# Autopkgtest - Defining tests for Debian packages

This document describes how autopkgtest interprets and executes tests found in Debian source packages.

# Overview

The source package provides a test metadata file `debian/tests/control`. This enumerates the tests and specifies their dependencies and requirements for the testbed. It contains zero or more RFC822-style stanzas, along these lines:

    Tests: fred, bill, bongo
    Depends: pkg1, pkg2 [amd64] | pkg3 (>= 3)
    Restrictions: needs-root, breaks-testbed

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 unpacked but not built. However note that the tests must test the installed version of the package, as opposed to programs or any other file from the built tree. 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 `$AUTOPKGTEST_TMP` 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 can expect that the `$HOME` environment variable to be set to a directory that exists and is writeable by the user running the test. Tests should not make configuration changes in `$HOME`, or other destructive changes, unless they declare `breaks-testbed`, `isolation-machine`, or `isolation-container`.

If tests want to create artifacts which are useful to attach to test results, such as additional log files or screenshots, they can put them into the directory specified by the `$AUTOPKGTEST_ARTIFACTS` environment variable. When using the `--output-dir` option, they will be copied into `outputdir/artifacts/<test-name>/`.

If the test case declares the `isolation-machine` or `isolation-container` restriction, `$AUTOPKGTEST_ARTIFACTS` will be world-writeable.

Since autopkgtest version 5.43, the architecture of the packages that are being tested is made available in the test environment via the `AUTOPKGTEST_TEST_ARCH` environment variable, while the testbed architecture is made available via `AUTOPKGTEST_TESTBED_ARCH`. See the `Foreign architecture testing` section for more information on the scenario where these two architectures are different.

Tests must declare all applicable Restrictions - see below.

The '#' character introduces a comment. Everything from '#' to the end of line will be entirely ignored.

# Examples

Simplest possible control file that installs all of the source package's binary packages and runs the standalone `debian/tests/smoke` test script as user, without any further limitations:

    Tests: smoke

Control file for an inline test command that just calls a program `foo-cli` from package `foo` (which usually should be a binary of the source package that contains this test control) as root, and makes sure it exits with zero:

    Test-Command: foo-cli --list --verbose
    Depends: foo
    Restrictions: needs-root

# Control fields

The fields which may appear in debian/tests/control stanzas are:

Tests: name-of-test [, name-of-another-test ...]

  This field names the tests which are defined by this stanza, and map to executables/scripts in the test directory. All of the other fields in the same stanza apply to all of the named tests. Either this field or `Test-Command:` must be present.

  Test names are separated by comma and/or whitespace and should contain only characters which are legal in package names. It is permitted, but not encouraged, to use upper-case characters as well.

Test-Command: shell command

  If your test only contains a shell command or two, or you want to reuse an existing upstream test executable and just need to wrap it with some command like `dbus-launch` or `env`, you can use this field to specify the shell command directly. It will be run under `bash -e`. This is mutually exclusive with the `Tests:` field.

  This is also useful for running the same script under different interpreters and/or with different dependencies, such as `Test-Command: python debian/tests/mytest.py` and `Test-Command: python3 debian/tests/mytest.py`.

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.

  Restrictions are separated by commas and/or whitespace.

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.

  Features are separated by commas and/or whitespace.

Depends: dpkg dependency field syntax

  Declares that the specified packages must be installed for the test to go ahead. This supports all features of dpkg dependencies, including the architecture qualifiers (see https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html), plus the following extensions:

  `@` 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).

  `@builddeps@` will be replaced by the package's `Build-Depends:`, `Build-Depends-Indep:`, `Build-Depends-Arch:`, and `build-essential`. This is useful if you have many build dependencies which are only necessary for running the test suite and you don't want to replicate them in the test `Depends:`. However, please use this sparingly, as this can easily lead to missing binary package dependencies being overlooked if they get pulled in via build dependencies.

  `@recommends@` stands for all the packages listed in the `Recommends:` fields of all the binary packages mentioned in the `debian/control` file. Please note that variables are stripped, so if some required test dependencies aren't explicitly mentioned, they may not be installed.

