1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
2
3===========
4Using KUnit
5===========
6
7The purpose of this document is to describe what KUnit is, how it works, how it
8is intended to be used, and all the concepts and terminology that are needed to
9understand it. This guide assumes a working knowledge of the Linux kernel and
10some basic knowledge of testing.
11
12For a high level introduction to KUnit, including setting up KUnit for your
13project, see :doc:`start`.
14
15Organization of this document
16=============================
17
18This document is organized into two main sections: Testing and Common Patterns.
19The first covers what unit tests are and how to use KUnit to write them. The
20second covers common testing patterns, e.g. how to isolate code and make it
21possible to unit test code that was otherwise un-unit-testable.
22
23Testing
24=======
25
26What is KUnit?
27--------------
28
29"K" is short for "kernel" so "KUnit" is the "(Linux) Kernel Unit Testing
30Framework." KUnit is intended first and foremost for writing unit tests; it is
31general enough that it can be used to write integration tests; however, this is
32a secondary goal. KUnit has no ambition of being the only testing framework for
33the kernel; for example, it does not intend to be an end-to-end testing
34framework.
35
36What is Unit Testing?
37---------------------
38
39A `unit test <https://martinfowler.com/bliki/UnitTest.html>`_ is a test that
40tests code at the smallest possible scope, a *unit* of code. In the C
41programming language that's a function.
42
43Unit tests should be written for all the publicly exposed functions in a
44compilation unit; so that is all the functions that are exported in either a
45*class* (defined below) or all functions which are **not** static.
46
47Writing Tests
48-------------
49
50Test Cases
51~~~~~~~~~~
52
53The fundamental unit in KUnit is the test case. A test case is a function with
54the signature ``void (*)(struct kunit *test)``. It calls a function to be tested
55and then sets *expectations* for what should happen. For example:
56
57.. code-block:: c
58
59	void example_test_success(struct kunit *test)
60	{
61	}
62
63	void example_test_failure(struct kunit *test)
64	{
65		KUNIT_FAIL(test, "This test never passes.");
66	}
67
68In the above example ``example_test_success`` always passes because it does
69nothing; no expectations are set, so all expectations pass. On the other hand
70``example_test_failure`` always fails because it calls ``KUNIT_FAIL``, which is
71a special expectation that logs a message and causes the test case to fail.
72
73Expectations
74~~~~~~~~~~~~
75An *expectation* is a way to specify that you expect a piece of code to do
76something in a test. An expectation is called like a function. A test is made
77by setting expectations about the behavior of a piece of code under test; when
78one or more of the expectations fail, the test case fails and information about
79the failure is logged. For example:
80
81.. code-block:: c
82
83	void add_test_basic(struct kunit *test)
84	{
85		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 1, add(1, 0));
86		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 2, add(1, 1));
87	}
88
89In the above example ``add_test_basic`` makes a number of assertions about the
90behavior of a function called ``add``; the first parameter is always of type
91``struct kunit *``, which contains information about the current test context;
92the second parameter, in this case, is what the value is expected to be; the
93last value is what the value actually is. If ``add`` passes all of these
94expectations, the test case, ``add_test_basic`` will pass; if any one of these
95expectations fails, the test case will fail.
96
97It is important to understand that a test case *fails* when any expectation is
98violated; however, the test will continue running, potentially trying other
99expectations until the test case ends or is otherwise terminated. This is as
100opposed to *assertions* which are discussed later.
101
102To learn about more expectations supported by KUnit, see :doc:`api/test`.
103
104.. note::
105   A single test case should be pretty short, pretty easy to understand,
106   focused on a single behavior.
107
108For example, if we wanted to properly test the add function above, we would
109create additional tests cases which would each test a different property that an
110add function should have like this:
111
112.. code-block:: c
113
114	void add_test_basic(struct kunit *test)
115	{
116		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 1, add(1, 0));
117		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 2, add(1, 1));
118	}
119
120	void add_test_negative(struct kunit *test)
121	{
122		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, 0, add(-1, 1));
123	}
124
125	void add_test_max(struct kunit *test)
126	{
127		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, INT_MAX, add(0, INT_MAX));
128		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, -1, add(INT_MAX, INT_MIN));
129	}
130
131	void add_test_overflow(struct kunit *test)
132	{
133		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, INT_MIN, add(INT_MAX, 1));
134	}
135
136Notice how it is immediately obvious what all the properties that we are testing
137for are.
