Running Tests interactively
The test itself can be run interactively. This is particularly useful when
developing or debugging a test:
$ nix-build nixos/tests/login.nix -A driver
$ ./result/bin/nixos-test-driver
starting VDE switch for network 1
>
You can then take any Perl statement, e.g.
> startAll
> testScript
> $machine->succeed("touch /tmp/foo")
> print($machine->succeed("pwd")) # Show stdout of command
The function testScript executes the entire test script
and drops you back into the test driver command line upon its completion.
This allows you to inspect the state of the VMs after the test (e.g. to debug
the test script).
To just start and experiment with the VMs, run:
$ nix-build nixos/tests/login.nix -A driver
$ ./result/bin/nixos-run-vms
The script nixos-run-vms starts the virtual machines
defined by test.
The machine state is kept across VM restarts in
/tmp/vm-state-machinename.