[PATCH] docs: kselftest: Document the FORCE_TARGETS build variable
From: Ricardo B. Marlière
Date: Fri Apr 17 2026 - 13:38:42 EST
FORCE_TARGETS has been part of the kselftest build system for
some time but is absent from the developer documentation. Without
an entry here, users relying on kselftest in CI pipelines would
have to read the selftests Makefile directly to discover the
option.
A build that exits zero despite some targets failing can mask
real breakage and mislead automated systems into reporting
success. Add a dedicated section so that CI authors can easily
find and adopt FORCE_TARGETS=1 to turn such silent partial
failures into hard errors.
Signed-off-by: Ricardo B. Marlière <rbm@xxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/dev-tools/kselftest.rst | 12 ++++++++++++
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/kselftest.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/kselftest.rst
index 18c2da67fae4..d7bfe320338c 100644
--- a/Documentation/dev-tools/kselftest.rst
+++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/kselftest.rst
@@ -126,6 +126,18 @@ dedicated skiplist::
See the top-level tools/testing/selftests/Makefile for the list of all
possible targets.
+Requiring all targets to build successfully
+===========================================
+
+By default, the build succeeds as long as at least one target builds
+without error. Set ``FORCE_TARGETS=1`` to instead require every target to
+build successfully; make will abort as soon as any target fails::
+
+ $ make -C tools/testing/selftests FORCE_TARGETS=1
+
+This applies to both the ``all`` and ``install`` targets and is useful in
+CI environments where a silent partial build would be misleading.
+
Running the full range hotplug selftests
========================================
---
base-commit: 83ef26f911432d9c98b6d8b6ed0709a8b79cd834
change-id: 20260417-selftests-docs-fdf4e922ad20
Best regards,
--
Ricardo B. Marlière <rbm@xxxxxxxx>