fpi-device: Only use emulation mode by pre-loading a library

Rather than just do it in production if set, make it more difficult to
potentially inject the test mode.

So rely on a weak definition of fpi_device_emulation_mode_enabled() that
can be only set externally

libfprint/fpi-device.c

@@ -55,28 +55,15 @@ fp_device_get_instance_private (FpDevice *self)
  * @device: The #FpDevice to check
  *
  * Checks if the device is running in emulation mode, which is enabled by
- * setting the FP_DEVICE_EMULATION environment variable to a '1' value.
+ * setting the FP_DEVICE_EMULATION environment variable to a '1' value but
+ * only when the test emulation library is pre-loaded.
  * This is used by some drivers to enable special behavior for testing
  * and development purposes.
  */
-gboolean
+__attribute__((weak)) gboolean
   (fpi_device_emulation_mode_enabled) (FpDevice *device)
 {
-  static gsize emulation_mode = 0;
+  return FALSE;
-
-  /* FIXME: Add some build constraints to make sure this cannot ever be enabled
-   * in production, outside in the installed tests case.
-   */
-
-  /* This is a global value for now, but ideally we may support a different
-   * value per device.
-   */
-  if (g_once_init_enter (&emulation_mode))
-    g_once_init_leave (&emulation_mode,
-                       g_strcmp0 (g_getenv ("FP_DEVICE_EMULATION"), "1") == 0 ?
-                       TRUE : G_MAXSIZE);
-
-  return emulation_mode == TRUE;
 }
 
 /**

libfprint/libfprint.ver

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 LIBFPRINT_2.0.0 {
 global:
 	fp_*;
+	fpi_device_emulation_mode_enabled;
 local:
 	*;
 };

tests/meson.build

@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@ if get_option('introspection')
       output: 'create-driver-test.py')
 endif
 
+test_emulation_lib = shared_library('fprint-test-emulation',
+    'test-emulation.c',
+    dependencies: libfprint_private_dep,
+    install: installed_tests,
+    install_dir: installed_tests_execdir,
+)
+test_emulation_lib_name = fs.name(test_emulation_lib.full_path())
+
+# Preload the test-emulation library so that the weak NULL implementation
+# in libfprint is overridden with one that honours FP_DEVICE_EMULATION.
+envs.prepend('LD_PRELOAD', test_emulation_lib.full_path())
+
 env_parser_cmd = '''
 import os;
 print(" ".join([f"{k}={v}" for k, v in os.environ.items()
@@ -86,6 +98,7 @@ envs_str = run_command(python3, '-c', env_parser_cmd,
 
 envs_str = ' '.join([
     envs_str,
+    'LD_PRELOAD=' + (installed_tests_execdir / test_emulation_lib_name),
     'G_TEST_SRCDIR=' + installed_tests_testdir,
     'G_TEST_BUILDDIR=' + installed_tests_execdir,
 ])
@@ -133,7 +146,10 @@ if get_option('introspection')
                     python3,
                     args: ut_args,
                     suite: ut_suite,
-                    depends: libfprint_typelib,
+                    depends: [
+                        libfprint_typelib,
+                        test_emulation_lib,
+                    ],
                     env: envs,
                 )
             endforeach
@@ -187,7 +203,10 @@ if get_option('introspection')
                 env: driver_envs,
                 suite: ['drivers'],
                 timeout: args.get('timeout', 15),
-                depends: libfprint_typelib,
+                depends: [
+                    libfprint_typelib,
+                    test_emulation_lib,
+                ],
             )
 
             if installed_tests
@@ -206,6 +225,7 @@ if get_option('introspection')
                         'driver_test': driver_test,
                         'driver_env': ' '.join([
                             driver_envs_str,
+                            'LD_PRELOAD=' + (installed_tests_execdir / test_emulation_lib_name),
                             'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=' + installed_tests_libdir,
                             # FIXME: Adding this requires gnome-desktop-testing!12
                             # 'GI_TYPELIB_PATH=' + installed_tests_libdir / 'girepository-1.0',

tests/test-emulation.c

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2026 Canonical, Ltd.
+ *
+ * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
+ * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+ * version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+ * Lesser General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+ * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
+ * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
+ */
+
+#include "fpi-device.h"
+
+gboolean
+  (fpi_device_emulation_mode_enabled) (FpDevice *device)
+{
+  static gsize emulation_mode = 0;
+
+  if (g_once_init_enter (&emulation_mode))
+    g_once_init_leave (&emulation_mode,
+                       g_strcmp0 (g_getenv ("FP_DEVICE_EMULATION"), "1") == 0 ?
+                       TRUE : G_MAXSIZE);
+
+  return emulation_mode == TRUE;
+}