# Autopkgtest - Defining tests for Debian packages

This document describes how the autopkgtest tester core (the program `adt-run`) interprets and executes tests found in Debian source packages.

## Overview

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-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 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 `$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).

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 `$ADT_ARTIFACTS` environment variable. When using the `--output-dir` option, they will be copied into `outputdir/artifacts/`.

Tests must declare all applicable Restrictions - see below.

## 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 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 re-use an existing upstream test executable and just need to wrap it with some command like `dbus-run-session` 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.

- 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 dependency field syntax

  Declares that the specified packages must be installed for the test to go ahead. This supports all features of dpkg dependencies (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:`, 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.

  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`. 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.

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

## Defined restrictions

- 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.

- 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. 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.

- allow-stderr

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

- 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. adt-virt-lxc) or their own machine/VM (e. g. adt-virt-qemu or adt-virt-null). When running the test in a virtualization server which does not provide this (like adt-virt-schroot) it will be skipped.

- 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. adt-virt-qemu or adt-virt-null). When running the test in a virtualization server which does not provide this it will be skipped.

- needs-recommends

  Enable installation of recommended packages in apt for the test dependencies. This does not affect build dependencies.

## Defined features

There are no currently defined Features.

## Source package header

To allow test execution environments to discover packages which provide tests, their source packages should have a `Testsuite:` header containing `autopkgtest` (which is currently the only defined value). Multiple values get comma separated, as usual in control files.

This tag is added automatically by dpkg-source version 1.17.11 or later. For earlier Debian/Ubuntu releases you need to set it manually in debian/control by adding

    XS-Testsuite: autopkgtest

in the `Source:` stanza.

## Implicit 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. For those packages, if `debian/tests/control` is absent, an implicit control file is assumed. Those packages do not have to provide anything else, although they should still include an appropriate source package header (`XS-Testsuite`) so that they can be discovered in the archive.

### Ruby packages

The source package must contain at least one of the following files:

- `debian/ruby-test-files.yaml`
- `debian/ruby-tests.rb`
- `debian/ruby-tests.rake`

Implied control file: :

    Test-Command: gem2deb-test-runner --autopkgtest 2>&1
    Depends: @, @builddeps@, gem2deb-test-runner

Note: `gem2deb` will be filtered out of the `Depends:` field, as it is not needed to run the tests for installed packages.

Packages should declare `Testsuite: autopkgtest-pkg-ruby` in `debian/control`.

### Perl packages

The source package must contain a `t/` directory and at least one of the following files:

- `Makefile.PL`
- `Build.PL`

Implied control file: :

    Test-Command: /usr/share/pkg-perl-autopkgtest/runner build-deps
    Depends: @, @builddeps@, pkg-perl-autopkgtest

    Test-Command: /usr/share/pkg-perl-autopkgtest/runner runtime-deps
    Depends: @, pkg-perl-autopkgtest

Packages should declare `Testsuite: autopkgtest-pkg-perl` in `debian/control`.

## Reboot during a test

Some testbeds support rebooting; for those, the testbed will have an `autopkgtest-reboot` command which tests can call to cause a reboot. Do not use `reboot` and similar commands directly! They will cause testbeds like `null` or `schroot` to reboot the entire host, and even for `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.

The particular steps for a rebooting tests are:

- The test calls `autopkgtest-reboot my_mark` with a "mark" identifier. `autopkgtest-reboot` will cause the test to terminate (with `SIGKILL`).
- `adt-run` backs up the current state of the test source tree and any `$ADT_ARTIFACTS` that were created so far, reboots the testbed, and restores the test source tree and artifacts.
- The test gets run again, this time with a new environment variable `$ADT_REBOOT_MARK` containing the argument to `autopkgtest-reboot`, e. g. `my_mark`.
- The test needs to check `$ADT_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 "$ADT_REBOOT_MARK" in
      "") echo "test beginning"; autopkgtest-reboot mark1 ;;
      mark1) echo "test in mark1"; autopkgtest-reboot mark2 ;;
      mark2) echo "test in mark2" ;;
    esac
    echo "test end"

Debian Policy 4.7.4.1, 2026-03-31