RIOT Release Specs

This repository contains specifications and corresponding tests that have to be fulfilled before a new RIOT release can be tagged.

Procedures

Each RIOT release is accompanied by a set of release specifications, that have to be passed before each RIOT release. The current master of this repository contains the specs, that are applicable for the next release. So if we are in feature freeze before a release, the release can only be tagged once all specs that are in master of this repo are passed.

For traceability of past releases, a branch and a tag with the RIOT release name is created on the day of the RIOT release. This way it is always clear, which set of specs has been passed for specific release.

Specifications

Structure

Each specification resides in it's own folder. Inside the folder you can find a markdown file, that describes the specification and it's tasks in detail. Optionally there are can be a number of test scripts and test applications for each task.

A specification folder might look like the following:

/04-short-description
  | - spec-04.md
  | - test-04.01.py     -> test script for spec 04, task 01
  | - test-04.02.py
  | - test-04.03/       -> folder containing a specific RIOT test application
  |     | - main.c
  |     | - Makefile
  | - test-04.03.sh     -> some script making use of the test-04.03 application
  | - ....
/05-some-other-spec
  | - spec-05.md
  ...
/README.md

Specs document

The release specifications are descriptions of test-cases and certain other criteria that have to be tested/applied before each RIOT release. Each specification contains a description of it's goal as well as a number of tasks that have to be carried out (as much automated as possible).

Each tasks is to be written in the style of a test-case. This means, that the following information must be given for each task:

• pre-requisites (e.g. RIOT application used, hardware used, network topology, )
• descriptions of how to exactly carry out the task (step-by-step if possible)
• a precise list of passing/failing criteria, so that there is no doubt if a task was successful or not

Missing a test or wondering why it got replaced?

The table in REPLACED.md documents for which release tests got deprecated and when they are to be replaced and by what.

Test scripts and applications

Each release specification should be accompanied by supporting scripts (and RIOT applications if needed), that enable to execute it's tasks to the highest degree of automation possible. The long-term goal is the complete automated execution of all tasks, though there might be some cases where this is not achievable...

Tracking

TODO: verify if feasible of find other means to track the state

The release spec repository also contains a tracking document (results.md), which contains for each release candidate a full list of tasks that have to be run, including the results, the exact RIOT commit the task was run with and the date when this was done.

This document serves (i) as a tracking document during the feature freeze phase of a new release and (ii) as a back-reference, so we can trace which tasks have been run for old releases.

The document results.md should have the following format:

...

215.12-RC2          -> same name as the tag in RIOT
----------

#### 01-ci          -> name of spec
task-01.01   2015-09-04   69aca17db6341f0f5acf683092af532b6eab6c53   success
task-01.02   2015-09-04   69aca17db6341f0f5acf683092af532b6eab6c53   fail
#### 02-tests
task-02.01   2015-09-03   69aca17db6341f0f5acf683092af532b6eab6c53   success
task-02.02   2015-09-04   69aca17db6341f0f5acf683092af532b6eab6c53   success
...

2015.12-RC1
-----------

task-01.01   2015-09-04   667ad24c557dd02b18a298ce50fc49b4a3c46269   fail
task-01.02   2015-09-04   667ad24c557dd02b18a298ce50fc49b4a3c46269   fail
#### 02-tests
task-02.01   2015-09-03   2eb21d8f9694146deca8c69cbc4a82acd62d395f   success
task-02.02   2015-09-04   2eb21d8f9694146deca8c69cbc4a82acd62d395f   success
#### ...
...

pytest runner

Many of the specs have python script to run the tests automatically. By default experiments will be launched on IoT-LAB saclay site for tests that require non-native boards. The saclay site was chosen since it has most of the non-native boards used in the release-specs. Tests running on native will always be run locally on the executing machine. Non-native can also be ran locally as long as the required BOARDs are available (see local requirements).

Requirements

To use pytest you need to install the riotctrl and [iotlabcli][iotlabcli] python packages:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Furthermore the PYTHONPATH needs to include the pythonlibs of RIOT:

export PYTHONPATH=${RIOTBASE}/dist/pythonlibs:${PYTHONPATH}

The environment variable RIOTBASE must be set to absolute path of the version of RIOT under test. E.g.

export RIOTBASE=$(readlink -f ../RIOT)

Some tests on the native platform need a certain number of TAP interfaces in a bridge or otherwise will be skipped. The most number of TAP interfaces to date is required for 3.5 "ICMPv6 stress test on native (neighbor cache stress)" (11 TAP interfaces) so to not skip that, all of them should be bridged.

sudo ${RIOTBASE}/dist/tools/tapsetup/tapsetup -c 11

Iot-LAB Requirements

The site on which to run the experiments can be changed by setting the IOTLAB_SITE environment variable.

