ESP-IDF provides a variety of testing mechanisms that runs directly on target ESP chips (referred to as **target test**). These target tests are typically integrated into an ESP-IDF project specifically designed for testing purposes (known as a **test app**). Similar to standard ESP-IDF projects, test apps follow the same build, flash, and monitoring procedures.
In target testing, a connected host (for instance, a PC) is typically required to trigger specific test cases, provide test data, and evaluate test results.
On the host side, ESP-IDF employs the pytest framework (alongside certain pytest plugins) to automate target testing. This guide delves into pytest in ESP-IDF, covering the following aspects:
This guide specifically targets ESP-IDF contributors. Some of the concepts, like the custom markers, may not be directly applicable to personal projects using the ESP-IDF SDK. For running pytest-embedded in personal projects, please refer to `pytest-embedded documentation <https://docs.espressif.com/projects/pytest-embedded>`__, and explore the `provided examples <https://github.com/espressif/pytest-embedded/tree/main/examples/esp-idf>`__.
Several mechanisms have been implemented to ensure the successful execution of the installation processes. If you encounter any issues during installation, please submit an issue report to our `GitHub issue tracker <https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf/issues>`__.
A **test app** is a set of binaries which are built from an IDF project that is used to test a particular feature of your project. Test apps are usually located under ``${IDF_PATH}/examples``, ``${IDF_PATH}/tools/test_apps``, and ``${IDF_PATH}/components/<COMPONENT_NAME>/test_apps``.
A **Device under test (DUT)** is a set of ESP chip(s) which connect to a host (e.g., a PC). The host is responsible for flashing the apps to the DUT, triggering the test cases, and inspecting the test results.
If the test case can be run on all targets officially supported by ESP-IDF (call ``idf.py --list-targets`` for more details), you can use a special marker ``supported_targets`` to apply all of them in one line.
We also supports ``preview_targets`` and ``all_targets`` as special target markers (call ``idf.py --list-targets --preview`` for a full targets list including preview targets).
Finally, we have the test function. With a ``dut`` fixture. In single-dut test cases, the ``dut`` fixture is an instance of ``IdfDut`` class, for multi-dut test cases, it is a tuple of ``IdfDut`` instances. For more details regarding the ``IdfDut`` class, please refer to `pytest-embedded IdfDut API reference <https://docs.espressif.com/projects/pytest-embedded/en/latest/api.html#pytest_embedded_idf.dut.IdfDut>`__.
For some test cases, you may need to run the same app with different sdkconfig files. For detailed documentation regarding sdkconfig related concepts, please refer to `idf-build-apps Documentation <https://docs.espressif.com/projects/idf-build-apps/en/latest/find_build.html>`__.
We call this format the **test case ID**. The test case ID should be considered as the unique identifier of a test case. It is composed of the following parts:
Nearly all the CLI options of pytest-embedded supports parameterization. To see all supported CLI options, you may run ``pytest --help`` and check the ``embedded-...`` sections for vanilla pytest-embedded ones, and the ``idf`` sections for ESP-IDF specific ones.
The target markers, like ``@pytest.mark.esp32`` and ``@pytest.mark.esp32s2``, are actually syntactic sugar for parameterization. In fact they are defined as:
For some test cases, you may need to run the same app with different sdkconfig files. These sdkconfig files supports different targets. We may use ``pytest.param`` to achieve this. Let's use the same folder structure as above.
To ensure that test has executed successfully on target, the test script can test that serial output of the target using the ``dut.expect()`` function, for example:
The ``dut.expect(...)`` will first compile the expected string into regex, which in turn is then used to seek through the serial output until the compiled regex is matched, or until a timeout occurs.
Please pay extra attention to the expected string when it contains regex keyword characters (e.g., parentheses, square brackets). Alternatively, you may use ``dut.expect_exact(...)`` that will attempt to match the string without converting it into regex.
For more information regarding the different types of ``expect`` functions, please refer to the `pytest-embedded Expecting documentation <https://docs.espressif.com/projects/pytest-embedded/en/latest/expecting.html>`__.
In some test scripts, you may see target markers like ``@pytest.mark.esp32`` and ``@pytest.mark.esp32s2`` used together with multi-DUT test cases. This is deprecated and should be replaced with the ``target`` parametrization.
In some cases, a test may involve multiple targets running different test apps (e.g., separate targets to act as master and slave). Usually in ESP-IDF, the folder structure would be like this:
When parametrizing two items, like ``app_path, target`` here, make sure you're passing a list of tuples to the ``parametrize`` decorator. Each tuple should contain the values for each item.
