Lintian::Tutorial::TestSuiteDebian Package ChecLintian::Tutorial::TestSuite(3)
NAME
Lintian::Tutorial::TestSuite -- Quick intro to running the Lintian
testsuite
SYNOPSIS
Warning: This document may be out of date.
This guide will quickly introduce you to running the Lintian test suite
and some tricks. The Lintian test suite is fairly large and
accordingly it can take a substantial amount of time to run. To speed
up development, there are various options to limit the tests to run.
If you are looking for a guide on how to write tests, please consult
Lintian::Tutorial::WritingTests.
DESCRIPTION
The Lintian test suite is an extensive collection of various test
cases. The test suite is divided into 4 "sub-suites". The majority of
tests are currently located in the "tests" sub-suite.
To run the full suite:
$ rm -rf debian/test-out; private/build-test-packages; private/runtests
While writing a new tag (or check) you probably only want to run a
particular (subset of the) test(s). See "Running a subset of the
tests" for the available options.
Running a subset of the tests
First, you have to build the test packages with:
$ rm -rf debian/test-out; private/build-test-packages;
Then, the following options are available:
Running a single test
To run a single test by its name, use:
$ private/runtests --onlyrun=test:$name
Running all tests for a check
To run all tests for a given check, use:
$ private/runtests --onlyrun=check:$name
$check must be the name of a check (it will test for
checks/$check.desc) or "legacy". This will run all tests that
start with "$check-".
Running all tests designed for a specific tag
To run all tests that have a "Test-For" or a "Test-Against" for a
given tag, use:
$ private/runtests --onlyrun=tag:$name
Running tests under coverage
This feature is currently untested.
It is possible to run most of the tests under Devel::Cover. This is
done by passing --coverage to private/runtests. Example:
$ private/runtests --coverage --dump-logs -j1 -k t debian/test-out
Please note that Devel::Cover does not seem to handle multiple threads
too well. You may see spurious warnings/errors if you run the tests
with 2 or more active worker threads.
Caveat 1: Coverage for collections (i.e. programs in collection/) does
not seem to work at the moment. Therefore, they often end up with (next
to) zero coverage in the generated reports.
Caveat 2: Devel::Cover sometimes changes the output of Lintian or tools
called by Lintian. Obviously, this leads to test failures. Therefore,
you may see weird test failures (or warnings) when running under
coverage.
Collecting the coverage you want in a reasonable time
Collecting coverage is excruciatingly slow. This is not helped by the
fact that it becomes unreliable when run under 2 or more threads.
Fortunately, Devel::Cover "appends" to its cover database. This allows
you to "slowly" build up the coverage database over multiple runs.
Example:
$ private/runtests --coverage --dump-logs -j1 -k t debian/test-out suite:scripts
$ private/runtests --coverage --dump-logs -j1 -k t debian/test-out suite:debs
$ private/runtests --coverage --dump-logs -j1 -k t debian/test-out suite:source
...
Or:
$ private/runtests --coverage --dump-logs -j1 -k t debian/test-out $check
$ private/runtests --coverage --dump-logs -j1 -k t debian/test-out legacy
SEE ALSO
Lintian::Tutorial::WritingTests
Lintian v2.114.0ubuntu1.7 2025-10-14 Lintian::Tutorial::TestSuite(3)
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