Kernel Testing (was Re: Is the Kernel Janitors project still alive?)

[Arlie Stephens]

On Jul 18 2013, Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
[snip, snip, snip]
> A good place to start is to just use git to suck down the current linux-next
> tree, build it, run it, and report all problems you encounter. Most code only
> gets tested on the 3-4 boxes the code author has access to before it gets into
> the linux-next tree. I usually manage to trip over anywhere from 1 to 5 bugs
> per kernel release, just because nobody else has actually tried running the
> code on a Dell Latitude with the same .config as I have and the same
> workflow.

One of the things I really miss in the open source kernel world
(coming from the commercial world) is the lack of test packages that
everyone automatically runs, just in case they broke
something. FreeBSD had nothing, AFAICT, with occassional painful
results.  

Does the linux kernel have any kind of regression test package? If so,
where can I find it? If not, does anyone know of ongoing attempts to
create one?

A quick web search gave me a few pointers to attempts at this:

pdf about a regression test framework:
  https://www.kernel.org/doc/ols/2007/ols2007v2-pages-285-296.pdf
  
A project called crackerjack:
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/crackerjack/

A paper from a 2008 linux symposium:

   http://ols.fedoraproject.org/OLS/Reprints-2008/babulal-reprint.pdf

What I don't see is any kind of definitive answer - as in, "just clone
this git repo and build/run it". And the bug reports I see discussed
tend to come from people trying to use linux to accomplish real work. 

So is there something current, live, and useful? 

> 
> If anything, we need a good pool of kernel testers even more than we need more
> kernel coders. (And you'll learn a ton that way too - some 95% of what I know
> about kernel innards has come from "Oh crud, what did I break *this* time?"
> investigation...
> 

--
Arlie

Arlie Stephens					arlie at worldash.org