Greentea - test automation for mbed

Generic regression environment for test automation

Introduction

Greentea is the automated testing tool for mbed OS development. It automates the process of flashing mbed boards, driving the test and accumulating test results into test reports. Developers use it for local development as well as for automation in a Continuous Integration environment.

This document should help you start using Greentea. Please see the htrun documentation, the tool Greentea uses to drive tests, for the technical details of the interactions between the platform and the host machine.

Because Greentea is an open source project, we accept contributions! Please see our contributing document for more information.

Prerequistes

Greentea requires Python version 2.7. It supports the following OSes:

• Windows
• Linux (Ubuntu preferred)
• OS X (experimental)

Installing

Tools that depend on Greentea usually install it. Determine if Greentea is already installed by running:

$ mbedgt --version
1.2.5

You can also install it manually via pip.

pip install mbed-greentea

Test specification JSON format

The Greentea test specification format decouples the tool from your build system. It provides important data, such as test names, paths to test binaries and the platform on which the binaries should run.

Greentea automatically looks for files called test_spec.json in your working directory. You can also use the --test-spec argument to direct Greentea to a specific test specification file.

When you use the -t / --target argument with the --test-spec argument, you can select which "build" should be used. In the example below, you could provide the arguments --test-spec test_spec.json -t K64F-ARM to only run that build's tests.

Example of test specification file

In the below example, there are two defined builds:

• Build K64F-ARM for NXP K64F platform compiled with ARMCC compiler.
• Build K64F-GCC for NXP K64F platform compiled with GCC ARM compiler.

{
    "builds": {
        "K64F-ARM": {
            "platform": "K64F",
            "toolchain": "ARM",
            "base_path": "./BUILD/K64F/ARM",
            "baud_rate": 9600,
            "tests": {
                "tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail": {
                    "binaries": [
                        {
                            "binary_type": "bootable",
                            "path": "./BUILD/K64F/ARM/tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail.bin"
                        }
                    ]
                },
                "tests-mbed_drivers-c_strings": {
                    "binaries": [
                        {
                            "binary_type": "bootable",
                            "path": "./BUILD/K64F/ARM/tests-mbed_drivers-c_strings.bin"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        },
        "K64F-GCC": {
            "platform": "K64F",
            "toolchain": "GCC_ARM",
            "base_path": "./BUILD/K64F/GCC_ARM",
            "baud_rate": 9600,
            "tests": {
                "tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail": {
                    "binaries": [
                        {
                            "binary_type": "bootable",
                            "path": "./BUILD/K64F/GCC_ARM/tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail.bin"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

The examples below use the above test specification file.

Command-line usage

This section highlights a few of the capabilities of the Greentea command-line interface. For a full list of the available options, please run mbedgt --help.

Assume for the examples below that the above test_spec.json file is in the current directory.

Listing all tests

You can use the -l argument to list all available tests:

$ mbedgt -l
mbedgt: greentea test automation tool ver. 1.2.5
mbedgt: using multiple test specifications from current directory!
        using 'BUILD\tests\K64F\ARM\test_spec.json'
        using 'BUILD\tests\K64F\GCC_ARM\test_spec.json'
mbedgt: available tests for built 'K64F-GCC_ARM', location 'BUILD/tests/K64F/GCC_ARM'
        test 'tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail'
mbedgt: available tests for built 'K64F-ARM', location 'BUILD/tests/K64F/ARM'
        test 'tests-mbed_drivers-c_strings'
        test 'tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail'

Executing all tests

The default action of Greentea using mbedgt is to execute all tests that are found in test_spec.json files. You can also add -V to make the output more verbose.

Limiting tests

You can select test cases by name using the -n argument. This command executes all tests named tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail from all builds in the test specification:

$ mbedgt -n tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail

When using the -n argument, you can use the * character at the end of a test name to match all tests that share a prefix. This command executes all tests that start with tests*:

$ mbedgt -n tests*

You can use the -t argument to select which build to use when finding tests. This command executes the test tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail for the K64F-ARM build in the test specification:

$ mbedgt -n tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail -t K64F-ARM

You can use a comma (,) to separate test names (argument -n) and build names (argument -t). This command executes the tests tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail and tests-mbed_drivers-c_strings for the K64F-ARM and K64F-GCC_ARM builds in the test specification:

$ mbedgt -n tests-mbedmicro-rtos-mbed-mail,tests-mbed_drivers-c_strings -t K64F-ARM,K64F-GCC_ARM

Selecting platforms

You can limit which boards Greentea uses for testing by using the --use-tids argument.

$ mbedgt --use-tids 02400203C3423E603EBEC3D8,024002031E031E6AE3FFE3D2

Where 02400203C3423E603EBEC3D8 and 024002031E031E6AE3FFE3D2 are the target IDs of platforms attached to your system.

You can view target IDs using the mbed-ls tool (installed with Greentea).

$ mbedls
+--------------+---------------------+------------+------------+-------------------------+
|platform_name |platform_name_unique |mount_point |serial_port |target_id                |
+--------------+---------------------+------------+------------+-------------------------+
|K64F          |K64F[0]              |E:          |COM160      |024002031E031E6AE3FFE3D2 |
|K64F          |K64F[1]              |F:          |COM162      |02400203C3423E603EBEC3D8 |
|LPC1768       |LPC1768[0]           |G:          |COM5        |1010ac87cfc4f23c4c57438d |
+--------------+---------------------+------------+------------+-------------------------+

In this case, you won't test one target, the LPC1768.

Testing on Fast Model FVPs

Fast Models FVPs are software models for Arm reference design platfrom

Greentea supports running test on Fast Models. And mbed-fastmodel-agent module is required for this purpose.

The "--fm" option only available when the mbed-fastmodel-agent module is installed :

You can run tests for FVP_MPS2_Cortex-M3 models, by '--fm' option:

$ mbedgt --fm FVP_MPS2_M3:DEFAULT

Where FVP_MPS2_M3 is the platfrom name for the FVP_MPS2_Cortex-M3 models in mbed OS.

And DEFAULT is the config to the Fast Model, you can find out using mbedfm command

Creating reports

Greentea supports a number of report formats.

HTML

This creates an interactive HTML page with test results and logs.

mbedgt --report-html html_report.html

JUnit

This creates an XML JUnit report, which you can use with popular Continuous Integration software, such as Jenkins.

mbedgt --report-junit junit_report.xml

JSON

This creates a general JSON report.

mbedgt --report-json json_report.json

Plain text

This creates a human-friendly text summary of the test run.

mbedgt --report-text text_report.text

Host test detection

When developing with mbed OS, Greentea detects host tests automatically if you place them in the correct location. All tests in mbed OS are placed under a TESTS directory. You may place custom host test scripts in a folder named host_tests in this folder. For more information about the mbed OS test directory structure, please see the mbed CLI documentation.

Common issues

IOERR_SERIAL errors

Possible causes:

• Another program is using the serial port. Be sure all terminals and other instances of Greentea are closed before trying again.
• The mbed interface firmware is out of date. Please see the platform's page on developer.mbed.org for details about how to update it.