This document provides an explanation of why launchers are necessary, what you can achieve with them, and goes over several examples to better describe their capabilities. For a detailed reference on which settings are supported by launchers, and specific syntax for launcher files, look at Profiles configuration.
In the past, Checkbox‘s behavior was controlled by three mechanisms.
First, the functions of checkbox could be augmented by adding plugins. For example, the ability to submit to certification website was added by the checkbox-certification package using a plugin. The plugins included by checkbox-certification and which add new behavior to base checkbox were:
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_message.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/submission_info.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/backup.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_prompt.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_report.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_schemas.py
These added the way to prompt the user for submission-specific data, generate the xml report, and other functions.
Next, the behaviors of the plugins could be configured or controlled using configuration files, which are “cascaded”. A config file can include others and those can in turn include others.
This is an example of a project-specific project-qt.ini main config file. It’s the first file read when the project-specific client is launched. Some settings are abbreviated:
[DEFAULT]
includes = %(checkbox_oem_share)s/configs/checkbox-project-base-qt.ini %(checkbox_project_share)s/configs/checkbox-project-base.ini
[checkbox/plugins/environment_info]
repositories = deb http://.*\(archive\|security\).ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security
routers = multiple
server_iperf = 10.20.30.40
sources_list = /etc/apt/sources.list
wpa_n_psk = password
wpa_n_ssid = access-point
[checkbox/plugins/user_interface]
title = My project System Testing
Notice the includes line, this instructs it to load the config file for checkbox-project-base-qt and checkbox-project-base. Checkbox-project-base-qt loads the configs for checkbox-certification and checkbox-project. Settings are cascaded so the config options near the top override the ones near the bottom.
Finally, the “binary” used to invoke checkbox is a shell script that defines where to find the things checkbox needs to run: you can define a share directory, a specific data directory, point to a configuration file and define some environment variables that you may need during testing. Here’s an example for checkbox-project-qt:
#!/bin/bash
export CHECKBOX_DATA=${CHECKBOX_DATA:-~/.checkbox}
export CHECKBOX_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox}
export CHECKBOX_OPTIONS=${CHECKBOX_OPTIONS:---log-level=debug --log=$CHECKBOX_DATA/checkbox-project.log}
export CHECKBOX_CERTIFICATION_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_CERTIFICATION_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox-certification}
export CHECKBOX_OEM_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_PROJECT_BASE_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox-project-base}
export CHECKBOX_PROJECT_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_PROJECT_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox-project}
# Convenience for defining the PYTHONPATH directory.
if [ "$CHECKBOX_SHARE" != "/usr/share/checkbox" ]; then
export PYTHONPATH="$CHECKBOX_SHARE:$PYTHONPATH"
fi
python3 $CHECKBOX_SHARE/run "$@" $CHECKBOX_PROJECT_SHARE/configs/$(basename $0).ini
Here you can see that it defines some locations and an important part is the final python3 line, where it will locate and use the required .ini config file we saw earlier.
This hierarchical organization was very powerful but was also difficult to handle, and also had some limitations. Part of the work we did with checkbox was to integrate all the project-specific plugins into checkbox trunk, this way all the core code is in one place, and the project-specific variants only supply jobs, whitelists, data and configuration, without adding new behavior.
Unlike checkbox, plainbox’s core is monolythic, and it has no concept of plugins. This makes it easier to understand and work with. The plainbox core has implementations for all the functions in the old checkbox packages, so no additions are necessary to use features such as submission to certification or report generation.
What we call plainbox is the library that implements all the functionality, as can be seen here.
Plainbox provides tools to help test developers write and package tests. These are delivered in “providers”, which are entities designed to encapsulate test descriptions, custom scripts for testing, whitelists and assorted data. They were designed to allow teams to write and deliver their custom tests without worrying too much about the underlying plainbox code.
To get information on how to write tests and providers, see the Provider Tutorial
However, when actually using these tests to verify a real system, we wanted to provide something easier and closer to the user experience of checkbox. We created two clients, checkbox-gui and checkbox-cli, which had some hardcoded behaviors, and we also started creating other clients which were based on these but were purpose specific. For instance, we had a version of checkbox for SRU testing, another for server certification, and so on.
But then we realized that a lot of the code was duplicated and the behaviors were common except for a few changes. So we came up with the concept of “launchers”, which are somewhat similar to checkbox’s configuration files and shell script launchers.
