For kvm-xfstests, a root_fs.img disk image file is used as the test VM's root filesystem, while for android-xfstests the tests are run in a chroot directory created by unpacking a file root_fs.tar.gz. Both types of root_fs contain a Debian root filesystem, some configuration files and test runner scripts, and the xfstests.tar.gz unpacked in the /root directory.
Briefly, building either type of root_fs requires setting up a Debian build chroot and building the xfstests tarball as described in building-xfstests, then running the gen-image script. The build-appliance script can automate this process slightly, as described below.
In order to properly utilize a proxy you need to make sure to add the following line (replacing server:port with your actual settings)
export http_proxy='http://server:port'
to config.custom in both the root directory of your xfstest-bld checkout and in test-appliance/.
After building the xfstests tarball as described in building-xfstests, a root_fs may be built using the gen-image script found in test-appliance/. By default gen-image builds a root_fs.img; in this case, gen-image must be run as root, since it creates a filesystem and mounts it as part of the root_fs construction process. To build a root_fs.tar.gz instead, pass the --out-tar option.
Example:
cd test-appliance sudo ./gen-image
To more easily build a test appliance, you can use the build-appliance script. build-appliance will build the xfstests tarball, then invoke gen-image to build a root_fs. It allows specifying the build chroot to use as well as whether a root_fs.img or root_fs.tar.gz should be created.
For kvm-xfstests, use one of the following commands to create an i386 or amd64 test appliance, respectively:
./build-appliance --chroot=bullseye-i386 --no-out-tar ./build-appliance --chroot=bullseye-amd64 --no-out-tar
For android-xfstests, use one of the following commands to create an armhf or arm64 test appliance, respectively:
./build-appliance --chroot=bullseye-armhf --out-tar ./build-appliance --chroot=bullseye-arm64 --out-tar
The build chroot(s) can be created using the setup-buildchroot script as described in building-xfstests. Note that you do not need to be running an ARM system to create the ARM test appliances, since the setup-buildchroot script supports foreign chroots using QEMU user-mode emulation.
You may also set the shell variables BUILD_ENV, SUDO_ENV, and/or OUT_TAR in your config.custom file to set defaults for build-appliance. For example, if you'd like to default to building an amd64 kvm-xfstests appliance, use:
BUILD_ENV="schroot -c bullseye-amd64 --" SUDO_ENV="schroot -c bullseye-amd64 -u root --" OUT_TAR=
There are two ways to add additional packages to the root_fs image. The first is to supply the package name(s) on the command line, using the -a option.
The second is to copy the debian packages into the directory test-appliance/debs. This is how the official packages on kernel.org have an updated version of e2fsprogs and its support packages (e2fslibs, libcomerr2, and libss2). The latest versions get compiled for Debian Bullseye, in a hermetic build environment, and placed in the debs directory. Optionally, the output of the script get-ver is placed in the e2fsprogs.ver in the top-level directory of xfstests-bld. This gets incorporated into the git-versions file found in the xfstests.tar.gz file, so that there will be a line like this in the file:
e2fsprogs v1.46.4-5-g4cda2545 (Sun, 22 Aug 2021 10:07:15 -0400)
If you don't want to compile your own, very latest version of e2fsprogs, there is a newer version of e2fsprogs, compiled for the Debian Bullseye distribution, available in the debian backports of the archive.