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1# Autotest for Chromium OS developers
2
3[TOC]
4
5## Useful documents
6
7[Autotest documentation on GitHub](https://github.com/autotest/autotest/wiki/AutotestApi):
8This would be a good read if you want to familiarize yourself with the basic
9Autotest concepts.
10
11[Gentoo Portage ebuild/eclass Information](http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2):
12Getting to know the package build system we use.
13
14[ChromiumOS specific Portage FAQ](http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/how-tos-and-troubleshooting/portage-build-faq):
15Learning something about the way we use portage.
16
17## Autotest and ebuild workflow
18
19To familiarize with autotest concepts, you should start with the upstream
20Autotest documentation at: https://github.com/autotest/autotest/wiki/AutotestApi
21
22The rest of this document is going to use some terms and only explain them
23vaguely.
24
25### Overview
26
27At a high level, tests are organized in test cases, each test case being either
28server or client, with one main .py file named the same as the test case, and
29one or more control files. In order to be able to perform all tasks on a given
30test, autotest expects tests to be placed in a monolithic file structure
31of:
32
33-   `/client/tests/`
34-   `/client/site_tests/`
35-   `/server/tests/`
36-   `/server/site_tests/`
37
38Each test directory has to have at least a control file, but typically also has
39a main job module (named the same as the test case). Furthermore, if it needs
40any additional files checked in, they are typically placed in a `files/`
41directory, and separate projects that can be built with a Makefile inside the
42`src/` directory.
43
44Due to structural limitations in Chromium OS, it is not possible to store all
45test cases in this structure in a single large source repository as upstream
46autotest source would (placed at `third_party/autotest/files/` in Chromium OS).
47In particular, the following has been required in the past:
48
49-   Having confidential (publicly inaccessible) tests or generally per-test ACLs
50    for sharing only with a particular partner only.
51-   Storing test cases along with the project they wrap around, because the test
52    requires binaries built as a by-product of the project’s own build system.
53    (e.g.  chrome or tpm tests)
54
55Furthermore, it has been desired to generally build everything that is not
56strongly ordered in parallel, significantly decreasing build times. That,
57however, requires proper dependency tree declaration and being able to specify
58which test cases require what dependencies, in addition to being able to
59process different "independent" parts of a single source repository in
60parallel.
61
62This leads to the ebuild workflow, which generally allows compositing any
63number of sources in any format into a single monolithic tree, whose contents
64depend on build parameters.
65
66![ebuild workflow](./assets/atest-diagram.png)
67
68This allows using standard autotest workflow without any change, however,
69unlike what upstream does, the tests aren’t run directly from the source
70repository, rather from a staging read-only install location. This leads to
71certain differences in workflow:
72
73-   Source may live in an arbitrary location or can be generated on the fly.
74    Anything that can be created as an ebuild (shell script) can be a test source.
75    (cros-workon may be utilised, introducing a fairly standard Chromium OS
76    project workflow)
77-   The staging location (`/build/${board}/usr/local/autotest/`) may not be
78    modified; if one wants to modify it, they have to find the source to it
79    (using other tools, see FAQ).
80-   Propagating source changes requires an emerge step.
81
82### Ebuild setup, autotest eclass
83
84**NOTE**: This assumes some basic knowledge of how ebuilds in Chromium OS work.
85Further documentation is available at http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/how-tos-and-troubleshooting/portage-build-faq
86
87An **autotest ebuild** is an ebuild that produces test cases and installs them into
88the staging area. It has three general tasks:
89
90-   Obtain the source - This is generally (but not necessarily) provided by
91    ‘cros-workon’ eclass. It could also work with the more standard tarball
92    SRC_URI pathway or generally any shell code executed in `src_unpack()`.
93-   Prepare test cases - This includes, but is not limited to preprocessing any
94    source, copying source files or intermediate binaries into the expected
95    locations, where they will be taken over by autotest code, specifically the
96    `setup()` function of the appropriate test. Typically, this is not needed.
97-   Call autotest to "build" all sources and subsequently install them - This
98    should be done exclusively by inheriting the **autotest eclass**, which
99    bundles up all the necessary code to install into the intermediate location.
