[libcamera-devel] [PATCH] meson: disable tests by default

[Christian Rauch]

Hi Kieran,

Am 05.09.22 um 11:51 schrieb Kieran Bingham:
> Hi All,
>
> Quoting Umang Jain via libcamera-devel (2022-09-05 07:41:50)
>> Hi Christian,
>>
>> Thank you for the patch.
>>
>> On 9/5/22 3:29 AM, Laurent Pinchart via libcamera-devel wrote:
>>> Hi Christian,
>>>
>>> Thank you for the patch.
>>>
>>> On Sun, Sep 04, 2022 at 06:27:15PM +0200, Christian Rauch via libcamera-devel wrote:
>>>> Compiling with tests adds a significant amount of build targets to the
>>>> meson build. However, tests are only of interest when a feature has been
>>>> implemented or for continuous integration.
>>>> Disable tests by default to reduce the computational resource requirements
>>>> and the duration of a complete libcamera built.
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Christian Rauch <Rauch.Christian at gmx.de>
>>> As most people building libcamera won't run tests, this seems reasonable
>>> to me. I'm however a bit worried that it would lead to lower
>>> compilation-test coverage, as people may send patches without realizing
>>> they break compilation of tests. We already have that problem for
>>
>> I'm concerned about this as well.
>
> When I first saw this patch over the weekend, indeed my reaction was
> "Ahhh" ... but I also agree this is a better default to have off right
> now.
>
> We would like patches to be submitted after having all tests run, but
> the majority of people who compile libcamera (currently) may not be
> developers. We have lots of people compiling on RPi / IPU3 and low power
> devices directly, and they certainly don't care for running tests.

I compile libcamera more often than I submit patches. I also compile on
a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. So compiling the tests is a huge waste of
resources for me.

> So to improve user experience, I do think this should be off by default
> (at least now) and that stance may change depending on our upcoming
> release strategies ... but developers should be able to enable tests
> anyway.

I would argue that tests should only be enabled when it is intended to
run them.

> Ideally of course these tests will then be enabled and run on any branch
> push to the common public hosting services, so I think we should
> integrate a gitlab and github CI script that could build and run the
> unit tests. (These could skip the kernel related tests initially).

I am also used to have tests run automatically on a CI server when I
send PRs to other projects. Having some public libcamera CI instance
that compiles and tests sent patches would be very helpful.
If you intend to use GitHub actions, I can contribute the scripts that I
already use for my own purpose.

>
> Anyway,
>
> Yes -
>
> Reviewed-by: Kieran Bingham <kieran.bingham at ideasonboard.com>
>
>>> runtime breakages of tests, and it's most likely be addressed by test
>>> automation on patches submitted upstream, so I think I'm fine with the
>>> change.
>>>
>>> Reviewed-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart at ideasonboard.com>
>>
>> Reviewed-by: Umang Jain <umang.jain at ideasonboard.com>
>>
>>>
>>>> ---
>>>>   meson_options.txt | 1 +
>>>>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
>>>> index 7a9aecfc..f1d67808 100644
>>>> --- a/meson_options.txt
>>>> +++ b/meson_options.txt
>>>> @@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ option('qcam',
>>>>
>>>>   option('test',
>>>>           type : 'boolean',
>>>> +        value : false,
>>>>           description: 'Compile and include the tests')
>>>>
>>>>   option('tracing',
>>