bootc

name	bootc
version	1.0
last_updated	2026-07-20
id	bootc
one_line_purpose	Write bootc upgrade, rollback, and migration tests.
entry_point	docs/skills/test-authoring/bootc/SKILL.md
category	test-authoring
mcp_compliance_level	partial
status	active
dependencies	[]
tags	["bootc","lifecycle","rollback"]
description	How to write bootc upgrade, rollback, and migration tests for the testsuite repo. Load when editing bootc-related .feature files or steps.
metadata	{"type":"pattern","audience":"agents","maturity":"stable"}

bootc Lifecycle Testing Reference

Load when: writing or debugging lifecycle, upgrade, or rollback tests.

bootc status JSON schema (v1alpha1)

bootc status --format=json

Field	Path
Active deployment	.status.booted
Pending reboot	.status.staged (null if none)
Active image digest	.status.booted.image.imageDigest
Active image ref string	.status.booted.image.image.image
Pinned (won't auto-prune)	.status.booted.pinned (bool)

Wrong paths that cause silent test skips:

• .staged (missing .status prefix)
• .active.imageDigest
• .active.image

Always validate the outer structure before accessing:

payload = json.loads(output)
assert isinstance(payload.get("status"), dict), "bootc status JSON malformed"
booted = payload["status"]["booted"]

Bare payload.get("status", {}) silently accepts malformed JSON — don't use it as a guard.

Lifecycle capture pattern

Capture digests at the right moments or verification steps silently skip:

# 1. Before upgrade — save current digest
original_digest = get_booted_digest(context)

# 2. Trigger upgrade (bootc upgrade / image swap)

# 3. After upgrade, BEFORE reboot — capture staged digest
expected_upgrade_digest = get_staged_digest(context)

# 4. Reboot VM

# 5. After reboot — assert booted == expected_upgrade_digest

Without step 3, the post-reboot assertion has nothing to compare against and silently passes or skips.

ostree admin status parsing