100
101**Autotest eclass** is inherited by all autotest ebuilds, only requires a
102number of variables specified and works by itself otherwise. Most variables
103describe the locations and listings of work that needs to be done:
104
105-   Location variables define the paths to directories containing the test
106files:
107
108    -   `AUTOTEST_{CLIENT,SERVER}_{TESTS,SITE_TESTS}`
109    -   `AUTOTEST_{DEPS,PROFILERS,CONFIG}`
110
111    These typically only need to be specified if they differ from the defaults
112    (which follow the upstream directory structure)
113
114-   List variables (`AUTOTEST_*_LIST`) define the list of deps, profilers,
115    configs that should be handled by this ebuild.
116-   IUSE test list specification TESTS=, is a USE_EXPANDed specification of
117    tests managed by the given ebuild. By virtue of being an IUSE variable, all
118    of the options are visible as USE flag toggles while building the ebuild,
119    unlike with list variables which are a given and the ebuild has to be
120    modified for those to change.
121
122Each ebuild usually operates on a single source repository. That does not
123always have to hold true, however, and in case of autotest, many ebuilds check
124out the sources of the same source repository (*autotest.git*). Invariably, this
125means that they have to be careful to not install the same files and split the
126sources between themselves to avoid file install collisions.
127If more than one autotest ebuild operates on the same source repository, they
128**have to** use the above variables to define mutually exclusive slices in order
129to not collide during installation. Generally, if we have a source repository
130with client site_tests A and B, you can have either:
131
132-   one ebuild with IUSE_TESTS="+tests_A +tests_B"
133-   two different ebuilds, one with IUSE_TESTS="+tests_A", the other with
134    IUSE_TESTS="+tests_B"
135
136As soon as an overlap between ebuilds happens, either an outside mechanism has
137to ensure the overlapping tests are never enabled at the same time, or file
138collisions happen.
139
140
141## Building tests
142
143Fundamentally, a test has two main phases:
144
145-   `run_*()` - This is is the main part that performs all testing and is
146    invoked by the control files, once or repeatedly.
147-   `setup()` - This function, present in the test case’s main .py file is
148    supposed to prepare the test for running. This includes building any
149    binaries, initializing data, etc.
150
151During building using emerge, autotest will call a `setup()` function of all
152test cases/deps involved. This is supposed to prepare everything. Typically,
153this will invoke make on a Makefile present in the test’s src/ directory, but
154can involve any other transformation of sources (also be empty if there’s
155nothing to build).
156**Note**, however, that `setup()` is implicitly called many times as test
157initialization even during `run_*()` step, so it should be a noop on reentry
158that merely verifies everything is in order.
159
160Unlike `run_*()` functions, `setup()` gets called both during the prepare phase
161which happens on the **host and target alike**. This creates a problem with
162code that is being depended on or directly executed during `setup()`. Python
163modules that are imported in any pathway leading to `setup()` are needed both
164in the host chroot and on the target board to properly support the test. Any
165binaries would need to be compiled using the host compiler and either ensured
166that they will be skipped on the target (incremental `setup()` runs) or
167cross-compiled again and dynamically chosen while running on target.
168
169**More importantly**, in Chromium OS scenario, doing any write operations
170inside the `setup()` function will lead to **access denied failures**, because
171tests are being run from the intermediate read-only location.
172
173Given the above, building is as easy as **emerge**-ing the autotest ebuild that
174contains our test.
175```
176$ emerge-${board} ${test_ebuild}
177```
178
179*Currently, tests are organized within these notable ebuilds*: (see
180[FAQ](#Q1_What-autotest-ebuilds-are-out-there_) full list):
181
182-   chromeos-base/autotest-tests - The main ebuild handling most of autotest.git
183    repository and its client and server tests.
184-   chromeos-base/autotest-tests-* - Various ebuilds that build other parts of
185    autotest.git
186-   chromeos-base/chromeos-chrome - chrome tests; the tests that are part of
187    chrome
188
189### Building tests selectively
190
191Test cases built by ebuilds generally come in large bundles. Sometimes, only a
192subset, or generally a different set of the tests provided by a given ebuild is
193desired. That is achieved using a
194[USE_EXPANDed](http://devmanual.gentoo.org/general-concepts/use-flags/index.html)
195flag called TESTS.