  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.

  See the `Foreign architecture testing` section for more information on how the dependencies are interpreted when testing a non-primary architecture.

Tests-Directory: path

  Replaces the path segment `debian/tests` in the filenames of the test programs with `path`. I. e., the tests are run by executing `built/source/tree/path/testname`. `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.

Classes: class-1 [, class-2 ...]

  Most package tests should work in a minimal environment and are usually not hardware specific. However, some packages like the kernel, X.org, or graphics drivers should be tested on particular hardware, and also run on a set of different platforms rather than just a single virtual testbeds.

  This field can specify a list of abstract class names such as "desktop" or "graphics-driver". Consumers of autopkgtest can then map these class names to particular machines/platforms/policies. Unknown class names should be ignored.

  This is purely an informational field for autopkgtest itself and will be ignored.

  Classes are separated by commas and/or whitespace.

Architecture: dpkg architecture field syntax
  When package tests are only supported on a limited set of architectures, or are known to not work on a particular (set of) architecture(s), this field can be used to define the supported architectures. The autopkgtest will be skipped when the architecture of the testbed doesn't match the content of this field. The format is the same as in (Build-)Depends, excluding the square brackets `[ ]`, with the understanding that `all` is not allowed, and `any` means that the test will be run on every architecture, which is the default when not specifying this field at all.

Any unknown fields will cause the whole stanza to be skipped.

# Defined restrictions

allow-stderr
  Output to stderr is not considered a failure. This is useful for tests which write e. g. lots of logging to stderr.
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.

build-needed

  The tests need to be run from a built source tree. The test runner will build the source tree (honouring the source package's build dependencies), before running the tests and with the `nocheck` profile enabled. However, the tests are not entitled to assume that the source package's build dependencies will be installed when the test is run.

  Please use this considerately, as for large builds it unnecessarily builds the entire project when you only need a tiny subset (like the tests/ subdirectory). It is often possible to run `make -C tests` instead, or copy the test code to `$AUTOPKGTEST_TMP` and build it there with some custom commands. This cuts down the load on the Continuous Integration servers and also makes tests more robust as it prevents accidentally running them against the built source tree instead of the installed packages.

flaky
  The test is expected to fail intermittently, and is not suitable for gating continuous integration. This indicates a bug in either the package under test, a dependency or the test itself, but such bugs can be difficult to fix, and it is often difficult to know when the bug has been fixed without running the test for a while. If a `flaky` test succeeds, it will be treated like any other successful test, but if it fails it will be treated as though it had been skipped.
hint-testsuite-triggers

  This test exists purely as a hint to suggest when rerunning the tests is likely to be useful. Specifically, it exists to influence the way dpkg-source generates the Testsuite-Triggers .dsc header from test metadata: the Depends for this test are to be added to Testsuite-Triggers. (Just as they are for any other test.)

  The test with the hint-testsuite-triggers restriction should not actually be run.

  The packages listed as Depends for this test are usually indirect dependencies, updates to which are considered to pose a risk of regressions in other tests defined in this package.

  There is currently no way to specify this hint on a per-test basis; but in any case the debian.org machinery is not able to think about triggering individual tests.

isolation-container

  The test wants to start services or open network TCP ports. This commonly fails in a simple chroot/schroot, so tests need to be run in their own container (e. g. autopkgtest-virt-lxc) or their own machine/VM (e. g. autopkgtest-virt-qemu). When running the test in a virtualization server which does not provide this (like autopkgtest-schroot) it will be skipped.

  Tests may assume that this restriction implies that process 1 in the container's process namespace is a system service manager (init system) such as systemd or sysvinit + sysv-rc, and therefore system services are available via the `service(8)`, `invoke-rc.d(8)` and `update-rc.d(8))` interfaces.

  Tests must not assume that a specific init system is in use: a dependency such as `systemd-sysv` or `sysvinit-core` does not work in practice, because switching the init system often cannot be done automatically. Tests that require a specific init system should use the `skippable` restriction, and skip the test if the required init system was not detected.

