FIXTURE(9)

💅 FIXTURE — the Kernel API Manual tea, bestie

okay so you found FIXTURE(9) from the Kernel API Manual and you're like "what is this, why is it yelling in all caps" — don't worry, we're gonna get through this together, hand in hand, like the main characters we are 🫶✨

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✨ NAME ✨

FIXTURE — it gets called once per fixture to set up the data and do the registering. that's literally its whole job. one fixture, one call, iconic behavior only 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

FIXTURE (fixture_name );

look at that. beautiful. no cap. 🦋

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• fixture_name — the name of the fixture 💖 like. the name. of the fixture. that's the assignment and it ate.

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so here's the shape of the thing, and honestly it's giving struct-declaration-realness:

FIXTURE(fixture_name) {
  type property1;
  ...
};

so what's actually happening here? FIXTURE(fixture_name) defines the data that gets handed to the tests made by TEST_F, and it shows up as *self*. that's it. that's the vibe. it's your little data bag 🍓

but — and this is the important part, don't skip it — you gotta populate it and clean it up using FIXTURE_SETUP and FIXTURE_TEARDOWN. do not just leave it sitting there empty like an unread group chat. that's not the move. 🙈

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

okay bestie, buckle up, this list is long and lowkey glorious, every single one of these is here and we're not skipping a single one:

• Kernel file ./tools/testing/selftests/kselftest_harness.h example(9)
• TH_LOG(9), SKIP(9), TEST(9), TEST_SIGNAL(9), FIXTURE_DATA(9)
• FIXTURE_SETUP(9), FIXTURE_TEARDOWN(9), FIXTURE_TEARDOWN_PARENT(9)
• FIXTURE_VARIANT(9), FIXTURE_VARIANT_ADD(9)
• TEST_F(9), TEST_HARNESS_MAIN(9), operators(9)
• ASSERT_EQ(9), ASSERT_NE(9), ASSERT_LT(9), ASSERT_LE(9), ASSERT_GT(9), ASSERT_GE(9), ASSERT_NULL(9), ASSERT_TRUE(9), ASSERT_FALSE(9), ASSERT_STREQ(9), ASSERT_STRNE(9)
• EXPECT_EQ(9), EXPECT_NE(9), EXPECT_LT(9), EXPECT_LE(9), EXPECT_GT(9), EXPECT_GE(9), EXPECT_NULL(9), EXPECT_TRUE(9), EXPECT_FALSE(9), EXPECT_STREQ(9), EXPECT_STRNE(9)
• XFAIL_ADD(9)

like genuinely, that's the whole squad 💜✨

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sign-off time 🎀 this lil page lives in ./tools/testing/selftests and it's dated October 2026 — screenshot it, frame it, put it on your wall, periodt. 💖