Re: [Gptfdisk-general] Functionalities tests for gdisk binaries

[Rod S. <rod...@ro...>]

On 07/20/2011 06:48 PM, Guillaume Delacour wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As Debian maintainer of the gdisk package, i would like to automatically
> test gdisk binaries after build time to ensure that they works correctly
> before uploading it in the archive.
>
> I've start to work on a shell script that test the binaries by doing
> several operations on a dd generated file (attached).
>
> I think it would be interesting to have a complete test procedure for
> gdisk.
>
> Other ideas (such as convert MBR to GPT, restore, see TODO, etc...) or
> criticism welcome.

Sorry to take so long to respond; I've just been occupied with more 
pressing matters.

Your test script certainly looks useful, so I'd like to include it in 
the next GPT fdisk package, which I expect to release this weekend. 
FWIW, this version will include a new cgdisk program, modeled after 
cfdisk. I'm not sure if a curses-based program could be tested 
automatically, though. Fortunately, all the core functionality comes 
from the same code, so if gdisk and sgdisk pass, I'd expect cgdisk to 
pass, too, unless there's a user interface bug.

Certainly the number of things that could be tested is huge, 
particularly if recovery from error conditions (damaged GPT headers, 
etc.) is included. For such conditions, I'd prioritize the program's 
actions when the protective MBR is replaced by a conventional MBR (as 
might happen if the disk were repartioned with fdisk) or if the 
protective MBR and entire first set of GPT structures were overwritten 
(as might happen in an accident with dd).

-- 
Rod Smith
rod...@ro...
http://www.rodsbooks.com