  Many implementations of the `isolation-container` restriction will also provide `systemd-logind(8)` or a compatible interface, but this is not guaranteed. Tests requiring a login session registered with logind should declare a dependency on `default-logind | logind` or on a more specific implementation of `logind`, and should use the `skippable` restriction to exit gracefully if its functionality is not available at runtime.

isolation-machine

  The test wants to interact with the kernel, reboot the machine, or other things which fail in a simple schroot and even a container. Those tests need to be run in their own machine/VM (e. g. autopkgtest-virt-qemu). When running the test in a virtualization server which does not provide this it will be skipped.

  This restriction also provides the same facilities as `isolation-container`.

needs-internet
  The test needs unrestricted internet access, e.g. to download test data that's not shipped as a package, or to test a protocol implementation against a test server. Please also see the note about Network access later in this document.
needs-reboot
  The test wants to reboot the machine using `/tmp/autopkgtest-reboot` (see below).
needs-recommends (deprecated)
  Please use `@recommends@` in your test `Depends:` instead.
needs-root

  The test script must be run as root.

  While running tests with this restriction, some test runners will set the `AUTOPKGTEST_NORMAL_USER` environment variable to the name of an ordinary user account. If so, the test script may drop privileges from root to that user, for example via the `runuser` command. Test scripts must not assume that this environment variable will always be set.

  For tests that declare both the `needs-root` and `isolation-machine` restrictions, the test may assume that it has "global root" with full control over the kernel that is running the test, and not just root in a container (more formally, it has uid 0 and full capabilities in the initial user namespace as defined in `user_namespaces(7)`). For example, it can expect that mounting block devices will succeed.

  For tests that declare the `needs-root` restriction but not the `isolation-machine` restriction, the test will be run as uid 0 in a user namespace with a reasonable range of system and user uids available, but will not necessarily have full control over the kernel, and in particular it is not guaranteed to have elevated capabilities in the initial user namespace as defined by `user_namespaces(7)`. For example, it might be run in a namespace where uid 0 is mapped to an ordinary uid in the initial user namespace, or it might run in a Docker-style container where global uid 0 is used but its ability to carry out operations that affect the whole system is restricted by capabilities and system call filtering. Tests requiring particular privileges should use the `skippable` restriction to check for required functionality at runtime.

needs-sudo

  The test script needs to be run as a non-root user who is a member of the `sudo` group, and has the ability to elevate privileges to root on-demand.

  This is useful for testing user components which should not normally be run as root, in test scenarios that require configuring a system service to support the test. For example, gvfs has a test-case which uses sudo for privileged configuration of a Samba server, so that the unprivileged gvfs service under test can communicate with that server.

  While running a test with this restriction, `sudo(8)` will be installed and configured to allow members of the `sudo` group to run any command without password authentication.

  Because the test user is a member of the `sudo` group, they will also gain the ability to take any other privileged actions that are controlled by membership in that group. In particular, several packages install `polkit(8)` policies allowing members of group `sudo` to take administrative actions with or without authentication.

  If the test requires access to additional privileged actions, it may use its access to `sudo(8)` to install additional configuration files, for example configuring `polkit(8)` or `doas.conf(5)` to allow running `pkexec(1)` or `doas(1)` without authentication.

  Commands run via `sudo(8)` or another privilege-elevation tool could be run with either "global root" or root in a container, depending on the presence or absence of the `isolation-machine` restriction, in the same way described for `needs-root`.