196
197All USE flags (and therefore tests) have a default state, either enabled (+) or
198disabled (-), specified directly in the ebuild, that can be manually overridden
199from the commandline. There are two ways to do that.
200
201-   Non-Incremental - Simply override the default selection by an entirely new
202    selection, ignoring the defaults. This is useful if you develop a single
203    test and don’t want to waste time building the others.
204
205        $ TESTS="test1 test2" emerge-${board} ${ebuild}
206
207-   Incremental - All USE_EXPAND flags are also accessible as USE flags, with
208    the appropriate prefix, and can be used incrementally to selectively
209    enable/disable tests in addition to the defaults. This can be useful if you
210    aim to enable a test that is disabled by default and want to test locally.
211
212        $ USE="test_to_be_enabled -test_to_be_disabled" emerge-${board} \
213          ${ebuild}
214
215For operations across all tests, following incremental USE wildcard is
216supported by portage: "tests_*" to select all tests at once (or - to
217de-select).
218
219**NOTE**: Both Incremental and Non-Incremental methods can be set/overriden by
220(in this order): the ebuild (default values), make.profile, make.conf,
221/etc/portage, commandline (see above). That means that any settings provided on
222the emerge commandline override everything else.
223
224## Running tests
225
226**NOTE**: In order to run tests on your device, it needs to have a
227[test-enabled image](#W4_Create-and-run-a-test-enabled-image-on-your-device).
228
229When running tests, fundamentally, you want to either:
230
231-   Run sets of tests manually - Use case: Developing test cases
232
233    Take your local test sources, modify them, and then attempt to run them on a
234    target machine using autotest. You are generally responsible for making sure
235    that the machine is imaged to a test image, and the image contains all the
236    dependencies needed to support your tests.
237
238-   Verify a given image - Use case: Developing the projects subject to testing
239
240    Take an image, re-image the target device and run a test suite on it. This
241    requires either use of build-time autotest artifacts or their reproduction
242    by not modifying or resyncing your sources after an image has been built.
243
244### Running tests on a machine
245
246Autotests are run with a tool called
247[test_that](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/autotest/+/refs/heads/master/docs/test-that.md).
248
249### Running tests in a VM - cros_run_vm_tests
250
251VM tests are conveniently wrapped into a script `cros_run_vm_tests` that sets up
252the VM using a given image and then calls `test_that`. This is run by builders
253to test using the Smoke suite.
254
255If you want to run your tests in a VM (see
256[here](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/cros_vm.md#Run-an-autotest-in-the-VM)
257
258-   `cros_run_vm_test` starts up a VM and runs autotests using the port
259-   specified (defaults to 9222).  As an example:
260
261        $ cros_run_vm_test --autotest=suite:smoke \
262        --image-path=<my_image_to_start or don't set to use most recent build> \
263        --board=amd64-generic
264
265-   The emulator command line redirects localhost port 9222 to the emulated
266    machine's port 22 to allow you to ssh into the emulator. For Chromium OS to
267    actually listen on this port you must append the `--test_image` parameter
268    when you run the `./image_to_vm.sh` script, or perhaps run the
269    `mod_image_for_test.sh` script instead.
270-   You can then run tests on the correct ssh port with something like
271
272        $ test_that --board=x86-generic localhost:9222 'f:.*platform_BootPerf/control'
273
274-   To set the sudo password run set_shared_user_password. Then within the
275    emulator you can press Ctrl-Alt-T to get a terminal, and sudo using this
276    password. This will also allow you to ssh into the unit with, e.g.
277
278        $ ssh -p 9222 root@localhost
279
280-   Warning: After
281    [crbug/710629](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=710629),
282    'betty' is the only board regularly run through pre-CQ and CQ VMTest and so
283    is the most likely to work at ToT. 'betty' is based on 'amd64-generic',
284    so 'amd64-generic' is likely to also work for most (non-ARC) tests.