The idea is that checkbox-gui and checkbox-cli have some very basic behaviors, since they are the clients that are shipped by default with ubuntu. They can show all the available whitelists, show a predefined welcome message, and at the end will let the user see the html report and submit it to launchpad using their e-mail address, similar to the version of checkbox that shipped with Ubuntu.
Instead of using complicated command line switches, launchers allow you to configure some optional behaviors to customize your testing experience. A launcher contains settings, and is similar to a shell script, but the interpreter will be either checkbox-gui or checkbox-launcher.
Here are a few examples of what can be done with launchers.
As a surprise, checkbox-cli is itself a launcher:
#!/usr/bin/env checkbox-launcher
[welcome]
text = Welcome to System Testing!
Checkbox provides tests to confirm that your system is working properly.
Once you are finished running the tests, you can view a summary report for
your system.
Warning: Some tests could cause your system to freeze or become
unresponsive. Please save all your work and close all other running
applications before beginning the testing process.
[suite]
whitelist_filter = ^default$
whitelist_selection = ^default$
skip_whitelist_selection = True
[transport]
submit_to = launchpad
You can see here we customize a few options: it shows a welcome message, automatically selects the default whitelist, and will submit to launchpad when it’s finished.
A graphical launcher example is canonical-certification-client.
#!/usr/bin/checkbox-gui
[welcome]
title = "System Certification"
text = "<p>Welcome to System Certification!</p><p></p><p>This application will
gather information from your system. Then you will be asked manual tests to
confirm that the system is working properly. Finally, you will be asked for
the Secure ID of the computer to submit the information to the certification
database.</p><p></p><p> To learn how to create or locate the Secure ID,
please see here: <a href=\"https://certification.canonical.com\">certification.canonical.com</a></p><p></p>"
[suite]
whitelist_filter = "^client-(cert|selftest).*"
[submission]
input_type = "regex"
input_placeholder = "Secure ID (15 or 18 characters)"
ok_btn_text = "Submit Results"
submit_to_hexr = "true"
[exporter]
xml_export_path = "/tmp/submission.xml"
[transport]
submit_to = "certification"
Graphical launchers are a bit more complicated, but essentially it’s similar, what it allows is for you to define some parameters to customize your testing experience.
A very simple text-mode launcher is canonical-hw-collection which just runs the basic hardware information tests and uploads them to a hardware database:
[welcome]
title = Gathering hardware information
text = Gathering hardware information. You may be prompted for your password.
This process will take approximately 30 seconds and you will be provided
with a URL through which you can confirm and register your hardware
submission.
[suite]
whitelist_filter = ^hwsubmit$
whitelist_selection = ^hwsubmit$
skip_whitelist_selection = True
skip_test_selection = True
[submission]
# A bogus secure_id ensures we don't ask it
# It can always be overridden in the .conf file.
secure_id = 000
[transport]
submit_to = certification
submit_url = https://hardware-server.example.com/
FInally, canonical-driver-test-suite provides both a graphical and a text mode launcher, which are functionally equivalent:
#!/usr/bin/checkbox-gui
[welcome]
title = "Canonical Driver Test Suite"
text = "<p>Welcome to the Canonical Driver Test Suite.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This program contains automated and manual tests to help you discover
issues that will arise when running your device drivers on Ubuntu.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This application will step the user through these tests in a
predetermined order and automatically collect both system information as
well as test results. It will also prompt the user for input when manual
testing is required.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The run time for the tests is determined by which tests you decide to
execute. The user will have the opportunity to customize the test run to
accommodate the driver and the amount of time available for testing.</p>
<p></p>
<p>To begin, simply click the Continue button below and follow the onscreen
instructions.</p><p></p>"
[suite]
whitelist_filter = "^ihv-.*"
[submission]
ok_btn_text = "Save Results"
input_type = "none"
[exporter]
xml_export_path = ""
[transport]
submit_to = "local"
Text mode:
#!/usr/bin/env checkbox-launcher
[welcome]
text = Welcome to the Canonical Driver Test Suite
This program contains automated and manual tests to help you discover
issues that will arise when running your device drivers on Ubuntu.
This application will step the user through these tests in a
predetermined order and automatically collect both system information as
well as test results. It will also prompt the user for input when manual
testing is required.
The run time for the tests is determined by which tests you decide to
execute. The user will have the opportunity to customize the test run to
accommodate the driver and the amount of time available for testing.
To begin, simply click the Continue button below and follow the onscreen
instructions.
[suite]
# Whitelist(s) displayed in the suite selection screen
whitelist_filter = ^ihv-.*
# Whitelist_selection is mandatory so we set it to a bogus value so
# no whitelists are preselected.
whitelist_selection = bogus