Install kyua with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix

Project links

• Homepage
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• kyua

Project history

Kyua began in November 2010 as Julio Merino's attempt to replace the ATF tools while preserving compatibility with ATF-written tests. The NetBSD wiki framed the goal as reimplementing the ATF tools while keeping the NetBSD test suite usable, especially to unlock features such as parallel execution, richer reports, and support for non-ATF tests.

The project reached Kyua 0.1 in July 2011 after it could run most of the NetBSD test suite unmodified. FreeBSD later adopted Kyua as part of its own test-suite and CI work, and in 2024 the project moved under the FreeBSD GitHub organization after a long quiet period.

Adoption history

Kyua's adoption followed BSD operating-system testing needs rather than application-framework fashion. Its README documents packages for FreeBSD, NetBSD pkgsrc, OpenBSD, Fedora, and Homebrew, reflecting a tool distributed mainly where system test suites and ports infrastructure need a common runner.

FreeBSD documentation describes ATF test programs relying on a separate runtime engine and names Kyua as the runtime of choice. That made Kyua part of the practical interface between operating-system tests, package builds, and CI reporting.

How it is used

Users define test suites with Kyuafiles and run them with the `kyua` command. Kyua records results, can generate reports, and can run tests written with ATF as well as simpler external programs.

The 0.12 release in November 2015 added parallel test execution, a significant improvement for large system test suites where individual tests are often I/O-bound or process-bound rather than CPU-bound.

Why package nerds care

Kyua is a classic package-nerd tool because it lives at the layer where packaging, operating-system QA, and reproducible test execution meet. It is small enough to install as a command-line dependency, but important enough that a broken Kyua package can affect large downstream test runs.

Its relationship with ATF, TAP, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Homebrew makes it a useful marker of Unix test infrastructure moving from ad hoc scripts toward queryable, reportable test databases.

Timeline

• 2010: Kyua was born as a testing framework for infrastructure software.
• 2011: Kyua 0.1 was launched after it could run most of the NetBSD test suite unmodified.
• 2013: Work to integrate Kyua into FreeBSD was underway.
• 2015: Kyua 0.12 added parallel test execution.
• 2016: Kyua 0.13 was released with fixes for timestamps, TAP parsing, and long-running executions.
• 2024: The project moved under the FreeBSD GitHub organization.
• 2025: Kyua 0.14.1 was released with renewed ATF compatibility and build fixes.

Related projects

• ATF is Kyua's closest companion: ATF provides libraries and conventions for writing tests, while Kyua runs them and records results.
• TAP support connects Kyua to the broader Unix testing convention used by many language and packaging ecosystems.
• FreeBSD CI and test-suite work helped turn Kyua from a NetBSD-adjacent experiment into practical operating-system testing infrastructure.

Sources

• https://blogsystem5.substack.com/p/kyua-graduates
• https://github.com/freebsd/kyua
• https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?format=html&query=atf&sektion=7
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/freebsd/kyua/master/NEWS
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/freebsd/kyua/master/README.md
• https://wiki.netbsd.org/kyua/