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Test Actions

The test action executes tests on the DUT after booting. It collects output, parses results, and reports test outcomes.

Key rules for using test actions:

  • A test action never boots the device - a boot action must be defined before it.

  • LAVA support scripts are prepared by the deploy action and remain available for all test definitions until the next deploy block.

  • Multiple test definitions can be listed within the same test block to run sequentially without rebooting the device.

There are 4 types of test actions:

  • Lava-test-shell definitions (YAML directive: definitions) are used for POSIX compliant operating systems on the DUT. The deployed system is expected to support a POSIX shell environment (/bin/ash, /bin/dash or /bin/bash are the most common) so that LAVA can execute the LAVA Test Shell Helper scripts.

  • Output monitors (YAML directive: monitors) are used for devices which have no POSIX shell and start the test (and corresponding output) immediately after booting, for example microcontroller/IoT boards.

  • Interactive tests (YAML directive: interactive) are further extension of monitor tests idea, allowing not just matching some output from a device, but also feeding some input. They are useful for non-POSIX shells like bootloaders (u-boot for instance) and other interactive command-line applications.

  • Test services (YAML directive: services) are used for starting docker-compose based containers on the LAVA worker. It enables running custom services for the needs in test definitions.

Definitions

Lava-test-shell definitions
- test:
    timeout:
      minutes: 5
    definitions:
    - name: smoke-tests
      from: git
      repository: https://github.com/Linaro/test-definitions
      path: automated/linux/smoke/smoke.yaml
    - name: smoke-tests-net
      from: git
      repository: https://gitlab.com/lava/functional-tests.git
      path: posix/smoke-tests-net.yaml

name

The unique test suite name to use. It replaces the name from the YAML.

repository

A publicly readable repository location.

from

The type of the repository is not guessed, it must be specified explicitly. Support is available for git, url and inline.

git

A remote git repository which needs to be cloned by the LAVA worker.

Optional parameters:

  • revision (str, default: null): specific commit SHA to check out
  • branch (str, default: null): git branch to clone
  • shallow (bool, default: true): perform a shallow git clone
  • history (bool, default: false): include full git history
  • recursive (bool, default: false): clone submodules recursively

url

Test definition from url
- test:
    definitions:
    - name: smoke-tests
      from: url
      repository: https://github.com/Linaro/test-definitions/releases/download/2025.10.01/2025.10.tar.zst
      compression: zstd
      path: automated/linux/smoke/smoke.yaml

The repository must be a tar archive containing the test definitions.

compression is an optional string for providing decompression method to apply before extracting. Supported: bz2, gz, xz and zstd.

inline

A simple test definition present in the same file as the job submission, instead of from a separate file or VCS repository. This allows tests to be run based on a single file. When combined with file:// URLs to the deploy parameters, this allows tests to run without needing external access.

Test definition from inline
- test:
    definitions:
    - name: health-checks
      from: inline
      path: inline/health-checks.yaml
      repository:
        metadata:
          format: Lava-Test Test Definition 1.0
          name: health checks
        run:
          steps:
            - lava-test-case check-version --shell cat /proc/version
            - lava-test-case lscpu --shell lscpu
            - lava-test-case lsblk --shell lsblk

path

The path within that repository to the YAML file containing the test definition.

parameters

(optional) Pass parameters to the Lava Test Shell Definition.

The key name can be parameters or params, both are supported.

The format is a YAML dictionary - the dictionary key is the name of the variable to be made available to the test shell, the value is the value of that variable.

Test definition parameters
- test:
    definitions:
    - name: smoke-test-lsblk
      from: git
      repository: https://github.com/Linaro/test-definitions
      path: automated/linux/smoke/smoke.yaml
      parameters:
        "SKIP_INSTALL": "true"
        "TESTS": "lsblk"

expected

(optional) Provide an expected test case list. Both unexpected and missing test cases are reported as fail.

