902645 - Android xpcshell tests may fail to create /data/local/xpcb due to directory permissions

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Testing :: XPCShell Harness, defect)

Description

[Geoff Brown [:gbrown]]

remotexpcshelltests.py pushes xpcshell and related files to a directory which it creates, /data/local/xpcb. It does so through devicemanager.shellCheckOutput(["mkdir", ...]) which typically results in mkdir being run without root privileges. When run via sut on pandaboards, sut does not have permission to create a directory in /data/local, and the tests fail: see bug 881293. The same problem exists on the android x86 emulator.

Comment 1

[Geoff Brown [:gbrown]]

Attachment: modify remotexpcshelltests.py to use root if needed when creating xpcb

remotexpcshelltests.py does not otherwise need root, so I first try to create xpcb without root permissions and only retry with root if needed. This way it is possible that xpcshell tests can still run on non-rooted devices, as long as /data/local is writable.

If the non-privileged attempt throws a DMError, this patch retries with root. If that succeeds, there is a good chance that the new directory will not be world writable, so future non-privileged operations will fail. To avoid that, I also chmod 777 the new directory as root.

Tested on the x86 emulator -- works fine for me.

This should not affect the tegras, but just in case...https://tbpl.mozilla.org/?tree=Try&rev=9b516b9c8240

Comment 2

[Joel Maher ( :jmaher ) (UTC -8)]

Comment on attachment 787145 [details] [diff] [review]
modify remotexpcshelltests.py to use root if needed when creating xpcb

Review of attachment 787145 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

this moves us forward!

::: testing/xpcshell/remotexpcshelltests.py
@@ +97,5 @@
> +                self.device.shellCheckOutput(["mkdir", self.remoteBinDir]);
> +            except devicemanager.DMError:
> +                # Might get a permission error; try again as root, if available
> +                self.device.shellCheckOutput(["mkdir", self.remoteBinDir], root=True);
> +                self.device.shellCheckOutput(["chmod", "777", self.remoteBinDir], root=True);

does this error out by terminating the script with traceback if shellCheckOutput fails?  I only ask because of running the same command in the except clause.  I noticed on my device that root=True wasn't helpful via SUT all the time on my nexus s which is rooted technically, but obviously not the same as we would expect.

Comment 3

[Geoff Brown [:gbrown]]

(In reply to Joel Maher (:jmaher) from comment #2)
> does this error out by terminating the script with traceback if
> shellCheckOutput fails? 

Yes, if the second shellCheckOutput (inside the except) fails, the new exception is uncaught and you get a traceback, just like before.

Comment 4

[Geoff Brown [:gbrown]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/b344b9d1d5fc

Comment 5

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b344b9d1d5fc

Comment 6

[Geoff Brown [:gbrown]]

This change was unintentionally clobbered by bug 887054.

Re-landed: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/e7f8f355829e

Comment 7

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/e7f8f355829e