285
286
287## Result log layout structure
288
289For information regarding the layout structure please refer to the following:
290[autotest-results-logs](https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/testing/test-code-labs/autotest-client-tests/autotest-results-logs)
291
292### Interpreting test results
293
294Running autotest will result in a lot of information going by which is probably
295not too informative if you have not used autotest before.  At the end of the
296`test_that` run, you will see a summary of pass/failure status, along with
297performance results:
298
299```
30022:44:30 INFO | Using installation dir /home/autotest
30122:44:30 ERROR| Could not install autotest from repos
30222:44:32 INFO | Installation of autotest completed
30322:44:32 INFO | GOOD  ----  Autotest.install timestamp=1263509072 localtime=Jan 14 22:44:32
30422:44:33 INFO | Executing /home/autotest/bin/autotest /home/autotest/control phase 0
30522:44:36 INFO | START  ---- ----  timestamp=1263509075 localtime=Jan 14 14:44:35
30622:44:36 INFO |  START   sleeptest sleeptest timestamp=1263509076 localtime=Jan 14 14:44:36
30722:44:36 INFO | Bundling /usr/local/autotest/client/tests/sleeptest into test-sleeptest.tar.bz2
30822:44:40 INFO |   GOOD  sleeptest  sleeptest  timestamp=1263509079 localtime=Jan 14 14:44:39 completed successfully
30922:44:40 INFO |   END GOOD  sleeptest sleeptest  timestamp=1263509079 localtime=Jan 14 14:44:39
31022:44:42 INFO | END GOOD ---- ---- timestamp=1263509082 localtime=Jan 14 14:44:42
31122:44:44 INFO | Client complete
31222:44:45 INFO | Finished processing control file
313```
314
315`test_that` will leave around a temp directory populated with diagnostic information:
316
317```
318Finished running tests. Results can be found in /tmp/test_that_results_j8GoWH or /tmp/test_that_latest
319```
320
321This directory will contain a directory per test run.  Each directory contains
322the logs pertaining to that test run.
323
324In that directory some interesting files are:
325
326${TEST}/debug/client.DEBUG - the most detailed output from running the
327client-side test
328
329### Running tests automatically, Suites
330
331Suites provide a mechanism to group tests together in test groups. They also
332serve as hooks for automated runs of tests verifying various builds. Most
333importantly, that is the BVT (board verification tests) and Smoke (a subset of
334BVT that can run in a VM).
335
336Please refer to the [suites documentation](https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/testing/test-suites).
337
338## Writing and developing tests
339
340### Writing a test
341
342For understanding and writing the actual python code for autotest, please refer
343to the [Developer FAQ](http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/testing/autotest-developer-faq#TOC-Writing-Autotests)
344
345Currently, all code should be placed in a standard layout inside the
346autotest.git repository, unless otherwise is necessary for technical reasons.
347Regardless, the following text assumes that code is placed in generally any
348repository.
349
350For a test to be fully functional in Chromium OS, it has to be associated with
351an ebuild. It is generally possible to run tests without an ebuild using
352`test_that` but discouraged, as the same will not function with other parts of
353the system.
354
355### Making a new test work with ebuilds
356
357The choice of ebuild depends on the location of its sources. Structuring tests
358into more smaller ebuilds (as opposed to one ebuild per source repository)
359serves two purposes:
360
361-   Categorisation - Grouping similar tests together, possibly with deps they
362    use exclusively.
363-   Parallelisation - Multiple independent ebuilds can build entirely in
364    parallel.
365-   Dependency tracking - Larger bundles of tests depend on more system
366    packages without proper resolution which dependency belongs to which test.
367    This also increases paralellism.
368
369Current ebuild structure is largely a result of breaking off the biggest
370blockers for parallelism, ie. tests depending on chrome or similar packages,
371and as such, using any of the current ebuilds should be sufficient. (see FAQ
372for listing of ebuilds)
373
374After choosing the proper ebuild to add your test into, the test (in the form
375“+tests_<testname>”) needs to be added to IUSE_TESTS list that all autotest
376ebuilds have. Failing to do so will simply make ebuilds ignore your tests
377entirely. As with all USE flags, prepending it with + means the test will be
378enabled by default, and should be the default, unless you want to keep the test
379experimental for your own use, or turn the USE flag on explicitly by other
380means, eg. in a config for a particular board only.
