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788db145 1Core Git Tests
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2==============
3
788db145 4This directory holds many test scripts for core Git tools. The
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5first part of this short document describes how to run the tests
6and read their output.
7
8When fixing the tools or adding enhancements, you are strongly
9encouraged to add tests in this directory to cover what you are
10trying to fix or enhance. The later part of this short document
11describes how your test scripts should be organized.
12
13
14Running Tests
15-------------
16
17The easiest way to run tests is to say "make". This runs all
18the tests.
19
20 *** t0000-basic.sh ***
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21 ok 1 - .git/objects should be empty after git init in an empty repo.
22 ok 2 - .git/objects should have 3 subdirectories.
23 ok 3 - success is reported like this
986aa7f1 24 ...
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25 ok 43 - very long name in the index handled sanely
26 # fixed 1 known breakage(s)
27 # still have 1 known breakage(s)
28 # passed all remaining 42 test(s)
29 1..43
30 *** t0001-init.sh ***
31 ok 1 - plain
32 ok 2 - plain with GIT_WORK_TREE
33 ok 3 - plain bare
34
35Since the tests all output TAP (see http://testanything.org) they can
85b0b34e 36be run with any TAP harness. Here's an example of parallel testing
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37powered by a recent version of prove(1):
38
39 $ prove --timer --jobs 15 ./t[0-9]*.sh
40 [19:17:33] ./t0005-signals.sh ................................... ok 36 ms
41 [19:17:33] ./t0022-crlf-rename.sh ............................... ok 69 ms
42 [19:17:33] ./t0024-crlf-archive.sh .............................. ok 154 ms
43 [19:17:33] ./t0004-unwritable.sh ................................ ok 289 ms
44 [19:17:33] ./t0002-gitfile.sh ................................... ok 480 ms
45 ===( 102;0 25/? 6/? 5/? 16/? 1/? 4/? 2/? 1/? 3/? 1... )===
46
47prove and other harnesses come with a lot of useful options. The
48--state option in particular is very useful:
49
50 # Repeat until no more failures
51 $ prove -j 15 --state=failed,save ./t[0-9]*.sh
986aa7f1 52
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53You can give DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET=prove on the make command (or define it
54in config.mak) to cause "make test" to run tests under prove.
55GIT_PROVE_OPTS can be used to pass additional options, e.g.
56
57 $ make DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET=prove GIT_PROVE_OPTS='--timer --jobs 16' test
58
5099b99d 59You can also run each test individually from command line, like this:
986aa7f1 60
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61 $ sh ./t3010-ls-files-killed-modified.sh
62 ok 1 - git update-index --add to add various paths.
63 ok 2 - git ls-files -k to show killed files.
64 ok 3 - validate git ls-files -k output.
65 ok 4 - git ls-files -m to show modified files.
66 ok 5 - validate git ls-files -m output.
67 # passed all 5 test(s)
68 1..5
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69
70You can pass --verbose (or -v), --debug (or -d), and --immediate
4e1be63c 71(or -i) command line argument to the test, or by setting GIT_TEST_OPTS
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72appropriately before running "make". Short options can be bundled, i.e.
73'-d -v' is the same as '-dv'.
986aa7f1 74
5e3b4fce 75-v::
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76--verbose::
77 This makes the test more verbose. Specifically, the
78 command being run and their output if any are also
79 output.
80
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81--verbose-only=<pattern>::
82 Like --verbose, but the effect is limited to tests with
83 numbers matching <pattern>. The number matched against is
84 simply the running count of the test within the file.
85
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86-x::
87 Turn on shell tracing (i.e., `set -x`) during the tests
94201a2b 88 themselves. Implies `--verbose`.
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89 Ignored in test scripts that set the variable 'test_untraceable'
90 to a non-empty value, unless it's run with a Bash version
91 supporting BASH_XTRACEFD, i.e. v4.1 or later.
a136f6d8 92
5e3b4fce 93-d::
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94--debug::
95 This may help the person who is developing a new test.
96 It causes the command defined with test_debug to run.
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97 The "trash" directory (used to store all temporary data
98 during testing) is not deleted even if there are no
99 failed tests so that you can inspect its contents after
100 the test finished.
986aa7f1 101
5e3b4fce 102-i::
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103--immediate::
104 This causes the test to immediately exit upon the first
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105 failed test. Cleanup commands requested with
106 test_when_finished are not executed if the test failed,
107 in order to keep the state for inspection by the tester
108 to diagnose the bug.
986aa7f1 109
5e3b4fce 110-l::
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111--long-tests::
112 This causes additional long-running tests to be run (where
113 available), for more exhaustive testing.