Make sure you can access the testbed frontend via SSH without providing a password, either by generating a dedicated key pair without password

ssh-keygen

and adding that to your SSH config

Host *.iot-lab.info
    IdentityFile <generated private key>

or by configuring a dedicated ssh-agent (you might already have one provided by your OS, check with env | grep SSH_AUTH_SOCK)

eval $(ssh-agent)
ssh-add

The Things Network Requirements

To be able to run the automatic tests in spec 11-lorawan a valid TTN account is required, and an application needs to be created with a device configure to do OTAA and another configured to do ABP.

• Create a TTN account
• Add an application. Take note of:
  • Application ID as TTN_APP_ID
• Register your device, one for ABP and a second for OTAA. Take note of:
  • ABP device ID as TTN_DEV_ID_ABP
  • OTAA device ID as TTN_DEV_ID
• Personalize a first device for OTAA (this is the default configuration). Take note of:
  • Device EUI as DEVEUI
  • Application EUI as APPEUI
  • App Key as APPKEY
• Personalize device for ABP and enable Reset Frame Counter to avoid having to reset the frame counters before every test run. Take note of:
  • Device Address as DEVADDR
  • Network Session Key as NWKSKEY
  • App Session Key as APPSKEY
• Add an access key to be able to use the MQTT API, the key must at least have access to messages. Take note of:
  • Access Key as TTN_DL_KEY

When configuring a device:

• LoRaWAN version: choose MAC V1.0.3
• Frequency plan: Choose Europe 863-870 MHz (SF9 for RX2 - recommended)

The listed variables need to be set in the environment.

Local Requirements

To be able to run tests locally the following requirements must be fulfilled:

• udev rules mapping every BOARD to a specific PORT, e.g.: /dev/tty${BOARD}.
• makefile included in RIOT_MAKEFILES_GLOBAL_PRE that sets DEBUG_ADAPTER_ID and PORT for each BOARD.

See multiple boards udev for a detailed walkthrough.

Limitations

• Currently only tests that run on different BOARDs will work out of the box, it would currently require setting an additional variable to identify each BOARD, see multiple boards udev.

Future work could integrate a yml file that holds the configuration, rjl might be a good reference.

Usage

usage: pytest [--boards] [--hide-output] [--local] [--non-RC] [--self-test]
              [--log-file-fmt=[LOG_FILE_FMT]]

optional arguments:
  --boards              String list of boards to use for the test, can be
                        IOTLAB_NODE or RIOT BOARDs.
  --hide-output         Do not log output from nodes
  --local               Use local boards, default=False (will use IoT-LAB unless
                        all boards are native)
  --non-RC              Runs test even if RIOT version under test is not an RC
  --self-test           Tests the testutils rather than running the release
                        tests
  --log-file-fmt=[LOG_FILE_FMT]
                        Format for the log file name. The available variables
                        are: `module`: The module (=specXX) of the test,
                        `function`: The function (=taskXX) of the test, `node`:
                        Name of the node (on IoT-LAB the URL of the node,
                        locally board name + port), `time`: UNIX timestamp at
                        creation time. If the provided argument is an empty
                        string the format will be
                        '{module}-{function}-{node}-{time}.log' and stored in
                        the current work directory

Running tox will do most of that for you

tox

Want to see what's going on? Run

tox -- --capture=tee-sys

To run only local tests, run

tox -- --local

To run only tests that require root permissions, run

sudo RIOTBASE=${RIOTBASE} tox -- -m sudo_only

To run only a specific task you can use the -k option of pytest. It uses a simple logical syntax for pattern matching so e.g.

tox -- -k "spec03 and (task01 or task05)"

will run task 1 and 5 of spec 3. The -k option can be used multiple times. The expressions will be AND'd e.g.

tox -- -k spec03 -k "task01 or task05"

is identical to the first example.

Using an env file to keep persistent environment variables

Most tests require a set of user specific environment variable (path to RIOTBASE, LoRaWAN keys, etc). In order to keep these variables persistent, a .devdata.env file can be place in the root directory. For that, please make a copy of ".devdata.env.sample" and modify accordingly:

cp .devdata.env.sample .devdata.env