381
382Should a **new ebuild** be started, it should be added to
383**chromeos-base/autotest-all** package, which is a meta-ebuild depending on all
384autotest ebuild packages that can be built. autotest-all is used by the build
385system to automatically build all tests that we have and therefore keep them
386from randomly breaking.
387
388### Deps
389
390Autotest uses deps to provide a de-facto dependencies into the ecosystem. A dep
391is a directory in ‘**client/deps**’ with a structure similar to a test case
392without a control file. A test case that depends on a dep will invoke the dep’s
393`setup()` function in its own `setup()` function and will be able to access the
394files provided by the dep. Note that autotest deps have nothing to do with
395system dependencies.
396
397As the calls to a dep are internal autotest code, it is not possible to
398automatically detect these and make them an inter-package dependencies on the
399ebuild level. For that reason, deps should either be
400[provided](#Ebuild-setup_autotest-eclass) by the same ebuild that builds test
401that consume them, or ebuild dependencies need to be declared manually between
402the dep ebuild and the test ebuild that uses it.  An **autotest-deponly**
403eclass exists to provide solution for ebuilds that build only deps and no
404tests. A number of deponly ebuilds already exist.
405
406Common deps are:
407
408-   chrome_test - Intending to use any of the test binaries produced by chrome.
409-   pyauto_dep - Using pyauto for your code.
410
411### Test naming conventions
412
413Generally, the naming convention runs like this:
414
415\<component>\_\<TestName\>
416
417That convention names the directory containing the test code.  It also names
418the .py file containing the test code, and the class of the Autotest test.
419
420If there's only one control file, it's named control.  The test's NAME in the
421control file is \<component\>_\<TestName\>, like the directory and .py
422file.
423
424If there are multiple control files for a test, they are named
425control.\<testcase\>. These tests' NAMEs are then
426\<component\>_\<TestName\>.\<testcase\>.
427
428## Common workflows
429
430### W1. Develop and iterate on a test
431
4321.  Set up the environment.
433
434        $ cd ~/trunk/src/third_party/autotest/files/
435        $ export TESTS=”<the test cases to iterate on>”
436        $ EBUILD=<the ebuild that contains TEST>
437        $ board=<the board on which to develop>
438
4392.  Ensure cros_workon is started
440
441        $ cros_workon --board=${board} start ${EBUILD}
442        $ repo sync # Necessary only if you use minilayout.
443
4443.  Make modifications (on first run, you may want to just do 3,4 to verify
445    everything works before you touch it \& break it)
446
447        $ ...
448
4494.  Build test (TESTS= is not necessary if you exported it before)
450
451        $ emerge-$board $EBUILD
452
4535.  Run test to make sure it works before you touch it
454
455        $ test_that <machine IP> ${TESTS}
456
4576.  Go to 2) to iterate
4587.  Clean up environment
459
460        $ cros_workon --board=${board} stop ${EBUILD}
461        $ unset TESTS
462
463### W2. Creating a test - steps and checklist
464
465When creating a test, the following steps should be done/verified.
466
4671.  Create the actual test directory, main test files/sources, at least one
468    control file
4692.  Find the appropriate ebuild package and start working on it:
470
471        $ cros_workon --board=${board} start <package>
472
4733.  Add the new test into the IUSE_TESTS list of 9999 ebuild
4744.  Try building: (make sure it’s the 9999 version being built)
475
476        $ TESTS=<test> emerge-$board <package>
477
4785.  Try running:
479
480        $ test_that <IP> <test>
481
4826.  Iterate on 4,5 and modify source until happy with the initial version.
4837.  Commit test source first, when it is safely in, commit the 9999 ebuild
484    version change.
4858.  Cleanup
486
487         $ cros_workon --board=${board} stop <package>
488
489### W3. Splitting autotest ebuild into two
490
491Removing a test from one ebuild and adding to another in the same revision
492causes portage file collisions unless counter-measures are taken. Generally,
493some things routinely go wrong in this process, so this checklist should serve
494to help that.