114
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115-r::
116--run=<test-selector>::
117 Run only the subset of tests indicated by
118 <test-selector>. See section "Skipping Tests" below for
119 <test-selector> syntax.
120
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121--valgrind=<tool>::
122 Execute all Git binaries under valgrind tool <tool> and exit
123 with status 126 on errors (just like regular tests, this will
124 only stop the test script when running under -i).
986aa7f1 125
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126 Since it makes no sense to run the tests with --valgrind and
127 not see any output, this option implies --verbose. For
128 convenience, it also implies --tee.
129
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130 <tool> defaults to 'memcheck', just like valgrind itself.
131 Other particularly useful choices include 'helgrind' and
132 'drd', but you may use any tool recognized by your valgrind
133 installation.
134
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135 As a special case, <tool> can be 'memcheck-fast', which uses
136 memcheck but disables --track-origins. Use this if you are
137 running tests in bulk, to see if there are _any_ memory
138 issues.
139
952af351 140 Note that memcheck is run with the option --leak-check=no,
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141 as the git process is short-lived and some errors are not
142 interesting. In order to run a single command under the same
143 conditions manually, you should set GIT_VALGRIND to point to
144 the 't/valgrind/' directory and use the commands under
145 't/valgrind/bin/'.
146
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147--valgrind-only=<pattern>::
148 Like --valgrind, but the effect is limited to tests with
149 numbers matching <pattern>. The number matched against is
150 simply the running count of the test within the file.
151
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152--tee::
153 In addition to printing the test output to the terminal,
154 write it to files named 't/test-results/$TEST_NAME.out'.
155 As the names depend on the tests' file names, it is safe to
156 run the tests with this option in parallel.
157
a5f52c6d 158-V::
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159--verbose-log::
160 Write verbose output to the same logfile as `--tee`, but do
161 _not_ write it to stdout. Unlike `--tee --verbose`, this option
162 is safe to use when stdout is being consumed by a TAP parser
163 like `prove`. Implies `--tee` and `--verbose`.
164
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165--with-dashes::
166 By default tests are run without dashed forms of
167 commands (like git-commit) in the PATH (it only uses
168 wrappers from ../bin-wrappers). Use this option to include
169 the build directory (..) in the PATH, which contains all
170 the dashed forms of commands. This option is currently
171 implied by other options like --valgrind and
172 GIT_TEST_INSTALLED.
173
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174--no-bin-wrappers::
175 By default, the test suite uses the wrappers in
176 `../bin-wrappers/` to execute `git` and friends. With this option,
177 `../git` and friends are run directly. This is not recommended
178 in general, as the wrappers contain safeguards to ensure that no
179 files from an installed Git are used, but can speed up test runs
180 especially on platforms where running shell scripts is expensive
181 (most notably, Windows).
182
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183--root=<directory>::
184 Create "trash" directories used to store all temporary data during
185 testing under <directory>, instead of the t/ directory.
186 Using this option with a RAM-based filesystem (such as tmpfs)
187 can massively speed up the test suite.
188
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189--chain-lint::
190--no-chain-lint::
191 If --chain-lint is enabled, the test harness will check each
192 test to make sure that it properly "&&-chains" all commands (so
193 that a failure in the middle does not go unnoticed by the final
194 exit code of the test). This check is performed in addition to
195 running the tests themselves. You may also enable or disable
196 this feature by setting the GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT environment
197 variable to "1" or "0", respectively.
198
fb7d1e3a 199--stress::
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200 Run the test script repeatedly in multiple parallel jobs until
201 one of them fails. Useful for reproducing rare failures in
202 flaky tests. The number of parallel jobs is, in order of
f5457371 203 precedence: the value of the GIT_TEST_STRESS_LOAD
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204 environment variable, or twice the number of available
205 processors (as shown by the 'getconf' utility), or 8.
206 Implies `--verbose -x --immediate` to get the most information
207 about the failure. Note that the verbose output of each test
208 job is saved to 't/test-results/$TEST_NAME.stress-<nr>.out',
209 and only the output of the failed test job is shown on the
210 terminal. The names of the trash directories get a
211 '.stress-<nr>' suffix, and the trash directory of the failed
212 test job is renamed to end with a '.stress-failed' suffix.
213
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214--stress-jobs=<N>::
215 Override the number of parallel jobs. Implies `--stress`.
216
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217--stress-limit=<N>::
218 When combined with --stress run the test script repeatedly
219 this many times in each of the parallel jobs or until one of
de69e6f6 220 them fails, whichever comes first. Implies `--stress`.
