pkg/flashdb: bump version and improve test #21900

MichelRottleuthner · 2025-11-20T17:26:59Z

Contribution description

Bumps the FlashDB package to current master and improves the test a bit.
The current version in RIOT has a bug in the file-based storage implementation. The bug breaks the libc based file access and therefore breaks the file-based mode on all boards except native, which uses the posix mode file access.

During testing I noticed the test apps are not easy to interpret on the first look. They also don't actually work on real hardware. The test in master swallows most errors silently and in most cases doesn't check return codes. Some values were not persisted across reboots (e.g., the boot_counter) as they got lost somewhere in the cache.

I added some output to the test that makes it easier to see if something went wrong. Explicitly calling the de-init functions of FlashDB in the test application fixes the issue with the broken persistence.

Testing procedure

To test on a board you should make sure the persistent storage is clean, for example:
make BOARD=adafruit-feather-nrf52840-sense -C tests/sys/vfs_default all flash term
Then format through the RIOT shell:

> vfs umount /nvm0
> format /nvm0

Run the flashdb_vfs test:
USEMODULE=test_utils_interactive_sync make BOARD=adafruit-feather-nrf52840-sense -C tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs all flash term

# START
# main(): This is RIOT! (Version: 2026.01-devel-158-g522b2-flashdb_test_fixes)
# mkdir '/nvm0/fdb_kvdb1' [OK]
# ==================== kvdb_basic_sample ====================
# get the 'boot_count' value is 0 [OK]
# set the 'boot_count' value to 1 [OK]
# get the 'boot_count' value is 1 [OK]
# ===========================================================
# ================= kvdb_type_string_sample =================
# create the 'temp' string KV, value is: 36C [OK]
# get the 'temp' value is: 36C [OK]
# set 'temp' value to 38C [OK]
# delete the 'temp' finish [OK]
# ===========================================================
# ================== kvdb_type_blob_sample ==================
# create the 'temp' blob KV, value is: 36 [OK]
# get the 'temp' value is: 36 [OK]
# set 'temp' value to 38 [OK]
# delete the 'temp' finish [OK]
# ===========================================================
# kvdb deinit [OK]
# mkdir '/nvm0/fdb_tsdb1' [OK]
# ======================= tsdb_sample =======================
# append the new status.temp (36) and status.humi (85) [OK]
# append the new status.temp (38) and status.humi (90) [OK]
# [query_cb] queried a TSL: time: 11, temp: 36, humi: 85 [OK]
# [query_cb] queried a TSL: time: 12, temp: 38, humi: 90 [OK]
# [query_by_time_cb] queried a TSL: time: 11, temp: 36, humi: 85 [OK]
# [query_by_time_cb] queried a TSL: time: 12, temp: 38, humi: 90 [OK]
# query count is: 2
# set the TSL (time 11) status from 2 to 3 [OK]
# set the TSL (time 12) status from 2 to 3 [OK]
# ===========================================================
# tsdb deinit [OK]

smash that reset button

# START
# main(): This is RIOT! (Version: 2026.01-devel-158-g522b2-flashdb_test_fixes)
# mkdir '/nvm0/fdb_kvdb1' [OK]
# ==================== kvdb_basic_sample ====================
# get the 'boot_count' value is 1 [OK]
# set the 'boot_count' value to 2 [OK]
# get the 'boot_count' value is 2 [OK]
# ===========================================================
# ================= kvdb_type_string_sample =================
# create the 'temp' string KV, value is: 36C [OK]
# get the 'temp' value is: 36C [OK]
# set 'temp' value to 38C [OK]
# delete the 'temp' finish [OK]
# ===========================================================
# ================== kvdb_type_blob_sample ==================
# create the 'temp' blob KV, value is: 36 [OK]
# get the 'temp' value is: 36 [OK]
# set 'temp' value to 38 [OK]
# delete the 'temp' finish [OK]
# ===========================================================
# kvdb deinit [OK]
# mkdir '/nvm0/fdb_tsdb1' [OK]
# ======================= tsdb_sample =======================
# append the new status.temp (36) and status.humi (85) [FAILED]
# append the new status.temp (38) and status.humi (90) [FAILED]
# [query_cb] queried a TSL: time: 11, temp: 36, humi: 85 [OK]
# [query_cb] queried a TSL: time: 12, temp: 38, humi: 90 [OK]
# [query_by_time_cb] queried a TSL: time: 11, temp: 36, humi: 85 [OK]
# [query_by_time_cb] queried a TSL: time: 12, temp: 38, humi: 90 [OK]
# query count is: 0
# set the TSL (time 11) status from 3 to 3 [OK]
# set the TSL (time 12) status from 3 to 3 [OK]
# ===========================================================
# tsdb deinit [OK]