495
4961.  We have ebuild **foo-0.0.1-r100** with **test** and would like to split
497    that test off into ebuild **bar-0.0.1-r1**.
498    Assume that:
499    -   both ebuilds are using cros-workon (because it’s likely the case).
500    -   foo is used globally (eg. autotest-all depends on it), rather than just
501        some personal ebuild
5022.  Remove **test** from foo-{0.0.1-r100,9999}; uprev foo-0.0.1-r100 (to -r101)
5033.  Create bar-9999 (making a copy of foo and replacing IUSE_TESTS may be a good
504    start), with IUSE_TESTS containing just the entry for **test**
5054.  Verify package dependencies of test. Make bar-9999 only depend on what is
506    needed for test, remove the dependencies from foo-9999, unless they are
507    needed by tests that remained.
5085.  Add a blocker. Since bar installs files owned by foo-0.0.1-r100 and earlier,
509    the blocker’s format will be:
510
511        RDEPEND="!<=foo-0.0.1-r100"
512
5136.  Add a dependency to the new version of bar into
514    chromeos-base/autotest-all-0.0.1
515
516        RDEPEND="bar"
517
5187.  Change the dependency of foo in chromeos-base/autotest-all-0.0.1 to be
519    version locked to the new rev:
520
521        RDEPEND=">foo-0.0.1-r100"
522
5238.  Uprev (move) autotest-all-0.0.1-rX symlink by one.
5249.  Publish all as the same change list, have it reviewed, push.
525
526### W4. Create and run a test-enabled image on your device
527
5281.  Choose which board you want to build for (we'll refer to this as ${BOARD},
529    which is for example "x86-generic").
5302.  Set up a proper portage build chroot setup.  Go through the normal process
531    of setup_board if you haven't already.
532
533        $ ./build_packages --board=${BOARD}
534
5353.  Build test image.
536
537        $ ./build_image --board=${BOARD} test
538
5394.  Install the Chromium OS testing image to your target machine.  This is
540    through the standard mechanisms: either USB, or by reimaging a device
541    currently running a previously built Chromium OS image modded for test, or
542    by entering the shell on the machine and forcing an auto update to your
543    machine when it's running a dev server.  For clarity we'll walk through two
544    common ways below, but if you already know about this, just do what you
545    normally do.
546
547    -   If you choose to use a USB boot, you first put the image on USB and run
548        this from outside the chroot.
549
550            $ ./image_to_usb.sh --to /dev/sdX --board=${BOARD} \
551              --image_name=chromiumos_test_image.bin
552
553    -   Alternatively, if you happen to already have a machine running an image
554        modified for test and you know its IP address (${REMOTE_IP}), you can
555        avoid using a USB key and reimage it with a freshly built image by
556        running this from outside the chroot:
557
558            $ ./image_to_live.sh --remote=${REMOTE_IP} \
559              --image=`./get_latest_image.sh \
560              --board=${BOARD}`/chromiumos_test_image.bin
561
562This will automatically start dev server, ssh to your machine, cause it to
563update to from that dev server using memento_updater, reboot, wait for reboot,
564print out the new version updated to, and shut down your dev server.
565
566## Troubleshooting/FAQ
567
568### Q1: What autotest ebuilds are out there?
569
570Note that the list of ebuilds may differ per board, as each board has
571potentially different list of overlays. To find all autotest ebuilds for board
572foo, you can run:
573```
574$ board=foo
575$ for dir in $(portageq-${board} envvar PORTDIR_OVERLAY); do
576     find . -name '*.ebuild' | xargs grep "inherit.*autotest" | grep "9999" | \
577     cut -f1 -d: | \
578     sed -e 's/.*\/\([^/]*\)\/\([^/]*\)\/.*\.ebuild/\1\/\2/'
579   done
580```
581(Getting: "WARNING: 'portageq envvar PORTDIR_OVERLAY' is deprecated. Use
582'portageq repositories_configuration' instead." Please fix documentation.)
583
584### Q2: I see a test of the name ‘greattests_TestsEverything’ in build output/logs/whatever! How do I find which ebuild builds it?