76e27fbf 221
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222You can also set the GIT_TEST_INSTALLED environment variable to
223the bindir of an existing git installation to test that installation.
224You still need to have built this git sandbox, from which various
225test-* support programs, templates, and perl libraries are used.
226If your installed git is incomplete, it will silently test parts of
227your built version instead.
228
229When using GIT_TEST_INSTALLED, you can also set GIT_TEST_EXEC_PATH to
230override the location of the dashed-form subcommands (what
231GIT_EXEC_PATH would be used for during normal operation).
232GIT_TEST_EXEC_PATH defaults to `$GIT_TEST_INSTALLED/git --exec-path`.
233
234
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235Skipping Tests
236--------------
237
238In some environments, certain tests have no way of succeeding
239due to platform limitation, such as lack of 'unzip' program, or
240filesystem that do not allow arbitrary sequence of non-NUL bytes
241as pathnames.
242
243You should be able to say something like
244
245 $ GIT_SKIP_TESTS=t9200.8 sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh
246
247and even:
248
249 $ GIT_SKIP_TESTS='t[0-4]??? t91?? t9200.8' make
250
251to omit such tests. The value of the environment variable is a
252SP separated list of patterns that tells which tests to skip,
253and either can match the "t[0-9]{4}" part to skip the whole
254test, or t[0-9]{4} followed by ".$number" to say which
255particular test to skip.
256
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257For an individual test suite --run could be used to specify that
258only some tests should be run or that some tests should be
259excluded from a run.
260
261The argument for --run is a list of individual test numbers or
262ranges with an optional negation prefix that define what tests in
263a test suite to include in the run. A range is two numbers
264separated with a dash and matches a range of tests with both ends
265been included. You may omit the first or the second number to
266mean "from the first test" or "up to the very last test"
267respectively.
268
269Optional prefix of '!' means that the test or a range of tests
270should be excluded from the run.
271
272If --run starts with an unprefixed number or range the initial
273set of tests to run is empty. If the first item starts with '!'
274all the tests are added to the initial set. After initial set is
275determined every test number or range is added or excluded from
276the set one by one, from left to right.
277
278Individual numbers or ranges could be separated either by a space
279or a comma.
280
281For example, to run only tests up to a specific test (21), one
282could do this:
283
284 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1-21'
285
286or this:
287
288 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='-21'
289
290Common case is to run several setup tests (1, 2, 3) and then a
291specific test (21) that relies on that setup:
292
293 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1 2 3 21'
294
295or:
296
297 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run=1,2,3,21
298
299or:
300
301 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='-3 21'
302
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303As noted above, the test set is built by going through the items
304from left to right, so this:
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305
306 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1-4 !3'
307
01e4be6c 308will run tests 1, 2, and 4. Items that come later have higher
2e3a16b2 309precedence. It means that this:
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310
311 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='!3 1-4'
312
313would just run tests from 1 to 4, including 3.
314
315You may use negation with ranges. The following will run all
316test in the test suite except from 7 up to 11:
317
318 $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='!7-11'
319
320Some tests in a test suite rely on the previous tests performing
321certain actions, specifically some tests are designated as
322"setup" test, so you cannot _arbitrarily_ disable one test and
323expect the rest to function correctly.
324
325--run is mostly useful when you want to focus on a specific test
326and know what setup is needed for it. Or when you want to run
327everything up to a certain test.
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328
329
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330Running tests with special setups
331---------------------------------
332
333The whole test suite could be run to test some special features
334that cannot be easily covered by a few specific test cases. These
335could be enabled by running the test suite with correct GIT_TEST_
336environment set.
337
c7400399 338GIT_TEST_FAIL_PREREQS=<boolean> fails all prerequisites. This is
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339useful for discovering issues with the tests where say a later test
340implicitly depends on an optional earlier test.
341
342There's a "FAIL_PREREQS" prerequisite that can be used to test for
343whether this mode is active, and e.g. skip some tests that are hard to
344refactor to deal with it. The "SYMLINKS" prerequisite is currently
345excluded as so much relies on it, but this might change in the future.
346
1ff750b1 347GIT_TEST_GETTEXT_POISON=<boolean> turns all strings marked for
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348translation into gibberish if true. Used for spotting those tests that
349need to be marked with a C_LOCALE_OUTPUT prerequisite when adding more
350strings for translation. See "Testing marked strings" in po/README for
351details.
6cdccfce 352
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353GIT_TEST_SPLIT_INDEX=<boolean> forces split-index mode on the whole
354test suite. Accept any boolean values that are accepted by git-config.
355
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356GIT_TEST_PROTOCOL_VERSION=<n>, when set, makes 'protocol.version'
357default to n.
