labgrid-project / labgrid

Embedded systems control library for development, testing and installation

Welcome to labgrid

Labgrid is an embedded board control python library with a focus on testing, development and general automation. It includes a remote control layer to control boards connected to other hosts.

• Purpose and Features
• Documentation
• Contributing
• Background
• Installation
  • Install Latest Release
  • Install Development State

Purpose and Features

The idea behind labgrid is to create an abstraction of the hardware control layer needed for testing of embedded systems, automatic software installation and automation during development. Labgrid itself is not a testing framework, but is intended to be combined with pytest (and additional pytest plugins). Please see Design Decisions for more background information.

It currently supports:

• remote client-exporter-coordinator infrastructure to make boards available from different computers on a network
• pytest plugin to write automated tests for embedded systems
• CLI and library usage for development and automation
• interaction with bootloader and Linux shells on top of serial console or SSH
• power/reset management via drivers for power switches
• upload of binaries and device bootstrapping via USB
• control of digital outputs, SD card and USB multiplexers
• integration of audio/video/measurement devices for remote development and testing
• Docker/QEMU integration

While labgrid is currently used for daily development on embedded boards and for automated testing, several planned features are not yet implemented and the APIs may be changed as more use-cases appear. We appreciate code contributions and feedback on using labgrid on other environments (see Contributing for details). Please consider contacting us (via a GitHub issue) before starting larger changes, so we can discuss design trade-offs early and avoid redundant work. You can also look at Ideas for enhancements which are not yet implemented.

Documentation

labgrid's documentation is hosted on Read the Docs.

Contributing

See our Development Docs.

Visit us in our IRC channel #labgrid on libera.chat (bridged to the Matrix channel #labgrid:matrix.org)

Background

Work on labgrid started at Pengutronix in late 2016 and is currently in active use and development.

Installation

See the Installation section for more details.

Install Latest Release

Install labgrid via PyPi:

$ virtualenv -p python3 venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
venv $ pip install --upgrade pip
venv $ pip install labgrid

Install Development State

Clone the git repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/labgrid-project/labgrid

Create and activate a virtualenv for labgrid:

$ virtualenv -p python3 venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
venv $ pip install --upgrade pip

Install labgrid into the virtualenv:

venv $ pip install .

Tests can now run via:

venv $ python -m pytest --lg-env <config>