138
139Assertions
140~~~~~~~~~~
141
142KUnit also has the concept of an *assertion*. An assertion is just like an
143expectation except the assertion immediately terminates the test case if it is
144not satisfied.
145
146For example:
147
148.. code-block:: c
149
150	static void mock_test_do_expect_default_return(struct kunit *test)
151	{
152		struct mock_test_context *ctx = test->priv;
153		struct mock *mock = ctx->mock;
154		int param0 = 5, param1 = -5;
155		const char *two_param_types[] = {"int", "int"};
156		const void *two_params[] = {&param0, &param1};
157		const void *ret;
158
159		ret = mock->do_expect(mock,
160				      "test_printk", test_printk,
161				      two_param_types, two_params,
162				      ARRAY_SIZE(two_params));
163		KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ret);
164		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, -4, *((int *) ret));
165	}
166
167In this example, the method under test should return a pointer to a value, so
168if the pointer returned by the method is null or an errno, we don't want to
169bother continuing the test since the following expectation could crash the test
170case. `ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(...)` allows us to bail out of the test case if
171the appropriate conditions have not been satisfied to complete the test.
172
173Test Suites
174~~~~~~~~~~~
175
176Now obviously one unit test isn't very helpful; the power comes from having
177many test cases covering all of a unit's behaviors. Consequently it is common
178to have many *similar* tests; in order to reduce duplication in these closely
179related tests most unit testing frameworks - including KUnit - provide the
180concept of a *test suite*. A *test suite* is just a collection of test cases
181for a unit of code with a set up function that gets invoked before every test
182case and then a tear down function that gets invoked after every test case
183completes.
184
185Example:
186
187.. code-block:: c
188
189	static struct kunit_case example_test_cases[] = {
190		KUNIT_CASE(example_test_foo),
191		KUNIT_CASE(example_test_bar),
192		KUNIT_CASE(example_test_baz),
193		{}
194	};
195
196	static struct kunit_suite example_test_suite = {
197		.name = "example",
198		.init = example_test_init,
199		.exit = example_test_exit,
200		.test_cases = example_test_cases,
201	};
202	kunit_test_suite(example_test_suite);
203
204In the above example the test suite, ``example_test_suite``, would run the test
205cases ``example_test_foo``, ``example_test_bar``, and ``example_test_baz``;
206each would have ``example_test_init`` called immediately before it and would
207have ``example_test_exit`` called immediately after it.
208``kunit_test_suite(example_test_suite)`` registers the test suite with the
209KUnit test framework.
210
211.. note::
212   A test case will only be run if it is associated with a test suite.
213
214``kunit_test_suite(...)`` is a macro which tells the linker to put the specified
215test suite in a special linker section so that it can be run by KUnit either
216after late_init, or when the test module is loaded (depending on whether the
217test was built in or not).
218
219For more information on these types of things see the :doc:`api/test`.
220
221Common Patterns
222===============
223
224Isolating Behavior
225------------------
226
227The most important aspect of unit testing that other forms of testing do not
228provide is the ability to limit the amount of code under test to a single unit.
229In practice, this is only possible by being able to control what code gets run
230when the unit under test calls a function and this is usually accomplished
231through some sort of indirection where a function is exposed as part of an API
232such that the definition of that function can be changed without affecting the
233rest of the code base. In the kernel this primarily comes from two constructs,
234classes, structs that contain function pointers that are provided by the
235implementer, and architecture-specific functions which have definitions selected
236at compile time.
237
238Classes
239~~~~~~~
240
241Classes are not a construct that is built into the C programming language;
242however, it is an easily derived concept. Accordingly, pretty much every project
243that does not use a standardized object oriented library (like GNOME's GObject)
244has their own slightly different way of doing object oriented programming; the
245Linux kernel is no exception.
246
247The central concept in kernel object oriented programming is the class. In the
248kernel, a *class* is a struct that contains function pointers. This creates a
249contract between *implementers* and *users* since it forces them to use the
250same function signature without having to call the function directly. In order
251for it to truly be a class, the function pointers must specify that a pointer
252to the class, known as a *class handle*, be one of the parameters; this makes
253it possible for the member functions (also known as *methods*) to have access
254to member variables (more commonly known as *fields*) allowing the same
255implementation to have multiple *instances*.