585
586All ebuilds have lists of tests exported as **USE_EXPANDed** lists called
587**TESTS**. An
588expanded use can be searched for in the same way as other use flags, but with
589the appropriate prefix, in this case, you would search for
590**tests_greattests_TestsEverything**’:
591```
592$ use_search=tests_greattests_TestsEverything
593$ equery-$board hasuse $use_search
594 * Searching for USE flag tests_greattests_TestsEverything ...
595 * [I-O] [  ] some_ebuild_package_name:0
596```
597
598This will however only work on ebuilds which are **already installed**, ie.
599their potentially outdated versions.
600**Alternatively**, you can run a pretended emerge (emerge -p) of all autotest
601ebuilds and scan the output.
602```
603$ emerge -p ${all_ebuilds_from_Q1} |grep -C 10 “${use_search}”
604```
605
606### Q3: I have an ebuild ‘foo’, where are its sources?
607
608Generally speaking, one has to look at the ebuild source to figure that
609question out (and it shouldn’t be hard). However, all present autotest ebuilds
610(at the time of this writing) are also ‘cros-workon’, and for those, this
611should always work:
612```
613$ ebuild_search=foo
614$ ebuild $(equery-$board which $ebuild_search) info
615CROS_WORKON_SRCDIR=”/home/you/trunk/src/third_party/foo616CROS_WORKON_PROJECT=”chromiumos/third_party/foo617```
618
619### Q4: I have an ebuild, what tests does it build?
620
621You can run a pretended emerge on the ebuild and observe the ‘TESTS=’
622statement:
623```
624$ ebuild_name=foo
625$ emerge-$board -pv ${ebuild_name}
626These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
627
628Calculating dependencies... done!
629[ebuild   R   ] foo-foo_version to /build/$board/ USE="autox hardened tpmtools
630xset -buildcheck -opengles" TESTS="enabled_test1 enabled_test2 ... enabled_testN
631-disabled_test1 ...disabled_testN" 0 kB [1]
632```
633
634Alternately, you can use equery, which will list tests with the USE_EXPAND
635prefix:
636```
637$ equery-$board uses ${ebuild_name}
638[ Legend : U - final flag setting for installation]
639[        : I - package is installed with flag     ]
640[ Colors : set, unset                             ]
641 * Found these USE flags for chromeos-base/autotest-tests-9999:
642 U I
643 + + autotest                                    : <unknown>
644 + + autotest                                    : <unknown>
645 + + autox                                       : <unknown>
646 + + buildcheck                                  : <unknown>
647 + + hardened                                    : activate default security enhancements for toolchain (gcc, glibc, binutils)
648 - - opengles                                    : <unknown>
649 + + tests_enabled_test                     : <unknown>
650 - - tests_disabled_test                      : <unknown>
651```
652
653### Q5: I’m working on some test sources, how do I know which ebuilds to cros_workon start in order to properly propagate?
654
655You should ‘workon’ and always cros_workon start all ebuilds that have files
656that you touched.  If you’re interested in a particular file/directory, that
657is installed in `/build/$board/usr/local/autotest/` and would like know which
658package has provided that file, you can use equery:
659
660```
661$ equery-$board belongs /build/${board}/usr/local/autotest/client/site_tests/foo_bar/foo_bar.py
662 * Searching for <filename> ...
663chromeos-base/autotest-tests-9999 (<filename>)
664```
665
666DON’T forget to do equery-$board. Just equery will also work, only never
667return anything useful.
668
669As a rule of thumb, if you work on anything from the core autotest framework or
670shared libraries (anything besides
671{server,client}/{test,site_tests,deps,profilers,config}), it belongs to
672chromeos-base/autotest. Individual test case will each belong to a particular
673ebuild, see Q2.
674
675It is important to cros_workon start every ebuild involved.
676
677### Q6: I created a test, added it into ebuild, emerged it, and I’m getting access denied failures. What did I do wrong?
678
679Your test’s `setup()` function (which runs on the host before being uploaded) is
680probably trying to write into the read-only intermediate location. See
681[explanation](#Building-tests).
682
683