Install storage driver tools on-demand #15780

simondeziel · 2025-06-11T21:49:34Z

This allows speeding up both CI and local dev envs using test-shell by pulling just the needed bits, when they are needed.

Lastly, it also hard fail if a mkfs binary is missing instead of skipping the test (too easy to miss).

Get a fresh VM in ~2 minutes:

$ time bash -c 'lxc launch ubuntu-minimal-daily:24.04 v1 --vm -p lxd-test; sleep 20; lxc exec v1 -- cloud-init status --wait'
Launching v1
..........status: done

real	1m38.078s
user	0m0.058s
sys	0m0.098s

Compile dqlite, liblxc and LXD in ~3.5 minutes:

$ lxc shell v1
root@v1:~# cd lxd
root@v1:~/lxd# time bash -c 'make deps && make'
...


real	3m18.779s
user	5m42.251s
sys	1m31.288s

Get a test-shell instantly:

root@v1:~/lxd# time LXD_BACKEND=zfs make test-shell
cd test && ./main.sh test-shell
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
   libnvpair3linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   libuutil3linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   libzfs4linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   libzpool5linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
Suggested packages:
   nfs-kernel-server (1:2.6.4-3ubuntu5.1)
   samba-common-bin (2:4.19.5+dfsg-4ubuntu9)
   zfs-initramfs (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   | zfs-dracut (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
Recommended packages:
   zfs-zed (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
The following NEW packages will be installed:
   libnvpair3linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   libuutil3linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   libzfs4linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   libzpool5linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
   zfsutils-linux (2.2.2-0ubuntu9.2)
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
...

==> Test result: success

real	0m9.534s
user	0m2.184s
sys	0m2.353s

test/main.sh

simondeziel · 2025-06-11T22:06:54Z

* This key is duplicated (also defined on line 17); remove the redundant entry to avoid confusion.

APT::Get::Show-Versions "true";

This was actually a valid suggestion, thanks @copilot.

…mkfs.btrfs`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

…kfs.fat`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

…fs.ext4`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

Copilot

Pull Request Overview

This PR updates the test and documentation frameworks to support on-demand installation of storage driver tools, ensuring that only the required bits are pulled when needed to speed up CI and local development.

Removed pre-checks for tool availability in test suites to enable dynamic installation
Updated test/main.sh to install missing packages based on the requested storage backend
Modified documentation and action files to reflect the new on-demand installation approach

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
test/suites/storage_driver_zfs.sh	Removed mkfs tool check in favor of on-demand installation
test/suites/migration.sh	Similarly removed mkfs tool check to align with updated installation flow
test/main.sh	Added logic to install storage backend packages if not already available
doc/lxd-test.yaml & doc/installing.md	Updated package lists to include additional dependencies
.github/actions/install-lxd-runtimedeps/action.yml	Adjusted installation steps, removing some package installs for tools

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (4)

test/suites/storage_driver_zfs.sh:112

Removal of the mkfs tool check assumes that tools will be installed on-demand. Consider adding a comment to explain this behavior for future maintenance clarity.

if ! command -v "mkfs.${filesystem}" >/dev/null 2>&1; then

test/suites/migration.sh:51

Similar to the storage_driver_zfs.sh change, consider adding a comment explaining the removal of the mkfs tool check to clarify that missing tools are handled on-demand.

if ! command -v "mkfs.${fs}" >/dev/null 2>&1; then

test/main.sh:62

Consider adding error handling or logging if the attempted package installation fails, to provide clearer feedback during test execution.

elif ! available_storage_backends | grep -qwF "${LXD_BACKEND}"; then

.github/actions/install-lxd-runtimedeps/action.yml:13

The explicit installation of zfsutils-linux has been removed here. Confirm that on-demand installation in test/main.sh covers all required storage backends consistently.

zfsutils-linux

…s.xfs`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

This avoids pulling 51 extra packages in the name of speed. If something's needed, it needs to be explicitely added to the list of `packages`. Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

It's faster than uninstalling their respective packages. Also stop worrying about packages not present in `ubuntu-minimal-daily:24.04`. Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

tomponline · 2025-06-12T07:12:08Z

doc/lxd-test.yaml

    - content: "force-unsafe-io\n"
      path: /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
      append: true
+    # Smaller initramfs (tailored to detected HW) and faster to build


How does it know which modules are needed?

The update-initramfs tool has the smart to include the modules that are needed by the env it executes in.

However, you made me look again and the 24.04 minimal images are now booting without the usual initrd so this is dead code (I just dropped it). Thanks for catching this!