8cbeba06 358
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359GIT_TEST_FULL_IN_PACK_ARRAY=<boolean> exercises the uncommon
360pack-objects code path where there are more than 1024 packs even if
361the actual number of packs in repository is below this limit. Accept
362any boolean values that are accepted by git-config.
363
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364GIT_TEST_OE_SIZE=<n> exercises the uncommon pack-objects code path
365where we do not cache object size in memory and read it from existing
366packs on demand. This normally only happens when the object size is
367over 2GB. This variable forces the code path on any object larger than
368<n> bytes.
369
ac6e12f9 370GIT_TEST_OE_DELTA_SIZE=<n> exercises the uncommon pack-objects code
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371path where deltas larger than this limit require extra memory
372allocation for bookkeeping.
373
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374GIT_TEST_VALIDATE_INDEX_CACHE_ENTRIES=<boolean> checks that cache-tree
375records are valid when the index is written out or after a merge. This
376is mostly to catch missing invalidation. Default is true.
377
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378GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH=<boolean>, when true, forces the commit-graph to
379be written after every 'git commit' command, and overrides the
380'core.commitGraph' setting to true.
381
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382GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH_CHANGED_PATHS=<boolean>, when true, forces
383commit-graph write to compute and write changed path Bloom filters for
384every 'git commit-graph write', as if the `--changed-paths` option was
385passed in.
386
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387GIT_TEST_FSMONITOR=$PWD/t7519/fsmonitor-all exercises the fsmonitor
388code path for utilizing a file system monitor to speed up detecting
389new or changed files.
390
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391GIT_TEST_INDEX_VERSION=<n> exercises the index read/write code path
392for the index version specified. Can be set to any valid version
393(currently 2, 3, or 4).
394
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395GIT_TEST_PACK_SPARSE=<boolean> if disabled will default the pack-objects
396builtin to use the non-sparse object walk. This can still be overridden by
397the --sparse command-line argument.
99dbbfa8 398
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399GIT_TEST_PRELOAD_INDEX=<boolean> exercises the preload-index code path
400by overriding the minimum number of cache entries required per thread.
401
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402GIT_TEST_ADD_I_USE_BUILTIN=<boolean>, when true, enables the
403built-in version of git add -i. See 'add.interactive.useBuiltin' in
404git-config(1).
405
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406GIT_TEST_INDEX_THREADS=<n> enables exercising the multi-threaded loading
407of the index for the whole test suite by bypassing the default number of
408cache entries and thread minimums. Setting this to 1 will make the
409index loading single threaded.
410
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411GIT_TEST_MULTI_PACK_INDEX=<boolean>, when true, forces the multi-pack-
412index to be written after every 'git repack' command, and overrides the
413'core.multiPackIndex' setting to true.
414
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415GIT_TEST_SIDEBAND_ALL=<boolean>, when true, overrides the
416'uploadpack.allowSidebandAll' setting to true, and when false, forces
417fetch-pack to not request sideband-all (even if the server advertises
418sideband-all).
419
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420GIT_TEST_DISALLOW_ABBREVIATED_OPTIONS=<boolean>, when true (which is
421the default when running tests), errors out when an abbreviated option
422is used.
423
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424GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_HASH=<hash-algo> specifies which hash algorithm to
425use in the test scripts. Recognized values for <hash-algo> are "sha1"
426and "sha256".
427
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428Naming Tests
429------------
430
431The test files are named as:
432
433 tNNNN-commandname-details.sh
434
435where N is a decimal digit.
436
437First digit tells the family:
438
439 0 - the absolute basics and global stuff
440 1 - the basic commands concerning database
441 2 - the basic commands concerning the working tree
442 3 - the other basic commands (e.g. ls-files)
443 4 - the diff commands
444 5 - the pull and exporting commands
445 6 - the revision tree commands (even e.g. merge-base)
8f4a9b62 446 7 - the porcelainish commands concerning the working tree
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447 8 - the porcelainish commands concerning forensics
448 9 - the git tools
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449
450Second digit tells the particular command we are testing.
451
452Third digit (optionally) tells the particular switch or group of switches
453we are testing.
454
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455If you create files under t/ directory (i.e. here) that is not
456the top-level test script, never name the file to match the above
457pattern. The Makefile here considers all such files as the
63d32945 458top-level test script and tries to run all of them. Care is
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459especially needed if you are creating a common test library
460file, similar to test-lib.sh, because such a library file may
461not be suitable for standalone execution.
