv = ctx;
448
449 return 0;
450 }
451
452 static void eeprom_buffer_test_exit(struct kunit *test)
453 {
454 struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
455
456 destroy_eeprom_buffer(ctx->eeprom_buffer);
457 }
458
459Testing against multiple inputs
460-------------------------------
461
462Testing just a few inputs might not be enough to have confidence that the code
463works correctly, e.g. for a hash function.
464
465In such cases, it can be helpful to have a helper macro or function, e.g. this
466fictitious example for ``sha1sum(1)``
467
468.. code-block:: c
469
470 #define TEST_SHA1(in, want) \
471 sha1sum(in, out); \
472 KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG(test, out, want, "sha1sum(%s)", in);
473
474 char out[40];
475 TEST_SHA1("hello world", "2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed");
476 TEST_SHA1("hello world!", "430ce34d020724ed75a196dfc2ad67c77772d169");
477
478
479Note the use of ``KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG`` to give more context when it fails
480and make it easier to track down. (Yes, in this example, ``want`` is likely
481going to be unique enough on its own).
482
483The ``_MSG`` variants are even more useful when the same expectation is called
484multiple times (in a loop or helper function) and thus the line number isn't
485enough to identify what failed, like below.
486
487In some cases, it can be helpful to write a *table-driven test* instead, e.g.
488
489.. code-block:: c
490
491 int i;
492 char out[40];
493
494 struct sha1_test_case {
495 const char *str;
496 const char *sha1;
497 };
498
499 struct sha1_test_case cases[] = {
500 {
501 .str = "hello world",
502 .sha1 = "2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed",
503 },
504 {
505 .str = "hello world!",
506 .sha1 = "430ce34d020724ed75a196dfc2ad67c77772d169",
507 },
508 };
509 for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(cases); ++i) {
510 sha1sum(cases[i].str, out);
511 KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG(test, out, cases[i].sha1,
512 "sha1sum(%s)", cases[i].str);
513 }
514
515
516There's more boilerplate involved, but it can:
517
518* be more readable when there are multiple inputs/outputs thanks to field names,
519
520 * E.g. see ``fs/ext4/inode-test.c`` for an example of both.
521* reduce duplication if test cases can be shared across multiple tests.
522
523 * E.g. if we wanted to also test ``sha256sum``, we could add a ``sha256``
524 field and reuse ``cases``.
525
526* be converted to a "parameterized test", see below.
527
528Parameterized Testing
529~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
530
531The table-driven testing pattern is common enough that KUnit has special
532support for it.
533
534Reusing the same ``cases`` array from above, we can write the test as a
535"parameterized test" with the following.
536
537.. code-block:: c
538
539 // This is copy-pasted from above.
540 struct sha1_test_case {
541 const char *str;
542 const char *sha1;
543 };
544 struct sha1_test_case cases[] = {
545 {
546 .str = "hello world",
547 .sha1 = "2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed",
548 },
549 {
550 .str = "hello world!",
551 .sha1 = "430ce34d020724ed75a196dfc2ad67c77772d169",
552 },
553 };
554
555 // Need a helper function to generate a name for each test case.
556 static void case_to_desc(const struct sha1_test_case *t, char *desc)
557 {
558 strcpy(desc, t->str);
559 }
560 // Creates `sha1_gen_params()` to iterate over `cases`.
561 KUNIT_ARRAY_PARAM(sha1, cases, case_to_desc);
562
563 // Looks no different from a normal test.
564 static void sha1_test(struct kunit *test)
565 {
566 // This function can just contain the body of the for-loop.
567 // The former `cases[i]` is accessible under test->param_value.
568 char out[40];
569 struct sha1_test_case *test_param = (struct sha1_test_case *)(test->param_value);
570
571 sha1sum(test_param->str, out);
572 KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG(test, out, test_param->sha1,
573 "sha1sum(%s)", test_param->str);
574 }
575
576 // Instead of KUNIT_CASE, we use KUNIT_CASE_PARAM and pass in the
577 // function declared by KUNIT_ARRAY_PARAM.
578 static struct kunit_case sha1_test_cases[] = {
579 KUNIT_CASE_PARAM(sha1_test, sha1_gen_params),
580 {}
581 };
582
583.. _kunit-on-non-uml:
584
585KUnit on non-UML architectures
586==============================
587
588By default KUnit uses UML as a way to provide dependencies for code under test.
589Under most circumstances KUnit's usage of UML should be treated as an
590implementation detail of how KUnit works under the hood. Nevertheless, there
591are instances where being able to run architecture-specific code or test
592against real hardware is desirable. For these reasons KUnit supports running on
593other architectures.
594
595Running existing KUnit tests on non-UML architectures
596-----------------------------------------------------
597
598There are some special considerations when running existing KUnit tests on
599non-UML architectures:
600
601* Hardware may not be deterministic, so a test that always passes or fails
602 when run under UML may not always do so on real hardware.
603* Hardware and VM environments may not be hermetic. KUnit tries its best to
604 provide a hermetic environment to run tests; however, it cannot manage state
605 that it doesn't know about outside of the kernel. Consequently, tests that
606 may be hermetic on UML may not be hermetic on other architectures.
607* Some features and tooling may not be supported outside of UML.
608* Hardware and VMs are slower than UML.
609
610None of these are reasons not to run your KUnit tests on real hardware; they are
611only things to be aware of when doing so.