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.
skip-foreign-architecture
  Skip the test when the test architecture is a foreign architecture. See the `Foreign architecture testing` section for more information on this test mode.
skip-not-installable (deprecated)
  This restriction may cause a test to miss a regression due to installability issues. If one wants to skip certain architectures, use the `Architecture` field for that.
skippable
  The test might need to be skipped for reasons that cannot be described by an existing restriction such as isolation-machine or breaks-testbed, but must instead be detected at runtime. If the test exits with status 77 (a convention borrowed from Automake), it will be treated as though it had been skipped. If it exits with any other status, its success or failure will be derived from the exit status and stderr as usual. Test authors must be careful to ensure that `skippable` tests never exit with status 77 for reasons that should be treated as a failure.
superficial

  The test does not provide significant test coverage, so if it passes, that does not necessarily mean that the package under test is actually functional. If a `superficial` test fails, it will be treated like any other failing test, but if it succeeds, this is only a weak indication of success. Continuous integration systems should treat a package where all non-superficial tests are skipped as equivalent to a package where all tests are skipped.

  For example, a C library might have a superficial test that simply compiles, links and executes a "hello world" program against the library under test but does not attempt to make use of the library's functionality, while a Python or Perl library might have a superficial test that runs `import foo` or `require Foo;` but does not attempt to use the library beyond that.

# Defined features

test-name
  Set an explicit test name for the log heading and the `summary` file for a `Test-Command:` inline test. When not given, these are enumerated like `command1`. Syntax: `test-name=my-test-name` (no spaces or commas allowed).

# Source package header

To allow test execution environments to discover packages which provide tests, their source packages need to have a `Testsuite:` header containing `autopkgtest` (or a value like `autopkgtest-pkg-perl`, see below). Multiple values are comma separated, as usual in control files, and this is intended to result in multiple testsuites being run (as of 2025 this does not yet work due to an `autodep8` limitation). If the source package has a `debian/tests/control` file, then `autopkgtest` is automatically added to the list of testsuites; in many cases you can therefore leave this header field out.

# Automatic test control file for known package types

There are groups of similarly-structured packages for which the contents of `debian/tests/control` would be mostly identical, such as Perl or Ruby libraries. If `debian/tests/control` is absent, the `autodep8` tool can generate an automatic control file. If installed, `autopkgtest` will automatically use it; this can be disabled with the `--no-auto-control` option.

Those packages do not have to provide `debian/tests/`, but they should still include an appropriate source package header (`Testsuite: autopkgtest-pkg-perl` or similar) so that they can be discovered in the archive. Note that adding `Testsuite: autopkgtest-pkg-perl` to a package which has a `debian/tests/control` file will cause `autodep8` to be run in addition to the tests defined in that file.

# Reboot during a test

Some testbeds support rebooting; for those, the testbed will have a `/tmp/autopkgtest-reboot` command which tests can call to cause a reboot. Do not use `reboot` and similar commands directly without at least checking for the presence of that script! They will cause testbeds like `null` or `schroot` to reboot the entire host, and even for `lxc` or `qemu` it will just cause the test to fail as there is no state keeping to resume a test at the right position after reboot without further preparation (see below).

The particular steps for a rebooting tests are:

- The test calls `/tmp/autopkgtest-reboot my_mark` with a "mark" identifier. `autopkgtest-reboot` will cause the test to terminate (with `SIGKILL`).
- autopkgtest backs up the current state of the test source tree and any `$AUTOPKGTEST_ARTIFACTS` that were created so far, reboots the testbed, and restores the test source tree and artifacts.
- The test gets run again, this time with a new environment variable `$AUTOPKGTEST_REBOOT_MARK` containing the argument to `autopkgtest-reboot`, e. g. `my_mark`.
- The test needs to check `$AUTOPKGTEST_REBOOT_MARK` and jump to the appropriate point. A nonexisting variable means "start from the beginning".

This example test will reboot the testbed two times in between:

    #!/bin/sh -e
    case "$AUTOPKGTEST_REBOOT_MARK" in
      "") echo "test beginning"; /tmp/autopkgtest-reboot mark1 ;;
      mark1) echo "test in mark1"; /tmp/autopkgtest-reboot mark2 ;;
      mark2) echo "test in mark2" ;;
    esac
    echo "test end"

In some cases your test needs to do the reboot by itself, e. g. through kexec, or a reboot command that is hardcoded in the piece of software that you want to test. To support those, you need to call `/tmp/autopkgtest-reboot-prepare my_mark` at a point as close as possible to the reboot instead; this will merely save the state but not issue the actual reboot by itself. Note that all logs and artifacts from the time between calling `autopkgtest-reboot-prepare` and rebooting will be lost. Other than that, the usage is very similar to above. Example:

