Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/faq.rst

.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0

==========================
Frequently Asked Questions
==========================

How is this different from Autotest, kselftest, and so on?
==========================================================
KUnit is a unit testing framework. Autotest, kselftest (and some others) are
not.

A `unit test <https://martinfowler.com/bliki/UnitTest.html>`_ is supposed to
test a single unit of code in isolation and hence the name *unit test*. A unit
test should be the finest granularity of testing and should allow all possible
code paths to be tested in the code under test. This is only possible if the
code under test is small and does not have any external dependencies outside of
the test's control like hardware.

There are no testing frameworks currently available for the kernel that do not
require installing the kernel on a test machine or in a virtual machine. All
testing frameworks require tests to be written in userspace and run on the
kernel under test. This is true for Autotest, kselftest, and some others,
disqualifying any of them from being considered unit testing frameworks.

Does KUnit support running on architectures other than UML?
===========================================================

Yes. KUnit can run on any architecture, though the kunit.py tool can only
build and run kernels for some architectures (of which UML is the default).

You can build and run tests without kunit.py at all on any architecture by
enabling ``CONFIG_KUNIT=y`` and booting the kernel.
See Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/run_manual.rst for more details.

Alternatively, kunit.py supports many common architectures using
cross-compilers and the qemu emulator. This can be done using the ``--arch``
parameter when running the tests, and the ``--cross_compile`` parameter
when building (if the architecture is not supported by the host compiler).
See :ref:`kunit-on-qemu` for more details.

When writing tests targeting other architectures, it's worth keeping the tips
on the :ref:`kunit-on-non-uml` page in mind.

.. _kinds-of-tests:

What is the difference between a unit test and other kinds of tests?
====================================================================
Most existing tests for the Linux kernel would be categorized as an integration
test, or an end-to-end test.

- A unit test is supposed to test a single unit of code in isolation. A unit
  test should be the finest granularity of testing and, as such, allows all
  possible code paths to be tested in the code under test. This is only possible
  if the code under test is small and does not have any external dependencies
  outside of the test's control like hardware.
- An integration test tests the interaction between a minimal set of components,
  usually just two or three. For example, someone might write an integration
  test to test the interaction between a driver and a piece of hardware, or to
  test the interaction between the userspace libraries the kernel provides and
  the kernel itself. However, one of these tests would probably not test the
  entire kernel along with hardware interactions and interactions with the
  userspace.
- An end-to-end test usually tests the entire system from the perspective of the
  code under test. For example, someone might write an end-to-end test for the
  kernel by installing a production configuration of the kernel on production
  hardware with a production userspace and then trying to exercise some behavior
  that depends on interactions between the hardware, the kernel, and userspace.

KUnit is not working, what should I do?
=======================================

Unfortunately, there are a number of things which can break, but here are some
things to try.

1. Run ``./tools/testing/kunit/kunit.py run`` with the ``--raw_output``
   parameter. This might show details or error messages hidden by the kunit_tool
   parser.
2. Instead of running ``kunit.py run``, try running ``kunit.py config``,
   ``kunit.py build``, and ``kunit.py exec`` independently. This can help track
   down where an issue is occurring. (If you think the parser is at fault, you
   can run it manually against ``stdin`` or a file with ``kunit.py parse``.)
3. Running the UML kernel directly can often reveal issues or error messages,
   ``kunit_tool`` ignores. This should be as simple as runningi the ``vmlinux``
   binary in the output directory (by default ``./.kunit/vmlinux``) after
   building the UML kernel (for example, by using ``kunit.py build``).
   Note that UML has some unusual requirements (such as the host having a tmpfs
   filesystem mounted), and has had issues in the past when built statically and
   the host has KASLR enabled. (On older host kernels, you may need to run
   ``setarch `uname -m` -R ./vmlinux`` to disable KASLR.)
4. Try running KUnit on a different architecture by using the ``--arch``
   option. On an x86_64 host, using ``--arch=x86_64`` is a good first step.
5. Make sure the kernel .config has ``CONFIG_KUNIT=y`` and at least one test
   (e.g. ``CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=y``). kunit_tool will keep its .config
   around, so you can see what config was used after running ``kunit.py run``.
   It also preserves any config changes you might make, so you can
   enable/disable things with ``make ARCH=um menuconfig`` or similar, and then
   re-run kunit_tool.
6. Try to run ``make ARCH=um defconfig`` before running ``kunit.py run``. This
   may help clean up any residual config items which could be causing problems.
7. Finally, try running KUnit manually, instead of via ``kunit.py``. KUnit can
   be built into any kernel, or can be built as a module and loaded at runtime.
   When tests are built-in, they will execute when the kernel boots, and
   modules will automatically execute associated tests when loaded. Test results
   can be collected from ``/sys/kernel/debug/kunit/<test suite>/results``, and
   can be parsed with ``kunit.py parse``. For more details, see
   Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/run_manual.rst

If none of the above tricks help, you are always welcome to email any issues to
kunit-dev@googlegroups.com.