612
613Currently, the KUnit Wrapper (``tools/testing/kunit/kunit.py``) (aka
614kunit_tool) only fully supports running tests inside of UML and QEMU; however,
615this is only due to our own time limitations as humans working on KUnit. It is
616entirely possible to support other emulators and even actual hardware, but for
617now QEMU and UML is what is fully supported within the KUnit Wrapper. Again, to
618be clear, this is just the Wrapper. The actualy KUnit tests and the KUnit
619library they are written in is fully architecture agnostic and can be used in
620virtually any setup, you just won't have the benefit of typing a single command
621out of the box and having everything magically work perfectly.
622
623Again, all core KUnit framework features are fully supported on all
624architectures, and using them is straightforward: Most popular architectures
625are supported directly in the KUnit Wrapper via QEMU. Currently, supported
626architectures on QEMU include:
627
628* i386
629* x86_64
630* arm
631* arm64
632* alpha
633* powerpc
634* riscv
635* s390
636* sparc
637
638In order to run KUnit tests on one of these architectures via QEMU with the
639KUnit wrapper, all you need to do is specify the flags ``--arch`` and
640``--cross_compile`` when invoking the KUnit Wrapper. For example, we could run
641the default KUnit tests on ARM in the following manner (assuming we have an ARM
642toolchain installed):
643
644.. code-block:: bash
645
646 tools/testing/kunit/kunit.py run --timeout=60 --jobs=12 --arch=arm --cross_compile=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
647
648Alternatively, if you want to run your tests on real hardware or in some other
649emulation environment, all you need to do is to take your kunitconfig, your
650Kconfig options for the tests you would like to run, and merge them into
651whatever config your are using for your platform. That's it!
652
653For example, let's say you have the following kunitconfig:
654
655.. code-block:: none
656
657 CONFIG_KUNIT=y
658 CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=y
659
660If you wanted to run this test on an x86 VM, you might add the following config
661options to your ``.config``:
662
663.. code-block:: none
664
665 CONFIG_KUNIT=y
666 CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=y
667 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250=y
668 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_CONSOLE=y
669
670All these new options do is enable support for a common serial console needed
671for logging.
672
673Next, you could build a kernel with these tests as follows:
674
675
676.. code-block:: bash
677
678 make ARCH=x86 olddefconfig
679 make ARCH=x86
680
681Once you have built a kernel, you could run it on QEMU as follows:
682
683.. code-block:: bash
684
685 qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
686 -m 1024 \
687 -kernel arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage \
688 -append 'console=ttyS0' \
689 --nographic
690
691Interspersed in the kernel logs you might see the following:
692
693.. code-block:: none
694
695 TAP version 14
696 # Subtest: example
697 1..1
698 # example_simple_test: initializing
699 ok 1 - example_simple_test
700 ok 1 - example
701
702Congratulations, you just ran a KUnit test on the x86 architecture!
703
704In a similar manner, kunit and kunit tests can also be built as modules,
705so if you wanted to run tests in this way you might add the following config
706options to your ``.config``:
707
708.. code-block:: none
709
710 CONFIG_KUNIT=m
711 CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=m
712
713Once the kernel is built and installed, a simple
714
715.. code-block:: bash
716
717 modprobe example-test
718
719...will run the tests.
720
721.. note::
722 Note that you should make sure your test depends on ``KUNIT=y`` in Kconfig
723 if the test does not support module build. Otherwise, it will trigger
724 compile errors if ``CONFIG_KUNIT`` is ``m``.
725
726Writing new tests for other architectures
727-----------------------------------------
728
729The first thing you must do is ask yourself whether it is necessary to write a
730KUnit test for a specific architecture, and then whether it is necessary to
731write that test for a particular piece of hardware. In general, writing a test
732that depends on having access to a particular piece of hardware or software (not
733included in the Linux source repo) should be avoided at all costs.
734
735Even if you only ever plan on running your KUnit test on your hardware
736configuration, other people may want to run your tests and may not have access
737to your hardware. If you write your test to run on UML, then anyone can run your
738tests without knowing anything about your particular setup, and you can still
739run your tests on your hardware setup just by compiling for your architecture.
740
741.. important::
742 Always prefer tests that run on UML to tests that only run under a particular
743 architecture, and always prefer tests that run under QEMU or another easy
744 (and monetarily free) to obtain software environment to a specific piece of
745 hardware.
746
747Nevertheless, there are still valid reasons to write an architecture or hardware
748specific test: for example, you might want to test some code that really belongs
749in ``arch/some-arch/*``. Even so, try your best to write the test so that it
750does not depend on physical hardware: if some of your test cases don't need the
751hardware, only require the hardware for tests that actually need it.
752
753Now that you have narrowed down exactly what bits are hardware specific, the
754actual procedure for writing and running the tests is pretty much the same as
755writing normal KUnit tests. One special caveat is that you have to reset
756hardware state in between test cases; if this is not possible, you may only be
757able to run one test case per invocation.
758
759.. TODO(brendanhiggins@google.com): Add an actual example of an architecture-
760 dependent KUnit test.
761
762KUnit debugfs representation
763============================
764When kunit test suites are initialized, they create an associated directory
765in ``/sys/kernel/debug/kunit/<test-suite>``. The directory contains one file
766
767- results: "cat results" displays results of each test case and the results
768 of the entire suite for the last test run.
769
770The debugfs representation is primarily of use when kunit test suites are
771run in a native environment, either as modules or builtin. Having a way
772to display results like this is valuable as otherwise results can be
773intermixed with other events in dmesg output. The maximum size of each
774results file is KUNIT_LOG_SIZE bytes (defined in ``include/kunit/test.h``).