Test Systems

Here is a quick list of different test systems (and test projects) for Linux:

Test Projects
Clearly, a number of open source projects in this realm exist. This page intends to collect descriptions and links to these projects

Test Automation Tools

 * Autotest
 * LAVA
 * Opentest
 * Red Hat Test Project
 * Ktest Automate kernel testing

Papers on testing

 * Paper on finding bugs in Unix programs using random input: http://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/paradyn/technical_papers/fuzz.pdf

Test Suites

 * Linux Test Project
 * LTP-DDT

Static Analysis

 * Sparse
 * Smatch
 * clang

Automated kernel compilation results
Here are some locations where automated tests of kernel compilation can be viewed:

L4X

 * http://l4x.org/k/ - Jan Dittmer's page showing the build status and kernel size of the defconfigs of many architectures. Running since 2004 or 2005

Kautobuild
Kautobuild is Simtec's automated system to build and store results for ARM and MIPS platforms, for every kernel version. It uses defconfigs for multiple boards, and reports compile errors/warnings, module size, kernel size etc.
 * Kautobuild for ARM - http://armlinux.simtec.co.uk/kautobuild/
 * mail archive version of results is at: http://lists.simtec.co.uk/pipermail/kautobuild/
 * Article about the Simtel site is at: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4646877354.html (2006)

ABAT
ABAT - https://sourceforge.net/projects/abat/ - does a download/build/boot regression test for several mainline kernel trees, as soon as new versions are available - test results matrix is available here: - http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mbligh/abat/regression_matrix.html

Bug tracking system
A bug tracking system is a software application that is designed to help quality assurance and computer programmers keep track of reported software bugs in their work.

Many bug-tracking systems, such as those used by most open source software projects, allow users to enter bug reports directly. Other systems are used only internally in a company or organization doing software development. Typically bug tracking systems are integrated with other software project management applications.

Having a bug tracking system is extremely valuable in software development, and they are used extensively by companies developing software products.

Components
A major component of a bug tracking system is a database that records facts about known bugs. Facts may include the time a bug was reported, its severity, the erroneous program behavior, and details on how to reproduce the bug; as well as the identity of the person who reported it and any programmers who may be working on fixing it.

Typical bug tracking systems support the concept of the life cycle for a bug which is tracked through status assigned to the bug. A bug tracking system should allow administrators to configure permissions based on status, move the bug to another status, or delete the bug. The system should also allow administrators to configure the bug statuses and to what status a bug in a particular status can be moved to.

Usage
In a corporate environment, a bug-tracking system may be used to generate reports on the productivity of programmers at fixing bugs. However, this may sometimes yield inaccurate results because different bugs may have different levels of severity and complexity. The severity of a bug may not be directly related to the complexity of fixing the bug. There may be different opinions among the managers and architects.

A local bug tracker (LBT) is usually a computer program used by a team of application support professionals to keep track of issues communicated to software developers. Using an LBT allows support professionals to track bugs in their "own language" and not the "language of the developers." In addition, LBT use allows a team of support professionals to track specific information about users who have called to complain that may not always be needed in the actual development queue (thus, there are two tracking systems when an LBT is in place.)