handling package tests requiring root?

handling package tests requiring root?

[45mg]

The only approach I'm aware of is to just ignore such tests. Examples of
this I've seen:

mdadm:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/linux.scm#n5943
borg:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/backup.scm#n739
rdiff-backup:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/backup.scm#n540
maradns:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/dns.scm#n1197
hostscope:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/monitoring.scm#n698
python-path:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/python-xyz.scm#n17458
python-executing:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/python-xyz.scm#n11112

I haven't been able to find a single instance of tests requiring root
that we /don't/ skip. (But then, I don't really know how to look,
either...)

Surely there must be a way to do this?

Re: handling package tests requiring root?

[Tomas Volf]

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45mg <45mg.writes@gmail.com> writes:

> The only approach I'm aware of is to just ignore such tests. Examples of
> this I've seen:
>
> mdadm:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/linux.scm#n5943
> borg:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/backup.scm#n739
> rdiff-backup:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/backup.scm#n540
> maradns:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/dns.scm#n1197
> hostscope:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/monitoring.scm#n698
> python-path:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/python-xyz.scm#n17458
> python-executing:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/gnu/packages/python-xyz.scm#n11112
>
> I haven't been able to find a single instance of tests requiring root
> that we /don't/ skip. (But then, I don't really know how to look,
> either...)
>
> Surely there must be a way to do this?

Sure there is.  The one I found is horrific though.  In my channel I
packaged acme-client (Let's Encrypt client ported from OpenBSD), and
root is required for the tests.  I resolved to using bubblewrap to
pretend I am a root.  You can see all the eye-cancer causing details
here[0].

Tomas

0: https://git.wolfsden.cz/wolfsden/tree/wolfsden/packages/tls.scm#n76

-- 
There are only two hard things in Computer Science:
cache invalidation, naming things and off-by-one errors.

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Re: handling package tests requiring root?

[45mg]

Hi Tomas,

I was curious how Nix handles this, so I asked about it on the #nixos
IRC. It looks like they run such tests in a VM. These are called NixOS
tests, and they seem to be the equivalent of our system tests - they
have to be run manually, separately from regular package tests.

So unless someone comes up with something innovative, it looks like
that's the best answer to this question - figure out a minimal
`operating-system` declaration that works for whatever you're testing,
and use it to add a test in `(gnu tests ...)`.