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Host tests

The protocol, crypto, packet, region, NMEA, settings, node DB, dedup, and UI layout logic is written as plain C with no ESP-IDF or LVGL includes. It compiles and runs on a PC, which is the only part of the firmware you can verify without a badge.

Run with a bundled compiler

Section titled “Run with a bundled compiler”

The repository includes a runner that uses zig cc, a self-contained C compiler installed as a Python package, so you do not need a system toolchain:

Terminal window
python -m pip install ziglang
pwsh tools/run_host_tests.ps1

It compiles the portable sources together with the test suites and prints a summary. The suite covers, among others:

  • AES against the FIPS-197 known-answer vectors.
  • The Meshtastic channel hash, nonce layout, and AES-CTR round trip.
  • Packet header build and parse, including the flags byte and channel hint.
  • nanopb encode and decode, with a wire-format check against the original codec.
  • Region and frequency math.
  • NMEA parsing, the settings registry, the node DB, dedup, and the UI layout geometry.

Run with CMake

Section titled “Run with CMake”

If you have gcc or clang and CMake, build the same suite with the provided project:

Terminal window
cmake -B build-host host_tests
cmake --build build-host
ctest --test-dir build-host

Why it matters

Section titled “Why it matters”

The Meshtastic wire constants are frozen here. A wrong byte in the crypto or packet code does not crash, it silently breaks interoperability, so these checks run before anything is flashed. Keep the suite green on every commit.