Re: [PATCH 0/4] deterministic random testing

[Rasmus Villemoes <linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk>]

On 26/10/2020 11.59, Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 25, 2020 at 10:48:38PM +0100, Rasmus Villemoes wrote:
>> This is a bit of a mixed bag.
>>
>> The background is that I have some sort() and list_sort() rework
>> planned, but as part of that series I want to extend their their test
>> suites somewhat to make sure I don't goof up - and I want to use lots
>> of random list lengths with random contents to increase the chance of
>> somebody eventually hitting "hey, sort() is broken when the length is
>> 3 less than a power of 2 and only the last two elements are out of
>> order". But when such a case is hit, it's vitally important that the
>> developer can reproduce the exact same test case, which means using a
>> deterministic sequence of random numbers.
>>
>> Since Petr noticed [1] the non-determinism in test_printf in
>> connection with Arpitha's work on rewriting it to kunit, this prompted
>> me to use test_printf as a first place to apply that principle, and
>> get the infrastructure in place that will avoid repeating the "module
>> parameter/seed the rnd_state/report the seed used" boilerplate in each
>> module.
>>
>> Shuah, assuming the kselftest_module.h changes are ok, I think it's
>> most natural if you carry these patches, though I'd be happy with any
>> other route as well.
> 
> Completely in favour of this.
> 
> Reviewed-by: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@linux.intel.com>

Thanks.

> One note though. AFAIU the global variables are always being used in the
> modules that include the corresponding header. Otherwise we might have an extra
> warning(s). I believe you have compiled with W=1 to exclude other cases.

Yes, I unconditionally define the two new variables. gcc doesn't warn
about them being unused, since they are referenced from inside a

  if (0) {}

block. And when those references are the only ones, gcc is smart enough
to elide the static variables completely, so they don't even take up
space in .data (or .init.data) - you can verify by running nm on
test_printf.o and test_bitmap.o - the former has 'seed' and 'rnd_state'
symbols, the latter does not.

I did it that way to reduce the need for explicit preprocessor
conditionals inside C functions.

Rasmus