- test:
  definitions:
    - name: smoke-test-lsblk
      from: git
      repository: https://github.com/Linaro/test-definitions
      path: automated/linux/smoke/smoke.yaml
      parameters:
        "SKIP_INSTALL": "true"
        "TESTS": "lsblk"
      expected:
        - lsblk

For test definitions from inline, the expected list must be defined at the job level using the expected key, not inside the inline definition.

  - test:
      definitions:
        - from: inline
          repository:
            metadata:
                format: Lava-Test Test Definition 1.0
                name: expected-tests
            run:
                steps:
                    - lava-test-case tc1 --result pass
                    - lava-test-case tc2 --result fail
          name: expected-tests
          path: inline/expected-tests.yaml
          expected:
            - tc1
            - tc2

Always reported

Expected test cases defined in the job definition are always reported, even if the tests are not executed due to earlier job errors.

See also expected test cases in the test definition.

Additional support

Result checks

LAVA collects results from internal operations, these form the lava test suite results as well as from the submitted test definitions. The full set of results for a job are available at:

results/1234

LAVA records when a submitted test definition starts execution on the test device. If the number of test definitions which started is not the same as the number of test definitions submitted (allowing for the lava test suite results), a warning will be displayed on this page.

TestSets

A TestSet is a group of lava test cases which will be collated within the LAVA Results. This allows queries to look at a set of related test cases within a single definition.

- test:
   definitions:
   - repository:
       run:
         steps:
         - lava-test-set start first_set
         - lava-test-case date --shell ntpdate-debian
         - ls /
         - lava-test-case mount --shell mount
         - lava-test-set stop
         - lava-test-case uname --shell uname -a

This results in the date and mount test cases being included into a first_set TestSet, independent of other test cases. The TestSet is concluded with the lava-test-set stop command, meaning that the uname test case has no test set, providing a structure like:

results:
  first_set:
    date: pass
    mount: pass
  uname: pass

{'results': {'first_set': {'date': 'pass', 'mount': 'pass'}, 'uname': 'pass'}}

Each TestSet name must be valid as a URL.

For test job 1234, the uname test case would appear as:

results/1234/testset-def/uname

The date and mount test cases are referenced via the TestSet:

results/1234/testset-def/first_set/date
results/1234/testset-def/first_set/mount

A single test definition can start and stop different TestSets in sequence, as long as the name of each TestSet is unique for that test definition.

See also test definitions

Monitors

Test jobs using Monitors must:

  1. Execute automatically after boot.

  2. Emit a unique start string before test runs.

  3. Emit a unique end string after tests complete.

  4. Provide a regex that captures test output and maps it to results without producing excessively long test case names.

name

The name of the test suite.

start

String or regex pattern that signals the beginning of test suite output.

If start does not match, the job will time out with no results.

end

String or regex pattern that signals the end of test suite output.

If end does not match, the job will time out but the results of the current boot will already have been reported.

Note

start and end strings will match part of a line but make sure that each string is long enough that it can only match once per boot.

pattern

Regex with named capture groups to extract test results from the test output.

For the following Zephyr test suite monitor:

- test:
    monitors:
    - name: tests
      start: BOOTING ZEPHYR
      end: PROJECT EXECUTION SUCCESSFUL
      pattern: '(?P<test_case_id>\d+ *- [^-]+) (?P<measurement>\d+) tcs = [0-9]+ nsec'
      fixupdict:
        PASS: pass
        FAIL: fail

If the device output is of the form:

***** BOOTING ZEPHYR OS v1.7.99 - BUILD: Apr 18 2018 10:00:55 *****
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                            Latency Benchmark                                |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  tcs = timer clock cycles: 1 tcs is 12 nsec                                 |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 - Measure time to switch from ISR back to interrupted thread              |
| switching time is 107 tcs = 1337 nsec                                       |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|

...

