Ask HN: Why the Linux Kernel doesn't have unit tests?

Re:Ask HN: Why the Linux Kernel doesn't have unit tests? by thiht on Friday November 25, 2022 @02:00PM (#33745646)

> Do you really need tests for the read(2) syscall when Linux is running on a billion devices, and that syscall is called some 10^12 times per second globally?

I’m not sure why you’re expecting the answer “no” here. The biggest value of automated tests is non-regression. So with billions of users, yes, you absolutely need reliable and reproducible tests. Maybe not unit tests (I agree they’re overrated, you want to test contracts and behaviors, not implementation details) but a strong integration test suite is a must have. To ensure you don’t break anything your billion users might rely on.

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Re:Ask HN: Why the Linux Kernel doesn't have unit tests? by sph on Saturday November 26, 2022 @04:43AM (#33751339)

I do actually agree with you, what I am saying is that a big part of Linux testing is crowdsourced: you and I and hundreds of millions are testing if there's a regression every time we run Linux, or running buggy, incorrect software on machines in random levels of stability and soundness.

Few unit tests in the kernel would be able to compete with so many chaos monkeys (a reference to Netflix's https://github.com/Netflix/chaosmonkey).

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