256
257Typically a class can be *overridden* by *child classes* by embedding the
258*parent class* in the child class. Then when a method provided by the child
259class is called, the child implementation knows that the pointer passed to it is
260of a parent contained within the child; because of this, the child can compute
261the pointer to itself because the pointer to the parent is always a fixed offset
262from the pointer to the child; this offset is the offset of the parent contained
263in the child struct. For example:
264
265.. code-block:: c
266
267	struct shape {
268		int (*area)(struct shape *this);
269	};
270
271	struct rectangle {
272		struct shape parent;
273		int length;
274		int width;
275	};
276
277	int rectangle_area(struct shape *this)
278	{
279		struct rectangle *self = container_of(this, struct shape, parent);
280
281		return self->length * self->width;
282	};
283
284	void rectangle_new(struct rectangle *self, int length, int width)
285	{
286		self->parent.area = rectangle_area;
287		self->length = length;
288		self->width = width;
289	}
290
291In this example (as in most kernel code) the operation of computing the pointer
292to the child from the pointer to the parent is done by ``container_of``.
293
294Faking Classes
295~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
296
297In order to unit test a piece of code that calls a method in a class, the
298behavior of the method must be controllable, otherwise the test ceases to be a
299unit test and becomes an integration test.
300
301A fake just provides an implementation of a piece of code that is different than
302what runs in a production instance, but behaves identically from the standpoint
303of the callers; this is usually done to replace a dependency that is hard to
304deal with, or is slow.
305
306A good example for this might be implementing a fake EEPROM that just stores the
307"contents" in an internal buffer. For example, let's assume we have a class that
308represents an EEPROM:
309
310.. code-block:: c
311
312	struct eeprom {
313		ssize_t (*read)(struct eeprom *this, size_t offset, char *buffer, size_t count);
314		ssize_t (*write)(struct eeprom *this, size_t offset, const char *buffer, size_t count);
315	};
316
317And we want to test some code that buffers writes to the EEPROM:
318
319.. code-block:: c
320
321	struct eeprom_buffer {
322		ssize_t (*write)(struct eeprom_buffer *this, const char *buffer, size_t count);
323		int flush(struct eeprom_buffer *this);
324		size_t flush_count; /* Flushes when buffer exceeds flush_count. */
325	};
326
327	struct eeprom_buffer *new_eeprom_buffer(struct eeprom *eeprom);
328	void destroy_eeprom_buffer(struct eeprom *eeprom);
329
330We can easily test this code by *faking out* the underlying EEPROM:
331
332.. code-block:: c
333
334	struct fake_eeprom {
335		struct eeprom parent;
336		char contents[FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE];
337	};
338
339	ssize_t fake_eeprom_read(struct eeprom *parent, size_t offset, char *buffer, size_t count)
340	{
341		struct fake_eeprom *this = container_of(parent, struct fake_eeprom, parent);
342
343		count = min(count, FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE - offset);
344		memcpy(buffer, this->contents + offset, count);
345
346		return count;
347	}
348
349	ssize_t fake_eeprom_write(struct eeprom *parent, size_t offset, const char *buffer, size_t count)
350	{
351		struct fake_eeprom *this = container_of(parent, struct fake_eeprom, parent);
352
353		count = min(count, FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE - offset);
354		memcpy(this->contents + offset, buffer, count);
355
356		return count;
357	}
358
359	void fake_eeprom_init(struct fake_eeprom *this)
360	{
361		this->parent.read = fake_eeprom_read;
362		this->parent.write = fake_eeprom_write;
363		memset(this->contents, 0, FAKE_EEPROM_CONTENTS_SIZE);
364	}
365
366We can now use it to test ``struct eeprom_buffer``:
367
368.. code-block:: c
369
370	struct eeprom_buffer_test {
371		struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom;
372		struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer;
373	};
374
375	static void eeprom_buffer_test_does_not_write_until_flush(struct kunit *test)
376	{
377		struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
378		struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer = ctx->eeprom_buffer;
379		struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom = ctx->fake_eeprom;
380		char buffer[] = {0xff};
381
382		eeprom_buffer->flush_count = SIZE_MAX;
383
384		eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
385		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0);
386
387		eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
388		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0);
389
390		eeprom_buffer->flush(eeprom_buffer);
391		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0xff);
392		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0xff);
393	}
394