    #!/bin/sh
    if [ "$AUTOPKGTEST_REBOOT_MARK" = phase1 ]; then
        echo "continuing test after reboot"
        ls -l /var/post-request-action
        echo "end of test"
    else
        echo "beginning test"
        /tmp/autopkgtest-reboot-prepare phase1
        touch /var/post-request-action
        reboot
    fi

# Network access

autopkgtest needs access to the network at least for downloading test dependencies and possibly dist-upgrading testbeds. In environments with restricted internet access you need to set up an apt proxy and configure the testbed to use it. (Note that the standard tools like autopkgtest-build-lxc or mk-sbuild automatically use the apt proxy from the host system.)

In general, tests should not access the internet themselves. If a test does use the internet outside of the pre-configured apt domain, the test must be marked with the needs-internet restriction. Using the internet usually makes tests less reliable, so this should be kept to a minimum. But for many packages their main purpose is to interact with remote web services and thus their testing should actually cover those too, to ensure that the distribution package keeps working with their corresponding web service.

Please note that for Debian, the ftp-master have ruled (in their REJECT-FAQ (Non-Main II) that tests must not execute code they download. In particular, tests must not use external repositories to depend on software (as opposed to data) that is not in Debian. However, currently there is nothing preventing this.

Debian's production CI infrastructure allows unrestricted network access on most workers. Tests with needs-internet can be skipped on some to avoid flaky behavior. In Ubuntu's infrastructure access to sites other than `*.ubuntu.com` and `*.launchpad.net` happens via a proxy (limited to DNS and http/https).

# Foreign architecture testing

Some packages and architectures are frequently used via a foreign architecture, for example i386 packages installed on an amd64 system. To test these packages in a realistic way, their tests can be run in a testbed that is natively for one architecture with the different architecture added as a foreign dpkg architecture. This mode is enabled by specifying the `--test-architecture=ARCH` autopkgtest(1) argument.

Tests can detect whether they are being run like this by checking whether the `AUTOPKGTEST_TEST_ARCH` differs from `AUTOPKGTEST_TESTBED_ARCH`. If so:

- If `dpkg-architecture` is available on the testbed, then the the `DEB_HOST_*` and `DEB_BUILD_*` variables are set according to the architecture under test and the architecture of the testbed, respectively. This means that a test depending on `build-essential` will be executed in an environment suitable for cross-building for the test architecture.
- The test may assume that executables that were built for the architecture under test can be run transparently, for example via kernel support for alternative ABIs (such as i386 in an amd64 testbed) or via transparent emulation mechanisms like `qemu-user-binfmt` or `qemu-user` (such as arm64 in an amd64 testbed).
- `build-essential` in the test's `Depends` field is automatically replaced with `build-essential:native, cross-build-essential-${DEB_HOST_ARCH}` to provide a compilation environment for both `${DEB_HOST_ARCH}` and `$(dpkg --print-architecture)`. This special case can be avoided by explicitly specifying `build-essential:native`.
- Binary packages from the source package under test are always installed for the test architecture, as though they had been specified as `foo:${DEB_HOST_ARCH}`.
- If the test is intended to invoke a compiler to compile code against the package under test, it must use a `${DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE}` compiler (which might be a cross-compiler), for example `${DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE}-gcc`. Similarly, if it invokes pkg-config, it must use `${DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE}-pkg-config` or set the `PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR` or `PKG_CONFIG_PATH`. To ensure that the `${DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE}` variable is set, it will usually be necessary to depend on `dpkg-dev`, either directly or via `build-essential`.
- If the test uses `apt` to install or manipulate the package under test, it must use `foo:${DEB_HOST_ARCH}` to install the correct architecture.
- Individual tests can by skipped when testing in a foreign architecture by specifying the `skip-foreign-architecture` restrictions.