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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/index.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/index.rst | 40 |
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 15 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/index.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/index.rst index d16a4d2c3a41..e93606ecfb01 100644 --- a/Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/index.rst @@ -17,14 +17,23 @@ What is KUnit? ============== KUnit is a lightweight unit testing and mocking framework for the Linux kernel. -These tests are able to be run locally on a developer's workstation without a VM -or special hardware. KUnit is heavily inspired by JUnit, Python's unittest.mock, and Googletest/Googlemock for C++. KUnit provides facilities for defining unit test cases, grouping related test cases into test suites, providing common infrastructure for running tests, and much more. +KUnit consists of a kernel component, which provides a set of macros for easily +writing unit tests. Tests written against KUnit will run on kernel boot if +built-in, or when loaded if built as a module. These tests write out results to +the kernel log in `TAP <https://testanything.org/>`_ format. + +To make running these tests (and reading the results) easier, KUnit offers +:doc:`kunit_tool <kunit-tool>`, which builds a `User Mode Linux +<http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net>`_ kernel, runs it, and parses the test +results. This provides a quick way of running KUnit tests during development, +without requiring a virtual machine or separate hardware. + Get started now: :doc:`start` Why KUnit? @@ -36,21 +45,20 @@ allow all possible code paths to be tested in the code under test; this is only possible if the code under test is very small and does not have any external dependencies outside of the test's control like hardware. -Outside of KUnit, there are no testing frameworks currently -available for the kernel that do not require installing the kernel on a test -machine or in a VM and all require tests to be written in userspace running on -the kernel; this is true for Autotest, and kselftest, disqualifying -any of them from being considered unit testing frameworks. +KUnit provides a common framework for unit tests within the kernel. + +KUnit tests can be run on most architectures, and most tests are architecture +independent. All built-in KUnit tests run on kernel startup. Alternatively, +KUnit and KUnit tests can be built as modules and tests will run when the test +module is loaded. -KUnit addresses the problem of being able to run tests without needing a virtual -machine or actual hardware with User Mode Linux. User Mode Linux is a Linux -architecture, like ARM or x86; however, unlike other architectures it compiles -to a standalone program that can be run like any other program directly inside -of a host operating system; to be clear, it does not require any virtualization -support; it is just a regular program. +.. note:: -Alternatively, kunit and kunit tests can be built as modules and tests will -run when the test module is loaded. + KUnit can also run tests without needing a virtual machine or actual + hardware under User Mode Linux. User Mode Linux is a Linux architecture, + like ARM or x86, which compiles the kernel as a Linux executable. KUnit + can be used with UML either by building with ``ARCH=um`` (like any other + architecture), or by using :doc:`kunit_tool <kunit-tool>`. KUnit is fast. Excluding build time, from invocation to completion KUnit can run several dozen tests in only 10 to 20 seconds; this might not sound like a big @@ -81,3 +89,5 @@ How do I use it? * :doc:`start` - for new users of KUnit * :doc:`usage` - for a more detailed explanation of KUnit features * :doc:`api/index` - for the list of KUnit APIs used for testing +* :doc:`kunit-tool` - for more information on the kunit_tool helper script +* :doc:`faq` - for answers to some common questions about KUnit |