xref: /third_party/ltp/doc/Maintainer-Patch-Review-Checklist.asciidoc

# Patch Review

Anyone can and should review patches. It's the only way to get good at
patch review and for the project to scale.

## Goals of patch review

1. Prevent false positive test results
2. Prevent false negative test results
3. Keep the code as simple as possible, but no simpler

## How to find clear errors

A clear error is one where there is unlikely to be any argument if you
provide evidence of it. Evidence being an error trace or logical proof
that an error will occur in a common situation.

The following are examples and may not be appropriate for all tests.

* Merge the patch locally. It should apply cleanly to master.
* Compile the patch with default and non-default configurations.
  - Use sanitizers e.g. undefined behaviour, address.
  - Compile on non-x86
  - Compile on x86 with -m32
* Use `make check`
* Run effected tests in a VM
  - Use single vCPU
  - Use many vCPUs and enable NUMA
  - Restrict RAM to < 1GB.
* Run effected tests on an embedded device
* Run effected tests on non-x86 machine in general
* Run reproducers on a kernel where the bug is present
* Run tests with "-i0"
* Compare usage of system calls with man page descriptions
* Compare usage of system calls with kernel code
* Search the LTP library for existing helper functions

## How to find subtle errors

A subtle error is one where you can expect some argument because you
do not have clear evidence of an error. It is best to state these as
questions and not make assertions if possible.

Although if it is a matter of style or "taste" then senior maintainers
can assert what is correct to avoid bike shedding.

* Ask what happens if there is an error, could it be debugged just
  with the test output?
* Are we testing undefined behavior?
  - Could future kernel behaviour change without "breaking userland"?
  - Does the kernel behave differently depending on hardware?
  - Does it behave differently depending on kernel configuration?
  - Does it behave differently depending on the compiler?
  - Would it behave differently if the order of checks on syscall parameters
    changed in the kernel?
* Will it scale to tiny and huge systems?
  - What happens if there are 100+ CPUs?
  - What happens if each CPU core is very slow?
  - What happens if there are 2TB of RAM?
* Are we repeating a pattern that can be turned into a library function?
* Is a single test trying to do too much?
* Could multiple similar tests be merged?
* Race conditions
  - What happens if a process gets preempted?
  - Could checkpoints or fuzzsync by used instead?
  - Note, usually you can insert a sleep to prove a race condition
    exists however finding them is hard
* Is there a simpler way to achieve the same kernel coverage?

## How to get patches merged

Once you think a patch is good enough you should add your Reviewed-by
and/or Tested-by tags. This means you will get some credit for getting
the patch merged. Also some blame if there are problems.

If you ran the test you can add the Tested-by tag. If you read the
code or used static analysis tools on it, you can add the Reviewed-by
tag.

In addition you can expect others to review your patches and add their
tags. This will speed up the process of getting your patches merged.

## Maintainers Checklist

Patchset should be tested locally and ideally also in maintainer's fork in
GitHub Actions on GitHub.

NOTE: GitHub Actions do only build testing, passing the CI means only that
      the test compiles fine on variety of different distributions and releases.

The test should be executed at least once locally and should PASS as well.

Commit messages should have

* Author's `Signed-off-by` tag
* Committer's `Reviewed-by` or `Signed-off-by` tag
* Check also mailing lists for other reviewers / testers tags, notes and failure reports
* `Fixes: hash` if it fixes particular LTP commit
* `Fixes: #N` if it fixes github issue number N, so it's automatically closed

After patch is accepted or rejected, set correct state and archive in
https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/ltp/list/[LTP patchwork instance].

Also update `.github/workflows/wiki-mirror.yml` script which mirrors
`doc/*.txt` to LTP wiki (git URL https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp.wiki.git)
if new wiki page is added.

## New tests
New test should

* Have a record in runtest file
* Test should work fine with more than one iteration
  (e.g. run with `-i 100`)
* Run with `-i 0` to check that setup and cleanup are coded properly (no test is being run)
* Have a brief description
* License: the default license for new tests is GPL v2 or later, use
  GPL-2.0-or-later; the licence for test (e.g. GPL-2.0) should not change
  unless test is completely rewritten
* Old copyrights should be kept unless test is completely rewritten

### C tests
* Use new https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp/wiki/Test-Writing-Guidelines#22-writing-a-test-in-c[C API]
* Test binaries are added into corresponding `.gitignore` files
* Check coding style with `make check`
  (more in https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp/wiki/Test-Writing-Guidelines#21-c-coding-style[C coding style])
* Docparse documentation
* If a test is a regression test it should include tags
  (more in https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp/wiki/Test-Writing-Guidelines#2238-test-tags[Test tags])
* When rewriting old tests, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9CClinux[uClinux]
  support should be removed (project has been discontinued).
  E.g. remove `#ifdef UCLINUX`, replace `FORK_OR_VFORK()` with simple `fork()` or `SAFE_FORK()`.

### Shell tests
* Use new https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp/wiki/Test-Writing-Guidelines#23-writing-a-testcase-in-shell[shell API]
* Check coding style with `make check`
  (more in https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp/wiki/Test-Writing-Guidelines#132-shell-coding-style[Shell coding style])
* If a test is a regression test it should include related kernel or glibc commits as a comment

## LTP library
For patchset touching library please check also
https://github.com/linux-test-project/ltp/wiki/LTP-Library-API-Writing-Guidelines[LTP Library API Writing Guidelines].