Same for tests/pkg/flashdb_mtd. Both applications should also work on native (for me they did).

Note that the failure with the time series append operations happens due to the dummy timer implementation of the test. That also happened before but wasn't visible.

Issues/PRs references

The package repo actually some more tests. We should probably integrate those in the future instead of the simplified examples we currently have as our tests.

MichelRottleuthner · 2025-11-20T17:43:32Z

squashed fixups

leandrolanzieri

Nice! Thanks for this.

Do you mind applying the static check suggestions now that we're touching the file anyway? I'll run this on hardware tomorrow.

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/main.c

riot-ci · 2025-11-20T19:06:36Z

Murdock results

✔️ PASSED

367d796 fixup! tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve tsdb_sample test and output

Success	Failures	Total	Runtime
10932	0	10932	10m:02s

Artifacts

Documentation preview

leandrolanzieri · 2025-11-20T18:57:22Z

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/main.c

        /* create database directory */
-        vfs_mkdir(FDB_DIR "/fdb_tsdb1", 0777);
+        int res = vfs_mkdir(TSDB_DIR, 0777);
+        printf("mkdir '%s' %s", TSDB_DIR, resstr(res == 0 || res == -EEXIST));


Any particular reason to return if there's an error while creating a directory for the KVDB and not here?

Good catch!, I just forgot to also add it here. Fixed.

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/kvdb_type_blob_sample.c

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/main.c

The stacksize was not large enough to run this on an embedded target with flash based mtd and littlefs2. The test now checks return values for expected values and reports issues to the user.

Without this change, some changes to the persistent storage (e.g., with littlefs2 on mtd_spi_nor) are not actually written back to the 'disk'. The boot_count in the example was therefore not persistent across reboots. Deinitializing solves this by properly closing all open files.

This bumps the package version to the current master as the most recent release has a bug in the LIBC-flavour of the file-based storage backend. Without this fix the file-based sotrage is therefore not usable on any target other than native.

mguetschow · 2025-11-21T09:04:18Z

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/kvdb_basic_sample.c

    { /* GET the KV value */
        /* get the "boot_count" KV value */
-        fdb_kv_get_blob(kvdb, "boot_count", fdb_blob_make(&blob, &boot_count, sizeof(boot_count)));
-        /* the blob.saved.len is more than 0 when get the value successful */


I was under the impression most (all?) the tests were taken from their docs: https://armink.github.io/FlashDB/#/sample-kvdb-basic

I haven't done so yet, but maybe you could double-check if they have changed in the meantime. Nevertheless, it definitely makes sense to catch return values.

Will try to have a closer look at it today or beginning of next week.

Right, makes sense to check that. And yes, the tests look like a straight copy of the package examples. Maybe it makes sense to also upstream that later. The FlashDB repo has no changes compared to the version currently used in RIOT (git diff --name-only b1043ed10defdeec6f97c4099cb212a777a727fe 2.1.1 tests samples in the FlashDB repo lists nothing). As I pointed out in the PR description in the long run it would probably be better to replace our tests with the the package tests instead of using the examples for testing. But the changes of this PR already grew bigger than I anticipated for a quick version bump ;)

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/kvdb_basic_sample.c

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/kvdb_type_blob_sample.c

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/tsdb_sample.c

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/kvdb_basic_sample.c

…output

mguetschow

Nice! Smaller nit's below. Now that we have the [OK] values, it wouldn't be to hard to add a Python test for it (maybe in a follow-up PR, though) :)

mguetschow · 2025-11-26T17:01:22Z

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/main.c

+/* converts a test condition to a human readable string */
+const char *resstr(bool condition)
+{
+    return condition ? "[OK]" : "[FAILED]";
+}


why no static inline function in a header file that can be included in the c files instead of explicitly declaring extern resstr everywhere?

