Writing a LAVA test definition¶
A LAVA Test Job comprises of
- the actions and parameters to setup the test(s)
- the instructions to run as part of the test(s)
For certain tests, the instructions can be included inline with the actions. For more complex tests or to share test definitions across multiple devices, environments and purposes, the test can use a repository of YAML files.
Writing a test definition YAML file¶
The YAML is downloaded from the repository (or handled as an inline) and installed into the test image, either as a single file or as part of a git or bzr repository. (See Test definitions in version control)
Each test definition YAML file contains metadata and instructions. Metadata includes:
- A format string recognised by LAVA
- A short name of the purpose of the file
- A description of the instructions contained in the file.
metadata:
format: Lava-Test Test Definition 1.0
name: singlenode-advanced
description: "Advanced (level 3): single node test commands for Linux Linaro ubuntu Images"
Note
the short name of the purpose of the test definition, i.e., value of field name,
should not contain any non-ascii characters and special characters
from the following list, including white space(s): $& "'`()<>/\|;
If the file is not under version control (i.e. not in a git or bzr repository), the version of the file must also be specified in the metadata:
metadata:
format: Lava-Test Test Definition 1.0
name: singlenode-advanced
description: "Advanced (level 3): single node test commands for Linux Linaro ubuntu Images"
version: "1.0"
There are also optional metadata fields:
- The email address of the maintainer of this file.
- A list of the operating systems which this file can support.
- A list of devices which are expected to be able to run these instructions.
maintainer:
- user.user@linaro.org
os:
- ubuntu
scope:
- functional
devices:
- kvm
- arndale
- panda
- beaglebone-black
- beagle-xm
The instructions within the YAML file can include installation requirements for images based on supported distributions (currently, Ubuntu or Debian):
install:
deps:
- curl
- realpath
- ntpdate
- lsb-release
- usbutils
Note
the test must raise a usable network interface without running any instructions from the rest of the YAML file or the installation will fail. If this is not always possible, raise a network interface manually as a run step and install or build the components directly.
When an external PPA or package repository (specific to debian based distros) is required for installation of packages, it could be added in the install section as follows:
install:
keys:
- 7C751B3F
- 6CCD4038
sources:
- http://security.debian.org
- ppa:linaro-maintainers/tools
deps:
- curl
- ntpdate
- lava-tool
keys refer to the gpg keys that needs to be imported in order to trust a repository that is getting added in the sources section. keys could be either debian keyring packages or gpg security keys (the key server used for importing is pgp.mit.edu) For PPAs (referred from launchpad.net) the keys are automatically imported.
See Debian apt source addition and Ubuntu PPA addition
Note
When a new source is added and there are no ‘deps’ in the ‘install’ section, then it is the users responsibility to run ‘apt-get update’ before attempting an ‘apt-get *’ operation, elsewhere in the test definition.
Note
When keys are not added for an apt source repository referred in sources section the packages may fail to install, if the repository is not trusted. We do not –force-yes during apt-get operation though we pass -y option to apt-get. Hence the user must add the appropriate keys in order to trust the new apt source repository that is added.
The principle purpose of the YAML is to run commands on the device and these are specified in the run steps:
run:
steps:
Writing commands to run on the device¶
All commands need to be executables available on the device. This is why the metadata includes an “os” flag, so that commands specific to that operating system can be accessed.
All tests run in a dedicated working directory. If a repository is used, all files in the repository copy on the device will be in the same directory structure as the repository inside this working directory.
Avoid assumptions about the base system - if a test needs a particular interpreter, executable or environment, ensure that this is available either by using the installation step in the YAML or by building or installing the components as a series of commands in the run steps. Many images will not contain any servers or compilers, many will only have a limited range of interpreters installed and some of those may have reduced functionality.
Keep the YAML files relatively small and clean to promote easier reuse in other tests or devices. It is often better to have many YAML files to be run in sequence than to have a large overly complex YAML file within which some tests will fail due to changed assumptions. e.g. a smoke test YAML file which checks for USB devices is not useful on devices where
lsusb
is not functional. It is much easier to scan through the test results if the baseline for the test is that all tests should be expected to pass on all supported platforms.Avoid use of redirects and pipes inside the run steps. If the command needs to use redirection and/or pipes, use a custom script in your repository and execute that script instead. See Writing custom scripts to support tests
Take care with YAML syntax. These lines will fail with wrong syntax:
- echo "test1: pass" - echo test2: fail
When this syntax will pass:
- echo "test1:" "pass" - echo "test2:" "fail"
Note
Commands must not try to access files from other test definitions. If a script needs to be in multiple tests, either combine the repositories into one or copy the script into multiple repositories. The copy of the script executed will be the one below the working directory of the current test.
Writing custom scripts to support tests¶
When multiple actions are necessary to get usable output, write a custom script to go alongside the YAML and execute that script as a run step:
run:
steps:
- $(./my-script.sh arguments)
You can choose whatever scripting language you prefer, as long as you ensure that it is available in the test image.
Take care when using cd
inside custom scripts - always store the
initial return value or the value of pwd
before the call and change
back to that directory at the end of the script.
