AUTOPKGTEST - DEFINING TESTS FOR PACKAGES
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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.