kata-lifecycle

A Rust-based lifecycle testing tool for Kata Containers.

The project provides a small end-to-end test harness for creating Kata containers, triggering lifecycle operations, and checking whether related resources are cleaned up correctly.

Goals

The first version focuses on the following workflow:

Create a Kata container
→ Trigger a lifecycle operation
→ Remove the containerd task and container
→ Check QEMU and Kata-related processes
→ Produce a structured test result

The initial target environment is:

• Fedora
• containerd
• runtime-rs
• QEMU
• KVM
• busybox

Current Status

The project is under active development.

Currently implemented:

• ctr command execution with timeouts
• ctr version
• ctr images pull
• ctr run with the Kata runtime
• ctr tasks list
• ctr tasks kill
• ctr tasks rm
• ctr containers rm
• sigkill lifecycle scenario
• /proc process snapshots
• QEMU, Kata shim, and virtiofsd detection
• Process baseline comparison
• Process cleanup waiting with a timeout
• Structured leaked-process information
• JSON scenario reports
• Basic CLI commands

Usage

Show the available commands:

cargo run -- --help

Run the smoke check:

cargo run -- smoke

Run the SIGKILL lifecycle scenario:

cargo run -- run sigkill

The SIGKILL scenario performs the following operations:

ctr run --detach
→ ctr tasks kill --signal SIGKILL
→ ctr tasks rm
→ ctr containers rm
→ Check newly created QEMU, Kata shim, and virtiofsd processes

Requirements

The real lifecycle scenarios require:

• Rust and Cargo
• ctr
• containerd
• Kata Containers
• QEMU
• KVM
• A locally available busybox image
• Permission to inspect /proc

The tests that use fake command runners and temporary procfs fixtures do not require a running containerd or Kata environment.

Development

Run the complete test suite:

cargo test

Run a specific test:

cargo test <test_name>

Run the formatter:

cargo fmt

Run Clippy:

cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

Design

The project is organized around a few small interfaces:

CommandRunner
    Executes external commands and captures their results

CtrClient
    Provides typed operations for ctr commands

Scenario
    Describes a container lifecycle workflow

ProcessCollector
    Reads process information from procfs

ScenarioReport
    Represents the result of a lifecycle test

The implementation uses test doubles for command execution so that lifecycle logic can be tested without requiring a real Kata installation.

Test-Driven Development

The project follows a test-first development workflow:

RED → GREEN → REFACTOR

Each feature is implemented as a vertical slice:

1. Add one behavior-focused test.
2. Implement the smallest change that makes it pass.
3. Refactor only after the test is green.
4. Run the complete test suite.

Roadmap

Planned improvements include:

• normal-exit scenario
• sigterm scenario
• failed-start scenario
• Better cleanup diagnostics
• JUnit XML reports
• Unique run IDs and artifact directories
• Serial stress testing
• Parallel stress testing
• cgroup checks
• mount checks
• network checks
• /dev/shm checks
• CI integration
• Reproducible Kata issue reports

Explicitly Out of Scope for the First Version

The first version does not target:

• Kubernetes
• Dragonball
• Firecracker
• GPU workloads
• Direct containerd API integration
• A complete resource accounting model

License

License information will be added before the first public release.