PROJECT EXECUTION SUCCESSFUL

The above regular expression can result in test case names like:

1_measure_time_to_switch_from_isr_back_to_interrupted_thread_switching_time_is

The raw data will be logged as:

test_case_id: 1 - Measure time to switch from ISR back to interrupted thread              |
| switching time is

Warning

Notice how the regular expression has not closed the match at the end of the "line" but has continued on to the first non-matching character. The test case name then concatenates all whitespace and invalid characters to a single underscore. LAVA uses pexpect to perform output parsing. pexpect docs explain how to find line ending strings: https://pexpect.readthedocs.io/en/stable/overview.html#find-the-end-of-line-cr-lf-conventions

r'(?P<test_case_id>\d+ *- [^-]+) (?P<measurement>\d+) tcs = [0-9]+ nsec'

The test_case_id will be formed from the match of the expression \d+ *- [^-]+ followed by a single space - but only if the rest of the expression matches as well.

The measurement will be taken from the match of the expression \d+ preceded by a single space and followed by the exact string tcs = which itself must be followed by a number of digits, then a single space and finally the exact string nsec - but only if the rest of the expression also matches.

See also: Regular Expression HOWTO for Python3

fixupdict

(optional) Maps non-standard result strings in test output to LAVA's expected values. It is a translation map for raw result values.

fixupdict example
fixupdict:
  PASSED: pass
  FAILED: fail
  SKIPPED: skip

expected

(optional) Provide an expected test case list. Both unexpected and missing test cases are reported as fail.

Expected test cases
- test:
    monitors:
    - name: "mcuboot_suite"
      start: "Execute test suites for the MCUBOOT area"
      end: "End of MCUBOOT test suites"
      pattern: "TEST: (?P<test_case_id>.+?) - (?P<result>(PASSED|FAILED|SKIPPED))"
      fixupdict:
         'PASSED': pass
         'FAILED': fail
         'SKIPPED': skip
      expected:
      - "tfm_mcuboot_integration_test_0001"

Always reported

Expected test cases provided for the monitors are always reported, even if the tests are not executed due to earlier job errors.

monitors

Multiple monitors can be defined for a single boot. LAVA processes each monitor sequentially — waiting for the first monitor's start pattern, parsing until its end, then moving to the next monitor.

Monitors for TF-M test suite
- test:
    monitors:
    - name: "secure_regression_suite"
      start: "Execute test suites for the Secure area"
      end: "End of Secure test suites"
      pattern: "'(?P<test_case_id>TFM_S_[A-Z]+_TEST_[0-9]+)'.*?(?P<result>PASSED|FAILED|SKIPPED|Assertion failed)"
      fixupdict:
         'PASSED': pass
         'FAILED': fail
         'SKIPPED': skip
    - name: "non_secure_regression_suite"
      start: "Execute test suites for the Non-secure area"
      end: "End of Non-secure test suites"
      pattern: "TEST: (?P<test_case_id>.+?) - (?P<result>(PASSED|FAILED|SKIPPED))"
      fixupdict:
         'PASSED': pass
         'FAILED': fail
         'SKIPPED': skip

Interactive

An interactive test action allows to interact with a non-POSIX shell or just arbitrary interactive application. For instance, the shell of u-boot bootloader.

U-boot interactive tests
actions:
- boot:
    method: bootloader
    bootloader: u-boot
    commands: []
    prompts:
    - "U-Boot>"

- test:
    interactive:
    - name: network
      prompts:
      - "U-Boot>"
      - "/ # "
      echo: discard
      script:
      - name: dhcp
        command: dhcp
        successes:
        - message: "DHCP client bound to address"
        failures:
        - message: "TIMEOUT"
          exception: InfrastructureError
          error: "dhcp failed"
      - name: setenv
        command: "setenv serverip {SERVER_IP}"

The workflow of the interactive test action is:

  1. Send the command to the DUT, unless empty.
  2. If echo: discard is specified, discard next output line (assumed to be an echo of the command).
  3. Wait for a match from the prompts, successes or failures.
  4. If a name is defined, log the result for this command (as soon as a prompt or a message is matched).
  5. If a successes or failures was matched, wait for the prompts before proceeding.

