Re: Linux QA tests (was Re: SMP Linux-37-5)

Eric.Schenk@dna.lth.se
Tue, 20 May 1997 23:11:47 +0200


Ron Holt <ron@caldera.com> writes:
>Perhaps this has been discussed before, but is there any interest in
>coordinating the maintenance of a set of Linux Quality Assurance test suites?
>
>Some tests that come to mind are:
> * The torture tests Linus mentions
> * Posix Conformant Test Suite (PCTS) (at least the syscall parts)
> * crashme
> * Various benchmarks
> * Other specialized tests kernel folks have already developed

This has been discussed before, in fact it was discussed on this
list within the last couple of months, but I'm afraid that if we just
discuss it again without starting to take action then it will die in
discussion (again).

Toward that end let me say what action I am currently taking.
Over the last week I have been porting the packet shell, a
networking testing tool from Sun Labs, to Linux. My motivation
for doing this is to allow us to write regression tests for
the networking code. The port is semi-stable now, and should
stabilize enough in the next week or two to allow me to start
writing tests for the TCP layer. Tests for other networking
layers should be possible, but I don't yet have definite ideas
of what sort of tests need to be written outside of TCP.
I very much want to see this taken seriously because I
think in the long run it will save us a lot of effort.

May I suggest that you simply put up a web page and a formal
call for contribution of existing tests as a start.
The next step would be to put out a call for suggested tests,
then start organizing volunteers to collect and write tests as needed.
The main thing here is that we really need an organizer for this
before it is going to go anywhere, and an organizer isn't likely to
materialize out of a wide ranging general discussion.
If necessary we can split up the workload of organizing this
by different kernel subsystems. As I'm already working on testing
tools for the networking code I'll volunteer to coordinate
testing code in this area.

-- 
Eric Schenk                               www: http://www.dna.lth.se/~erics
Dept. of Comp. Sci., Lund University          email: Eric.Schenk@dna.lth.se
Box 118, S-221 00 LUND, Sweden   fax: +46-46 13 10 21  ph: +46-46 222 96 38