Server/physical machines running Noble (or VMs < 24.04) can still benefit from this trick as they keep using the traditional initrd. Here it is in action, with the various level of setting:

Regular, big == boots everywhere

root@mars:~# time update-initramfs -uk all update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-60-generic ... real 0m8.063s user 0m2.678s sys 0m3.009s root@mars:~# ll -h /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-60-generic -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 62M Jun 12 09:09 /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-60-generic

Tailored, smaller == boots only on ~identical machine

root@mars:~# echo MODULES=dep > /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/lxd-test.conf root@mars:~# time update-initramfs -uk all ... real 0m5.417s user 0m1.467s sys 0m2.668s root@mars:~# ll -h /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-60-generic -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37M Jun 12 09:10 /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-60-generic

Thanks for looking into it, interesting stuff, TIL.

FYI, the speed difference between default and MODULES=dep was much bigger but since 23.10, they changed it so that modules are already zstd compressed and building the initrd is now essentially just concatenating them as-is into a cpio archive. There is no re-compression like there used to be.

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

…ions/install-lxd-runtimedeps Those are installed dynamically/on-demand by `test/main.sh`. Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

tomponline

Thanks!

github-actions bot added the Documentation Documentation needs updating label Jun 11, 2025

github-advanced-security bot found potential problems Jun 11, 2025

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simondeziel mentioned this pull request Jun 11, 2025

Improve make test-shell a bit #15764

Merged

simondeziel force-pushed the dynamic-storage-tools branch from 79c70f9 to 118eb61 Compare June 11, 2025 21:57

simondeziel requested a review from Copilot June 11, 2025 21:57

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simondeziel force-pushed the dynamic-storage-tools branch 2 times, most recently from e1e2e9f to fe31f4d Compare June 11, 2025 22:06

simondeziel added 3 commits June 11, 2025 18:53

doc/installing: add btrfs-progs to packages needed for tests (for `…

4cdbb09

…mkfs.btrfs`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

doc/installing: add dosfstools to packages needed for tests (for `m…

225ad96

…kfs.fat`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

doc/installing: add e2fsprogs to packages needed for tests (for `mk…

0f5fa49

…fs.ext4`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

simondeziel force-pushed the dynamic-storage-tools branch from fe31f4d to 77a8bd1 Compare June 11, 2025 23:03

simondeziel requested a review from Copilot June 12, 2025 01:10

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 12, 2025

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simondeziel marked this pull request as ready for review June 12, 2025 01:17

simondeziel requested review from tomponline June 12, 2025 01:17

doc/installing: add xfsprogs to packages needed for tests (for `mkf…

770c4e5

…s.xfs`) Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

simondeziel force-pushed the dynamic-storage-tools branch from 77a8bd1 to d40093c Compare June 12, 2025 01:42

simondeziel added 3 commits June 11, 2025 23:05

doc/lxd-test: add missing tools for mkfs.${FS}

a304196

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

doc/lxd-test: do not install recommended packages

568e558

This avoids pulling 51 extra packages in the name of speed. If something's needed, it needs to be explicitely added to the list of `packages`. Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

doc/lxd-test: disable unwanted services

8afa249

It's faster than uninstalling their respective packages. Also stop worrying about packages not present in `ubuntu-minimal-daily:24.04`. Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

simondeziel force-pushed the dynamic-storage-tools branch from d40093c to 0d4aec4 Compare June 12, 2025 03:13

tomponline reviewed Jun 12, 2025

View reviewed changes

simondeziel added 5 commits June 12, 2025 09:18

test/main: explaining why errors from test-shell are ignored

b9254c0

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

test/main: set default backend after sourcing includes snippets

388deec

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

test/main: install tooling for storage driver (LXD_BACKEND) on-demand

3d98b16

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

github: stop unconditionally installing storage driver tooling in act…

49b4bd3

…ions/install-lxd-runtimedeps Those are installed dynamically/on-demand by `test/main.sh`. Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

github: add e2fsprogs to actions/install-lxd-runtimedeps

0e79bc5

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

simondeziel added 3 commits June 12, 2025 09:18

github: add dosfstools to actions/install-lxd-runtimedeps

5217112

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

test/suites/migration: hard fail if a mkfs binary is missing

019171b

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

test/suites/storage_driver_zfs: hard fail if a mkfs binary is missing

9f4752b

Signed-off-by: Simon Deziel <[email protected]>

simondeziel force-pushed the dynamic-storage-tools branch from 0d4aec4 to 9f4752b Compare June 12, 2025 13:18

tomponline approved these changes Jun 13, 2025

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tomponline merged commit 27a413b into canonical:main Jun 13, 2025
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simondeziel deleted the dynamic-storage-tools branch June 13, 2025 16:27

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simondeziel commented Jun 11, 2025 •

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simondeziel commented Jun 11, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Get a fresh VM in ~2 minutes:

Compile dqlite, liblxc and LXD in ~3.5 minutes:

Get a test-shell instantly:

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Pull Request Overview

Reviewed Changes

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Regular, big == boots everywhere

Tailored, smaller == boots only on ~identical machine

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simondeziel commented Jun 11, 2025 •

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