Script interpreters¶
- shell - consider running the script with
set -x
to see the operation of the script in the LAVA log files. Ensure that if your script expectsbash
, use the bash shebang line#!/bin/bash
and ensure thatbash
is installed in the test image. The default shell may bebusybox
, so take care with non-POSIX constructs in your shell scripts if you use#!/bin/sh
. - python - ensure that python is installed in the test image. Add all the python dependencies necessary for your script.
- perl - ensure that any modules required by your script are available, bearing in mind that some images may only have the base perl install or a limited selection of modules.
If your YAML file does not reside in a repository, the YAML run steps
will need to ensure that a network interface is raised, install a
tool like wget
and then use that to obtain the script, setting
permissions if appropriate.
Using commands as test cases¶
If all your test does is feed the textual output of commands to the log file, you will spend a lot of time reading log files. To make test results easier to parse, aggregate and compare, individual commands can be converted into test cases with a pass or fail result. The simplest way to do this is to use the exit value of the command. A non-zero exit value is a test case failure. This produces a simple list of passes and failures in the result bundle which can be easily tracked over time.
To use the exit value, simply precede the command with a call to
lava-test-case
with a test-case name (no spaces):
run:
steps:
- lava-test-case test-ls-command --shell ls /usr/bin/sort
- lava-test-case test-ls-fail --shell ls /user/somewhere/else/
Use subshells instead of backticks to execute a command as an argument to another command:
- lava-test-case pointless-example --shell ls $(pwd)
For more on the contents of the YAML file and how to construct YAML for your own tests, see the Introduction to the LAVA Test Developer Guide.
Parsing command outputs¶
If the test involves parsing the output of a command rather than simply relying on the exit value, LAVA can use a pass/fail/skip/unknown output:
run:
steps:
- echo "test1:" "pass"
- echo "test2:" "fail"
- echo "test3:" "skip"
- echo "test4:" "unknown"
The quotes are required to ensure correct YAML parsing.
The parse section can supply a parser to convert the output into test case results:
parse:
pattern: "(?P<test_case_id>.*-*):\\s+(?P<result>(pass|fail))"
The result of the above test would be a result bundle:
test1 -> pass
test2 -> fail
test3 -> pass
test4 -> pass
Recording test case results¶
lava-test-case
can also be used with a parser with the extra
support for checking the exit value of the call:
run:
steps:
- echo "test1:" "pass"
- echo "test2:" "fail"
- lava-test-case echo1 --shell echo "test3:" "pass"
- lava-test-case echo2 --shell echo "test4:" "fail"
This syntax will result in extra test results:
test1 -> pass
test2 -> fail
test3 -> pass
test4 -> fail
echo1 -> pass
echo2 -> pass
Note that echo2
passed because the echo "test4:" "fail"
returned
an exit code of zero.
Alternatively, the --result
command can be used to output the value
to be picked up by the parser:
run:
steps:
- echo "test1:" "pass"
- echo "test2:" "fail"
- lava-test-case test5 --result pass
- lava-test-case test6 --result fail
This syntax will result in the test results:
test1 -> pass
test2 -> fail
test5 -> pass
test6 -> fail
Recording test case measurements and units¶
Various tests require measurements and lava-test-case
supports
measurements and units per test at a precision of 10 digits.
--result
must always be specified.
run:
steps:
- echo "test1:" "pass"
- echo "test2:" "fail"
- lava-test-case test5 --result pass --measurement 99 --units bottles
- lava-test-case test6 --result fail --measurement 0 --units mugs
This syntax will result in the test results:
test1 -> pass
test2 -> fail
test5 -> pass -> 99.0000000000 bottles
test6 -> fail -> 0E-10 mugs
The simplest way to use this with real data is to use a custom script
which runs lava-test-case
with the relevant arguments.
Overwriting units in existing test cases¶
Each time a units is passed to the lava-test-case in this fashion Recording test case measurements and units, the units get overwritten for the test cases if test case with the same name already exists in system. This will cause all previous test results to have the updated units string. To counteract this, you can set the units manually on the test result details page. Setting this unit manually will raise a warning, since this affects all the other test results in the system.
Best practices for writing a LAVA job¶
A LAVA job can consist of several LAVA test definitions and multiple deployments but this flexibility needs to be balanced against the complexity of the job and the ways to analyse the results.
Use different test definitions for different test areas¶
Follow the standard UNIX model of Make each program do one thing well by making a set of test definitions, each of which tests one area of functionality and tests that one area thoroughly.
Use different jobs for different test environments¶
Whilst it is supported to reboot from one distribution and boot into a different one, the usefulness of this is limited because if the first environment fails, the subsequent tests might not run at all.
Use a limited number of test definitions per job¶
Whilst LAVA tries to ensure that all tests are run, endlessly adding test repositories to a single LAVA job only increases the risk that one test will fail in a way that prevents the results from all tests being collected.
Overly long sets of test definitions also increase the complexity of the log files which can make it hard to identify why a particular job failed.
Splitting a large job into smaller chunks also means that the device can run other jobs for other users in between the smaller jobs.