[RFC]Enable Execution of Linux Package Testcase in Autotest

[PoornimaNayak]

Objective: To improve usage and maintenance of Linux package test cases.
In Linux Technology Center at IBM, we have test cases developed by IBMers which has been developed from last couple of years and which has been maintained internally. We also use test cases which are there in the source of Linux packages to test Linux OS. Year to year we have been investing effort in fixing bugs in those test cases picked from upstream.
Few months ago test team invested effort in using GPLv2 license for all the test cases developed internally within the IBM as well as right license for test cases in Linux Source packages.
Now idea is to make this test cases consumable from one point like Autotest, Autotest client has been enhanced by our remote interns to support linux tools testing under client/test/linux-tools/packages[1..10].
At present within our code repository we have testcases for around 320+ linux packages.
-First step is commit these test cases which are basically scripts under client/linux-tools/packages[1..220]-
-Then periodically synchronize test cases from upstream package to Autotest/client/test/linux-tools[packages[...]
-Test team in LTC IBM will be periodically sending patches to maintain these test cases in linux-tools.
-These test cases today will run on Fedora, RHEL and CentOS distribution. Eventually will be enabled for SLES and Ubuntu.

By making Linux package test cases available under one umbrella like Autotest will enable Linux test community to give back to the community what they have been developing also it will help in maintaining test cases by fixing bugs in test case sources of Linux packages. Hence end result is better maintenance of test sources.

[clebergnu]

Dear @PoornimaNayak ,

The overall idea is great, and the benefits to the greater community are undeniable. Kudos to IBM and the Linux Technology Center on that.

Regarding making those tests available in Autotest, I'd suggest your team takes a moment look at Avocado instead. Avocado is being developed by the same team that used to maintain Autotest, as a "next generation" test framework.

There's a list of useful resources at our web site: http://avocado-framework.github.io

Other than that, I'd like to point out to the "avocado-tests-mic" repo at: https://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado-misc-tests

It contains a few tests ported from autotest-client-tests, and is the right place to receive new ported tests.