A Docker-based environment for functional testing of Linux kernels with coverage collection.
kernel-tests-box/
├── run-hwmon-driver.sh # One-command workflow for a single hwmon driver
├── build-docker-image.sh # Build the Docker image
├── run-container.sh # Start the container
├── enter-container.sh # Get a shell inside the container
├── run-all.sh # Main control script (build → container → setup)
├── project.env # Container name, SSH port defaults
├── Dockerfile # Debian 11 (bullseye) build environment
├── config/
│ └── kernel/ # Base kernel configs
├── patches/
│ ├── kernel/ # Patches applied to the kernel before build
│ └── qemu/ # Patches applied to QEMU before build
├── scripts/
│ ├── 01-setup-env.sh # Environment variables (kernel tag, gcov, paths)
│ ├── 02-build-kernel.sh # Clone, configure, and build the kernel
│ ├── 03-build-qemu.sh # Clone and build QEMU from source
│ ├── 05-build-image.sh # Build Debian 11 guest root filesystem (debootstrap)
│ ├── ensure-hwmon-tests.sh # Clone hwmon-i2c-stub-tests when missing
│ ├── run-vm.sh # Start the QEMU VM for testing
│ ├── collect-gcov-in-vm.sh # Run inside VM to collect gcov coverage data
│ ├── render-gcov-report.sh # Generate LCOV HTML report from collected data
│ ├── ssh-to-vm.sh # SSH into the running VM
│ ├── scp-to-vm.sh # Copy files to the VM
│ ├── scp-from-vm.sh # Copy files from the VM
│ └── tools/
│ └── diff_configs.sh # Compare two kernel .config files
└── volume/ # Persistent storage mounted into the container
Before starting, review two files:
project.env— container name, SSH port for VM access.scripts/01-setup-env.sh— kernel repository, branch (KERNEL_GIT_TAG), local version suffix (KERNEL_LOCALVERSION).
To select the kernel version, set KERNEL_GIT_TAG in 01-setup-env.sh:
export KERNEL_GIT_TAG="<kernel-tag>"
# Available tag examples are listed in scripts/01-setup-env.shTo enable gcov coverage collection, keep gcov in KERNEL_LOCALVERSION:
export KERNEL_LOCALVERSION="<build-suffix>-gcov" # gcov enabled
# export KERNEL_LOCALVERSION="<build-suffix>" # gcov disabledFrom a fresh clone:
./run-hwmon-driver.sh lm90This command:
- builds or reuses the Docker image and container;
- clones
hwmon-i2c-stub-testsfromhttps://github.com/zef2f/hwmon-i2c-stub-tests.git; - builds or reuses the kernel, QEMU, and guest image;
- starts or reuses the VM;
- runs the requested driver test and stores artifacts in
volume/artifacts/.
./run-all.sh # build image → start container → build kernel + QEMU + rootfs./run-all.sh build # Build the Docker image
./run-all.sh container # Start the container
./run-all.sh kernel # Build the kernel (inside container)
./run-all.sh qemu # Build QEMU from source (inside container)
./run-all.sh image # Build the Debian 11 guest rootfs (inside container)
./run-all.sh setup # Run kernel + qemu + image in sequence# Start the VM (serial console, SSH on localhost:22000)
./scripts/run-vm.sh
# From another terminal: SSH into the VM
./scripts/ssh-to-vm.sh
# Copy a test script to the VM
./scripts/scp-to-vm.sh ./my-test.sh /root/
# Copy results back from the VM
./scripts/scp-from-vm.sh /root/results.tar ./After running tests inside the VM:
# 1. Inside the VM — collect gcov data
./collect-gcov-in-vm.sh # produces /root/gcov_data.tar
# 2. On the host — transfer the archive
./scripts/scp-from-vm.sh /root/gcov_data.tar ./
# 3. On the host / inside the container — generate HTML report
./scripts/render-gcov-report.sh gcov_data.tar "My Test Suite"The *.gcno archive (gcov_build-*.tar.gz) is produced automatically by
02-build-kernel.sh after a gcov build and must reside at the same absolute
path as during compilation when generating the report.
GPL-3.0-or-later. See the LICENSE file for details.