Note

The interactive test action expects the prompt to be already matched before it starts. If this is not the case, then you will to wait the prompt by adding an empty command directive as described below. Note that empty command: is different from empty string command: "". In the latter case, a newline will be sent to device.

Wait for prompt first
- test:
    interactive:
    - name: network
      prompts:
      - "U-Boot>"
      - "/ # "
      echo: discard
      script:
      - name: 'match-prompt'
        command:
      - name: setenv
        command: "setenv serverip {SERVER_IP}"

name

A unique test suite name across all interactive test actions in the same namespace.

prompts

The list of possible prompts for the interactive session. In many cases, there is just one prompt, but if shell has different prompts for different states, it can be accommodated. Prompts can also include regular expressions, as any other match strings.

echo

If set to discard, after each sent command of a script, discard the next output line (assumed to be an echo of the command). This option should be set when interacting with shell (like u-boot shell) that will echo the command, to avoid false positive matches. Note that this options applies to every command in the script. If you need different value of this option for different commands, you would need to group them in different scripts.

script

A list of commands to send and what kind of output to expect.

name

If present, log the result (pass/fail) of this command under the given name as a test case). If not present, and the command fails, the entire test will fail with TestError.

command

The command (string) to send to device, followed by newline. The command can use variables that will be substituted with live data, like {SERVER_IP}. If command value is empty (command: in YAML), nothing is sent, but output matching (prompts/successes/failures) will be performed as usual.

successes

A list of dictionaries with a single message key. The message should be a list of string or regex to match. It uses substring matching, so message: 4 matches "14", "41", etc.

failures

A list of dictionaries with:

  • message (str): the string or regex to match (substring matching).
  • exception (str, optional): if the message indicates a fatal problem, an exception can be raised. The exception can be one of InfrastructureError, JobError, or TestError. If omitted, the failure is recorded as a failed test case without stopping the job.
  • error (str, optional): custom exception message for the job log.

If successes is defined, but LAVA matches one of the prompts instead, an error will be recorded (following the logic that the lack of expected success output is an error). This means that in many cases you don't need to specify failures - any output but the successes will be recorded as an error.

However, if successes is not defined, then matching a prompt will generate a passing result. This is useful for interactive commands which don't generate any output on success; of course, in this case you would need to specify failures to catch them.

expected

(optional) Provide an expected test case list. Both unexpected and missing test cases are reported as fail.

Expected test cases
- test:
    interactive:
    - name: network
      prompts:
      - "U-Boot>"
      script:
      - name: setenv-serverip
        command: "setenv serverip {SERVER_IP}"
      expected:
      - setenv-serverip

Always reported

The expected test cases are always reported, even if the tests are not executed due to earlier job errors.

Services

The feature is disabled by default. It must be explicitly enabled in the device dictionary by lab admin or device owner. And the worker that the device attached to should have access to the Docker images needed by the services.

Danger

Enabling the feature allows the users of the device to run any Docker containers with any permissions on the LAVA worker. Access to the device should be strictly restricted to trusted users using LAVA user groups.

Enable test services
{% set allow_test_services = true %}

The services are defined in a test action using the services key.

Custom test services
- test:
    services:
    - name: srv1
      from: git
      repository: https://example.com/org/srv1.git
      path: docker-compose.yml
    - name: srv2
      from: url
      repository: https://example.com/srv2.tar.gz
      path: docker-compose.yaml
      service: srv-name
      compression: gz

name

Unique test service name.

from

The type of the repository. Supported: git or url.

git

See git

url

See url

repository

A publicly readable repository location.

path

Path to the Docker Compose file within the repository.

service

A specific service to start. If not set, all services in the compose file are started.

Lifecycle

Services started remain active until the end of the job. You can use command stop_test_services to stop services earlier.

Stop test services
- command:
    name: stop_test_services