linux/tools
Dan Williams 6bc756193f tools/testing/nvdimm: libnvdimm unit test infrastructure
'libnvdimm' is the first driver sub-system in the kernel to implement
mocking for unit test coverage.  The nfit_test module gets built as an
external module and arranges for external module replacements of nfit,
libnvdimm, nd_pmem, and nd_blk.  These replacements use the linker
--wrap option to redirect calls to ioremap() + request_mem_region() to
custom defined unit test resources.  The end result is a fully
functional nvdimm_bus, as far as userspace is concerned, but with the
capability to perform otherwise destructive tests on emulated resources.

Q: Why not use QEMU for this emulation?
QEMU is not suitable for unit testing.  QEMU's role is to faithfully
emulate the platform.  A unit test's role is to unfaithfully implement
the platform with the goal of triggering bugs in the corners of the
sub-system implementation.  As bugs are discovered in platforms, or the
sub-system itself, the unit tests are extended to backstop a fix with a
reproducer unit test.

Another problem with QEMU is that it would require coordination of 3
software projects instead of 2 (kernel + libndctl [1]) to maintain and
execute the tests.  The chances for bit rot and the difficulty of
getting the tests running goes up non-linearly the more components
involved.


Q: Why submit this to the kernel tree instead of external modules in
   libndctl?
Simple, to alleviate the same risk that out-of-tree external modules
face.  Updates to drivers/nvdimm/ can be immediately evaluated to see if
they have any impact on tools/testing/nvdimm/.


Q: What are the negative implications of merging this?
It is a unique maintenance burden because the purpose of mocking an
interface to enable a unit test is to purposefully short circuit the
semantics of a routine to enable testing.  For example
__wrap_ioremap_cache() fakes the pmem driver into "ioremap()'ing" a test
resource buffer allocated by dma_alloc_coherent().  The future
maintenance burden hits when someone changes the semantics of
ioremap_cache() and wonders what the implications are for the unit test.

[1]: https://github.com/pmem/ndctl

Cc: <linux-acpi@vger.kernel.org>
Cc: Lv Zheng <lv.zheng@intel.com>
Cc: Robert Moore <robert.moore@intel.com>
Cc: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
2015-06-26 11:23:38 -04:00
..
build tools build: Add feature check for lzma library 2015-03-21 14:53:39 -03:00
cgroup
firewire
hv hv: hypervvssd: call endmntent before call setmntent again 2015-03-25 11:53:54 +01:00
iio tools: iio: generic_buffer: Fix generic scale extraction 2015-03-28 11:01:49 +00:00
include tools: Remove bitops/hweight usage of bits in tools/perf 2015-01-16 17:49:29 -03:00
lguest tools/lguest: don't use legacy definitions for net device in example launcher. 2015-02-13 17:15:55 +10:30
lib Merge branch 'perf-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2015-05-06 10:47:25 -07:00
net tools: bpf_asm: cleanup vlan extension related token 2015-03-24 21:21:41 -04:00
nfsd
perf Merge branch 'perf-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2015-05-06 10:47:25 -07:00
power More power management and ACPI updates for v4.1-rc1 2015-04-26 13:56:35 -07:00
scripts tools lib traceevent: Add global QUIET_CC_FPIC build output 2013-12-19 16:18:10 -03:00
testing tools/testing/nvdimm: libnvdimm unit test infrastructure 2015-06-26 11:23:38 -04:00
thermal/tmon tools/thermal: tmon: silence 'set but not used' warnings 2015-02-28 13:52:48 +08:00
time tools: add script to test udelay 2014-07-23 10:16:38 -07:00
usb tools: ffs-aio-example: use endpoint addresses from descriptors 2015-01-15 09:41:49 -06:00
virtio tools/virtio: add virtio 1.0 in vringh_test 2014-12-15 23:49:22 +02:00
vm mm:add KPF_ZERO_PAGE flag for /proc/kpageflags 2015-02-11 17:06:00 -08:00
Makefile tools/liblockdep: Build liblockdep from tools/Makefile 2014-05-08 13:34:45 -04:00