Re: [PATCH] tools: selftests - create a separate hotplug target

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Thu, 26 Jun 2014 14:33:56 -0600 Shuah Khan <shuah.kh@samsung.com> wrote:

> On some systems, hotplug tests could hang forever waiting for cpu and
> memory to be ready to be offlined. A special hotplug target is created,
> which will help run non-hotplug tests and run hotplug tests as a special
> case. Individual hotplug tests can still be run as a special target
> targeted for a single subsystem.

This is a bit sad.  The general philosophy with selftests is that they
should run to completion even if the kernel/hardware which they are
testing isn't available - they should work it out for themselves.

But that's obviously a problem with hotplug.  And with networking or
anything else which needs external action.

On the other hand, networking has loopback and the kernel supports cpu
hotplug simulation via procfs.  So perhaps the cpu and memory hotplug
tests should be redone so they do the plug/unplug injection themselves,
so they can run without external intervention?

Failing that, all I can think of is timeouts or some silly "press any
key to continue" operator intervention.