395	static void eeprom_buffer_test_flushes_after_flush_count_met(struct kunit *test)
396	{
397		struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
398		struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer = ctx->eeprom_buffer;
399		struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom = ctx->fake_eeprom;
400		char buffer[] = {0xff};
401
402		eeprom_buffer->flush_count = 2;
403
404		eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
405		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0);
406
407		eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
408		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0xff);
409		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0xff);
410	}
411
412	static void eeprom_buffer_test_flushes_increments_of_flush_count(struct kunit *test)
413	{
414		struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
415		struct eeprom_buffer *eeprom_buffer = ctx->eeprom_buffer;
416		struct fake_eeprom *fake_eeprom = ctx->fake_eeprom;
417		char buffer[] = {0xff, 0xff};
418
419		eeprom_buffer->flush_count = 2;
420
421		eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 1);
422		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0);
423
424		eeprom_buffer->write(eeprom_buffer, buffer, 2);
425		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[0], 0xff);
426		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[1], 0xff);
427		/* Should have only flushed the first two bytes. */
428		KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, fake_eeprom->contents[2], 0);
429	}
430
431	static int eeprom_buffer_test_init(struct kunit *test)
432	{
433		struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx;
434
435		ctx = kunit_kzalloc(test, sizeof(*ctx), GFP_KERNEL);
436		KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ctx);
437
438		ctx->fake_eeprom = kunit_kzalloc(test, sizeof(*ctx->fake_eeprom), GFP_KERNEL);
439		KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ctx->fake_eeprom);
440		fake_eeprom_init(ctx->fake_eeprom);
441
442		ctx->eeprom_buffer = new_eeprom_buffer(&ctx->fake_eeprom->parent);
443		KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_ERR_OR_NULL(test, ctx->eeprom_buffer);
444
445		test->priv = ctx;
446
447		return 0;
448	}
449
450	static void eeprom_buffer_test_exit(struct kunit *test)
451	{
452		struct eeprom_buffer_test *ctx = test->priv;
453
454		destroy_eeprom_buffer(ctx->eeprom_buffer);
455	}
456
457Testing against multiple inputs
458-------------------------------
459
460Testing just a few inputs might not be enough to have confidence that the code
461works correctly, e.g. for a hash function.
462
463In such cases, it can be helpful to have a helper macro or function, e.g. this
464fictitious example for ``sha1sum(1)``
465
466.. code-block:: c
467
468	#define TEST_SHA1(in, want) \
469		sha1sum(in, out); \
470		KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG(test, out, want, "sha1sum(%s)", in);
471
472	char out[40];
473	TEST_SHA1("hello world",  "2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed");
474	TEST_SHA1("hello world!", "430ce34d020724ed75a196dfc2ad67c77772d169");
475
476
477Note the use of ``KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG`` to give more context when it fails
478and make it easier to track down. (Yes, in this example, ``want`` is likely
479going to be unique enough on its own).
480
481The ``_MSG`` variants are even more useful when the same expectation is called
482multiple times (in a loop or helper function) and thus the line number isn't
483enough to identify what failed, like below.
484
485In some cases, it can be helpful to write a *table-driven test* instead, e.g.
486
487.. code-block:: c
488
489	int i;
490	char out[40];
491
492	struct sha1_test_case {
493		const char *str;
494		const char *sha1;
495	};
496
497	struct sha1_test_case cases[] = {
498		{
499			.str = "hello world",
500			.sha1 = "2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed",
501		},
502		{
503			.str = "hello world!",
504			.sha1 = "430ce34d020724ed75a196dfc2ad67c77772d169",
505		},
506	};
507	for (i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(cases); ++i) {
508		sha1sum(cases[i].str, out);
509		KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG(test, out, cases[i].sha1,
510		                      "sha1sum(%s)", cases[i].str);
511	}
512
513
514There's more boilerplate involved, but it can:
515
516* be more readable when there are multiple inputs/outputs thanks to field names,
517
518  * E.g. see ``fs/ext4/inode-test.c`` for an example of both.
519* reduce duplication if test cases can be shared across multiple tests.
520
521  * E.g. if we wanted to also test ``sha256sum``, we could add a ``sha256``
522    field and reuse ``cases``.
523
524* be converted to a "parameterized test", see below.
525
526Parameterized Testing
527~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
528
529The table-driven testing pattern is common enough that KUnit has special
530support for it.