We use the `Unity test framework <https://github.com/ThrowTheSwitch/Unity>`__ in our unit tests. Overall, we have three types of test cases (`Unity test framework <https://github.com/ThrowTheSwitch/Unity>`__):
For a full list of the available functions, please refer to `pytest-embedded case_tester API reference <https://docs.espressif.com/projects/pytest-embedded/en/latest/api.html#pytest_embedded_idf.unity_tester.CaseTester>`__.
In CI, all ESP-IDF projects under ``components``, ``examples``, and ``tools/test_apps``, are built with all supported targets and sdkconfig files. The binaries are built under ``build_<target>_<config>``. For example
For ``build_test_related_apps``, all the built binaries will be uploaded to our internal MinIO server. You may find the download link in the build report posted in the internal MR.
For ``build_non_test_related_apps``, all the built binaries will be removed after the build job is finished. Only the build log files will be uploaded to our internal MinIO server. You may also find the download link in the build report posted in the internal MR.
In CI, all generated target test jobs are named according to the pattern "<targets> - <env_markers>". For example, single-dut test job ``esp32 - generic``, or multi-dut test job ``esp32,esp32 - multi_dut_generic``.
The binaries in the target test jobs are downloaded from our internal MinIO servers. For most of the test cases, only the files that are required by flash (like .bin files, flash_args files, etc) would be downloaded. For some test cases, like jtag test cases, .elf files are also downloaded.
As long as one of the above directories exists, the test case uses that directory to flash the binaries. If none of the above directories exists, the test case fails with an error.
Some test cases may need to run with different sdkconfig files. Let's take :project:`examples/system/console/basic` as an example. Assume we're testing with a ESP32 board, and test with ``sdkconfig.ci.history``.
Here if we use ``pytest --target esp32 -k history``, both test cases will be selected, since ``pytest -k`` will use string matching to filter the test cases.
The app with ``sdkconfig.ci.history`` will be built in ``build_esp32_history``, and the app with ``sdkconfig.ci.nohistory`` will be built in ``build_esp32_nohistory``. ``pytest --target esp32`` will run tests on both apps.
Even if you have ``build_esp32_default``, or ``build`` directory locally, pytest would still download the binaries from pipeline 123456 and place the binaries in ``build_esp32_default``. Then run the test case with this binary.
``replace_dut_class`` is a `module-scoped <https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/how-to/fixtures.html#scope-sharing-fixtures-across-classes-modules-packages-or-session>`__`autouse <https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/how-to/fixtures.html#autouse-fixtures-fixtures-you-don-t-have-to-request>`__ fixture. This function replaces the ``IdfDut`` class with your custom class.
Certain test cases are based on Ethernet or Wi-Fi. However, the test may be flaky due to networking issues. Thus, it is possible to mark a particular test case as flaky.
Now you may mark this test case with marker `xfail <https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/how-to/skipping.html#xfail-mark-test-functions-as-expected-to-fail>`__ with a user-friendly readable reason.
We are using two types of custom markers, target markers which indicate that the test cases should support this target, and env markers which indicate that the test cases should be assigned to runners with these tags in CI.
You can add new markers by adding one line under the :idf_file:`conftest.py`. If it is a target marker, it should be added into ``TARGET_MARKERS``. If it is a marker that specifies a type of test environment, it should be added into ``ENV_MARKERS``. The syntax should be: ``<marker_name>: <marker_description>``.
Sometimes you may need to record some statistics while running the tests, like the performance test statistics.
You can use `record_xml_attribute <https://docs.pytest.org/en/latest/how-to/output.html?highlight=junit#record-xml-attribute>`__ fixture in your test script, and the statistics would be recorded as attributes in the JUnit report.
The above example would log the performance item with pre-defined format: ``[performance][test]: 1`` and record it under the ``properties`` tag in the JUnit report if ``--junitxml <filepath>`` is specified. The JUnit test case node would look like:
We provide C macros ``TEST_PERFORMANCE_LESS_THAN`` and ``TEST_PERFORMANCE_GREATER_THAN`` to log the performance item and check if the value is in the valid range. Sometimes the performance item value could not be measured in C code, so we also provide a Python function for the same purpose. Please note that using C macros is the preferred approach, since the Python function could not recognize the threshold values of the same performance item under different ``#ifdef`` blocks well.
The above example would first get the threshold values of the performance item ``RSA_2048KEY_PUBLIC_OP`` from :idf_file:`components/idf_test/include/idf_performance.h` and the target-specific one :idf_file:`components/idf_test/include/esp32/idf_performance_target.h`, then check if the value reached the minimum limit or exceeded the maximum limit.
Let us assume the value of ``IDF_PERFORMANCE_MAX_RSA_2048KEY_PUBLIC_OP`` is 19000. so the first ``check_performance`` line would pass and the second one would fail with warning: ``[Performance] RSA_2048KEY_PUBLIC_OP value is 19001, doesn\'t meet pass standard 19000.0``.