From: Guus Sliepen <guus@sliepen.org>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2026 15:00:52 +0000 (+0200)
Subject: Document how to run parts of the CI pipeline locally
X-Git-Url: https://www.tinc-vpn.org/git/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=a0f84e47fa52c97d304e73e04e0f45cf08da7fc6;p=tinc

Document how to run parts of the CI pipeline locally
---

diff --git a/.ci/README.md b/.ci/README.md
index 04584139..6aa175e5 100644
--- a/.ci/README.md
+++ b/.ci/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,83 @@
 # Continuous Integration
 
-This directory contains scripts and other files used by the continuous
-integration system.
+This directory contains scripts and other files used by the continuous integration
+system.
 
-You probably should not run them manually.
+# Running CI manually
+
+It is possible to run parts of the CI pipeline manually. The best way to do this is to
+start with a fresh virtual machine or container image of the desired operating system,
+then to copy or mount the tinc source code directory into it, and then to call the
+scripts from this directory inside the image. In particular:
+
+- `./deps.sh` installs the required dependencies. It will automatically detect the
+  operating system and calls the package manager to install the required support
+  packages.
+- `./build.sh <builddir>` builds tinc in the given build directory.
+- `./test/prepare.sh` prepares the image for running tests with root privileges.
+- `./test/run.sh <flavor>` runs the tests. You have to specify which flavor of tests:
+  - `default`: tinc compiled with defaults.
+  - `nolegacy`: tinc compiled without support for legacy cryptography.
+  - `gcrypt`: tinc linked with libgcrypt instead of OpenSSL.
+
+## Containers
+
+Use Podman or Docker to create containers. For example, assuming you are in the root of
+the tinc source directory, you can run the following commands to compile tinc in an
+Alpine container:
+
+```
+podman run -it --rm -v `pwd`:/tmp/tinc:ro alpine:latest
+cd /tmp/tinc
+.ci/deps.sh
+.ci/build.sh /tmp/build
+```
+
+The `podman run` command starts a container using a vanilla alpine:latest image, the
+`-it` option ensures we can interact with a shell in the container, `--rm` makes it
+automatically remove the container once you exit the shell, and the `-v` option makes a
+read-only mount of the tinc source directory into the container as `/tmp/tinc`. This
+allows you to work outside of the container on the source and have the results directly
+visible inside the container, while any commands run inside the container cannot make
+any changes to the sources.
+
+To avoid having to install the dependencies each time you start a fresh container, you
+can create a `Containerfile` or `Dockerfile` that creates an image with the dependencies
+pre-installed:
+
+```
+FROM alpine:latest
+WORKDIR /tmp/tinc
+RUN --mount=type=bind,ro,src=.,dst=/tmp/tinc .ci/deps.sh
+CMD .ci/build.sh /tmp/build
+```
+
+To build it, run:
+
+```
+podman build -t tinc-alpine -f /path/to/Containerfile .
+```
+
+This builds the image using the `Containerfile`, and gives it the name `tinc-alpine`.
+Afterwards, you can run the container like so, which automatically starts building tinc:
+
+```
+podman run --rm -v `pwd`:/tmp/tinc:ro tinc-alpine
+```
+
+If you want to get a shell instead, run:
+
+```
+podman run --it --rm -v `pwd`:/tmp/tinc:ro tinc-alpine /bin/sh
+```
+
+## Virtual machines
+
+While containers work very well when running Linux containers, if you want to test tinc
+on other operating systems, you might have to use virtual machines instead. The
+principles are very similar to containers, but there is no easy tool to create a VM
+image of an arbitrary operating system. It's recommended to use KVM and optionally a UI
+like virt-manager to create a VM image from a USB or CD-ROM installation image of the
+desired operating system, and then copy `.ci/deps.sh` into it and run it (if supported).
+Then stop using that virtual machine directly, but instead create a new one using
+copy-on-write of the image you just created to build tinc.