531
532Reusing the same ``cases`` array from above, we can write the test as a
533"parameterized test" with the following.
534
535.. code-block:: c
536
537	// This is copy-pasted from above.
538	struct sha1_test_case {
539		const char *str;
540		const char *sha1;
541	};
542	struct sha1_test_case cases[] = {
543		{
544			.str = "hello world",
545			.sha1 = "2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed",
546		},
547		{
548			.str = "hello world!",
549			.sha1 = "430ce34d020724ed75a196dfc2ad67c77772d169",
550		},
551	};
552
553	// Need a helper function to generate a name for each test case.
554	static void case_to_desc(const struct sha1_test_case *t, char *desc)
555	{
556		strcpy(desc, t->str);
557	}
558	// Creates `sha1_gen_params()` to iterate over `cases`.
559	KUNIT_ARRAY_PARAM(sha1, cases, case_to_desc);
560
561	// Looks no different from a normal test.
562	static void sha1_test(struct kunit *test)
563	{
564		// This function can just contain the body of the for-loop.
565		// The former `cases[i]` is accessible under test->param_value.
566		char out[40];
567		struct sha1_test_case *test_param = (struct sha1_test_case *)(test->param_value);
568
569		sha1sum(test_param->str, out);
570		KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ_MSG(test, out, test_param->sha1,
571				      "sha1sum(%s)", test_param->str);
572	}
573
574	// Instead of KUNIT_CASE, we use KUNIT_CASE_PARAM and pass in the
575	// function declared by KUNIT_ARRAY_PARAM.
576	static struct kunit_case sha1_test_cases[] = {
577		KUNIT_CASE_PARAM(sha1_test, sha1_gen_params),
578		{}
579	};
580
581.. _kunit-on-non-uml:
582
583KUnit on non-UML architectures
584==============================
585
586By default KUnit uses UML as a way to provide dependencies for code under test.
587Under most circumstances KUnit's usage of UML should be treated as an
588implementation detail of how KUnit works under the hood. Nevertheless, there
589are instances where being able to run architecture-specific code or test
590against real hardware is desirable. For these reasons KUnit supports running on
591other architectures.
592
593Running existing KUnit tests on non-UML architectures
594-----------------------------------------------------
595
596There are some special considerations when running existing KUnit tests on
597non-UML architectures:
598
599*   Hardware may not be deterministic, so a test that always passes or fails
600    when run under UML may not always do so on real hardware.
601*   Hardware and VM environments may not be hermetic. KUnit tries its best to
602    provide a hermetic environment to run tests; however, it cannot manage state
603    that it doesn't know about outside of the kernel. Consequently, tests that
604    may be hermetic on UML may not be hermetic on other architectures.
605*   Some features and tooling may not be supported outside of UML.
606*   Hardware and VMs are slower than UML.
607
608None of these are reasons not to run your KUnit tests on real hardware; they are
609only things to be aware of when doing so.
610
611Currently, the KUnit Wrapper (``tools/testing/kunit/kunit.py``) (aka
612kunit_tool) only fully supports running tests inside of UML and QEMU; however,
613this is only due to our own time limitations as humans working on KUnit. It is
614entirely possible to support other emulators and even actual hardware, but for
615now QEMU and UML is what is fully supported within the KUnit Wrapper. Again, to
616be clear, this is just the Wrapper. The actualy KUnit tests and the KUnit
617library they are written in is fully architecture agnostic and can be used in
618virtually any setup, you just won't have the benefit of typing a single command
619out of the box and having everything magically work perfectly.
620
621Again, all core KUnit framework features are fully supported on all
622architectures, and using them is straightforward: Most popular architectures
623are supported directly in the KUnit Wrapper via QEMU. Currently, supported
624architectures on QEMU include:
625
626*   i386
627*   x86_64
628*   arm
629*   arm64
630*   alpha
631*   powerpc
632*   riscv
633*   s390
634*   sparc
635
636In order to run KUnit tests on one of these architectures via QEMU with the
637KUnit wrapper, all you need to do is specify the flags ``--arch`` and
638``--cross_compile`` when invoking the KUnit Wrapper. For example, we could run
639the default KUnit tests on ARM in the following manner (assuming we have an ARM
640toolchain installed):
641
642.. code-block:: bash
643
644	tools/testing/kunit/kunit.py run --timeout=60 --jobs=12 --arch=arm --cross_compile=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
645
646Alternatively, if you want to run your tests on real hardware or in some other
647emulation environment, all you need to do is to take your kunitconfig, your
648Kconfig options for the tests you would like to run, and merge them into
649whatever config your are using for your platform. That's it!