mguetschow · 2025-11-26T17:03:37Z

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/kvdb_basic_sample.c

        /* change the "boot_count" KV's value */
-        fdb_kv_set_blob(kvdb, "boot_count", fdb_blob_make(&blob, &boot_count, sizeof(boot_count)));
-        printf("set the 'boot_count' value to %d\n", boot_count);
+        int res = fdb_kv_set_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",


Suggested change

int res = fdb_kv_set_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",

fdb_err_t res = fdb_kv_set_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",

is the correct return type

mguetschow · 2025-11-26T17:04:17Z

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/kvdb_basic_sample.c

+    { /* GET the KV value */
+        int expected = boot_count;
+        /* get the "boot_count" KV value */
+        int res = fdb_kv_get_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",


Suggested change

int res = fdb_kv_get_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",

size_t res = fdb_kv_get_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",

(could also be its own function as this is basically duplicated from above)

mguetschow · 2025-11-26T17:09:11Z

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/Makefile

 USEMODULE += vfs_auto_format

-CFLAGS += -DTHREAD_STACKSIZE_MAIN=THREAD_STACKSIZE_LARGE
+CFLAGS += -DTHREAD_STACKSIZE_MAIN=THREAD_STACKSIZE_LARGE*2


why is this a new requirement?

MichelRottleuthner added the Type: bug The issue reports a bug / The PR fixes a bug (including spelling errors) label Nov 20, 2025

MichelRottleuthner requested review from aabadie and leandrolanzieri as code owners November 20, 2025 17:27

MichelRottleuthner added the Area: pkg Area: External package ports label Nov 20, 2025

github-actions bot added the Area: tests Area: tests and testing framework label Nov 20, 2025

MichelRottleuthner assigned leandrolanzieri Nov 20, 2025

MichelRottleuthner force-pushed the flashdb_test_fixes branch from 0973db1 to 095bfc3 Compare November 20, 2025 17:42

leandrolanzieri added the CI: ready for build If set, CI server will compile all applications for all available boards for the labeled PR label Nov 20, 2025

leandrolanzieri reviewed Nov 20, 2025

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tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs/main.c Show resolved Hide resolved

leandrolanzieri reviewed Nov 20, 2025

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MichelRottleuthner added 8 commits November 21, 2025 09:37

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve test output and increase stacksize

c12a00f

The stacksize was not large enough to run this on an embedded target with flash based mtd and littlefs2. The test now checks return values for expected values and reports issues to the user.

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve kvdb_basic_sample test and output

960dab2

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve kvdb_type_string_sample test and output

4da5d6e

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve kvdb_type_blob_sample test and output

6703233

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve tsdb_sample test and output

bc0e5d1

pkg/flashdb: bump version

693b1bb

This bumps the package version to the current master as the most recent release has a bug in the LIBC-flavour of the file-based storage backend. Without this fix the file-based sotrage is therefore not usable on any target other than native.

tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: apply static-tests suggestions

f85002b

MichelRottleuthner force-pushed the flashdb_test_fixes branch from 095bfc3 to f85002b Compare November 21, 2025 08:38

mguetschow reviewed Nov 21, 2025

View reviewed changes

crasbe reviewed Nov 21, 2025

View reviewed changes

MichelRottleuthner added 3 commits November 21, 2025 12:43

fixup! tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve kvdb_basic_sample test and output

a0c4319

fixup! tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve kvdb_type_blob_sample test and …

5a489d9

…output

fixup! tests/pkg/flashdb_vfs: improve tsdb_sample test and output

367d796

mguetschow reviewed Nov 26, 2025

View reviewed changes

	int res = fdb_kv_set_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",
	fdb_err_t res = fdb_kv_set_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",

	int res = fdb_kv_get_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",
	size_t res = fdb_kv_get_blob(kvdb, "boot_count",

pkg/flashdb: bump version and improve test #21900

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MichelRottleuthner commented Nov 20, 2025

Contribution description

Testing procedure

Issues/PRs references

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riot-ci commented Nov 20, 2025 •

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