650
651For example, let's say you have the following kunitconfig:
652
653.. code-block:: none
654
655	CONFIG_KUNIT=y
656	CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=y
657
658If you wanted to run this test on an x86 VM, you might add the following config
659options to your ``.config``:
660
661.. code-block:: none
662
663	CONFIG_KUNIT=y
664	CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=y
665	CONFIG_SERIAL_8250=y
666	CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_CONSOLE=y
667
668All these new options do is enable support for a common serial console needed
669for logging.
670
671Next, you could build a kernel with these tests as follows:
672
673
674.. code-block:: bash
675
676	make ARCH=x86 olddefconfig
677	make ARCH=x86
678
679Once you have built a kernel, you could run it on QEMU as follows:
680
681.. code-block:: bash
682
683	qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
684			   -m 1024 \
685			   -kernel arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage \
686			   -append 'console=ttyS0' \
687			   --nographic
688
689Interspersed in the kernel logs you might see the following:
690
691.. code-block:: none
692
693	TAP version 14
694		# Subtest: example
695		1..1
696		# example_simple_test: initializing
697		ok 1 - example_simple_test
698	ok 1 - example
699
700Congratulations, you just ran a KUnit test on the x86 architecture!
701
702In a similar manner, kunit and kunit tests can also be built as modules,
703so if you wanted to run tests in this way you might add the following config
704options to your ``.config``:
705
706.. code-block:: none
707
708	CONFIG_KUNIT=m
709	CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=m
710
711Once the kernel is built and installed, a simple
712
713.. code-block:: bash
714
715	modprobe example-test
716
717...will run the tests.
718
719.. note::
720   Note that you should make sure your test depends on ``KUNIT=y`` in Kconfig
721   if the test does not support module build.  Otherwise, it will trigger
722   compile errors if ``CONFIG_KUNIT`` is ``m``.
723
724Writing new tests for other architectures
725-----------------------------------------
726
727The first thing you must do is ask yourself whether it is necessary to write a
728KUnit test for a specific architecture, and then whether it is necessary to
729write that test for a particular piece of hardware. In general, writing a test
730that depends on having access to a particular piece of hardware or software (not
731included in the Linux source repo) should be avoided at all costs.
732
733Even if you only ever plan on running your KUnit test on your hardware
734configuration, other people may want to run your tests and may not have access
735to your hardware. If you write your test to run on UML, then anyone can run your
736tests without knowing anything about your particular setup, and you can still
737run your tests on your hardware setup just by compiling for your architecture.
738
739.. important::
740   Always prefer tests that run on UML to tests that only run under a particular
741   architecture, and always prefer tests that run under QEMU or another easy
742   (and monetarily free) to obtain software environment to a specific piece of
743   hardware.
744
745Nevertheless, there are still valid reasons to write an architecture or hardware
746specific test: for example, you might want to test some code that really belongs
747in ``arch/some-arch/*``. Even so, try your best to write the test so that it
748does not depend on physical hardware: if some of your test cases don't need the
749hardware, only require the hardware for tests that actually need it.
750
751Now that you have narrowed down exactly what bits are hardware specific, the
752actual procedure for writing and running the tests is pretty much the same as
753writing normal KUnit tests. One special caveat is that you have to reset
754hardware state in between test cases; if this is not possible, you may only be
755able to run one test case per invocation.
756
757.. TODO(brendanhiggins@google.com): Add an actual example of an architecture-
758   dependent KUnit test.
759
760KUnit debugfs representation
761============================
762When kunit test suites are initialized, they create an associated directory
763in ``/sys/kernel/debug/kunit/<test-suite>``.  The directory contains one file
764
765- results: "cat results" displays results of each test case and the results
766  of the entire suite for the last test run.
767
768The debugfs representation is primarily of use when kunit test suites are
769run in a native environment, either as modules or builtin.  Having a way
770to display results like this is valuable as otherwise results can be
771intermixed with other events in dmesg output.  The maximum size of each
772results file is KUNIT_LOG_SIZE bytes (defined in ``include/kunit/test.h``).
773