462
f50c9f76 463
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464Writing Tests
465-------------
466
467The test script is written as a shell script. It should start
51b7a525 468with the standard "#!/bin/sh", and an
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469assignment to variable 'test_description', like this:
470
471 #!/bin/sh
986aa7f1 472
14cd1ff3 473 test_description='xxx test (option --frotz)
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474
475 This test registers the following structure in the cache
476 and tries to run git-ls-files with option --frotz.'
477
f50c9f76 478
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479Source 'test-lib.sh'
480--------------------
481
482After assigning test_description, the test script should source
483test-lib.sh like this:
484
485 . ./test-lib.sh
486
487This test harness library does the following things:
488
489 - If the script is invoked with command line argument --help
490 (or -h), it shows the test_description and exits.
491
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492 - Creates an empty test directory with an empty .git/objects database
493 and chdir(2) into it. This directory is 't/trash
494 directory.$test_name_without_dotsh', with t/ subject to change by
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495 the --root option documented above, and a '.stress-<N>' suffix
496 appended by the --stress option.
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497
498 - Defines standard test helper functions for your scripts to
499 use. These functions are designed to make all scripts behave
500 consistently when command line arguments --verbose (or -v),
501 --debug (or -d), and --immediate (or -i) is given.
502
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503Do's & don'ts
504-------------
20873f45 505
6fd45295 506Here are a few examples of things you probably should and shouldn't do
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507when writing tests.
508
441ee35d 509Here are the "do's:"
20873f45 510
6fd45295 511 - Put all code inside test_expect_success and other assertions.
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512
513 Even code that isn't a test per se, but merely some setup code
6fd45295 514 should be inside a test assertion.
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515
516 - Chain your test assertions
517
518 Write test code like this:
519
520 git merge foo &&
521 git push bar &&
522 test ...
523
524 Instead of:
525
526 git merge hla
527 git push gh
528 test ...
529
530 That way all of the commands in your tests will succeed or fail. If
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531 you must ignore the return value of something, consider using a
532 helper function (e.g. use sane_unset instead of unset, in order
533 to avoid unportable return value for unsetting a variable that was
534 already unset), or prepending the command with test_might_fail or
535 test_must_fail.
20873f45 536
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537 - Check the test coverage for your tests. See the "Test coverage"
538 below.
539
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540 Don't blindly follow test coverage metrics; if a new function you added
541 doesn't have any coverage, then you're probably doing something wrong,
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542 but having 100% coverage doesn't necessarily mean that you tested
543 everything.
544
545 Tests that are likely to smoke out future regressions are better
546 than tests that just inflate the coverage metrics.
547
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548 - When a test checks for an absolute path that a git command generated,
549 construct the expected value using $(pwd) rather than $PWD,
550 $TEST_DIRECTORY, or $TRASH_DIRECTORY. It makes a difference on
551 Windows, where the shell (MSYS bash) mangles absolute path names.
552 For details, see the commit message of 4114156ae9.
553
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554 - Remember that inside the <script> part, the standard output and
555 standard error streams are discarded, and the test harness only
556 reports "ok" or "not ok" to the end user running the tests. Under
557 --verbose, they are shown to help debug the tests.
558
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559 - Be careful when you loop
560
561 You may need to verify multiple things in a loop, but the
562 following does not work correctly:
563
564 test_expect_success 'test three things' '
565 for i in one two three
566 do
567 test_something "$i"
568 done &&
569 test_something_else
570 '
571
572 Because the status of the loop itself is the exit status of the
573 test_something in the last round, the loop does not fail when
574 "test_something" for "one" or "two" fails. This is not what you
575 want.
576
577 Instead, you can break out of the loop immediately when you see a
578 failure. Because all test_expect_* snippets are executed inside
579 a function, "return 1" can be used to fail the test immediately
580 upon a failure:
581
582 test_expect_success 'test three things' '
583 for i in one two three
584 do
585 test_something "$i" || return 1
586 done &&
587 test_something_else
588 '
589
590 Note that we still &&-chain the loop to propagate failures from
591 earlier commands.
592
593
441ee35d 594And here are the "don'ts:"
20873f45 595
441ee35d 596 - Don't exit() within a <script> part.
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597
598 The harness will catch this as a programming error of the test.
599 Use test_done instead if you need to stop the tests early (see
600 "Skipping tests" below).
601
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602 - Don't use '! git cmd' when you want to make sure the git command
603 exits with failure in a controlled way by calling "die()". Instead,
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604 use 'test_must_fail git cmd'. This will signal a failure if git
605 dies in an unexpected way (e.g. segfault).
606
f445500e 607 On the other hand, don't use test_must_fail for running regular
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608 platform commands; just use '! cmd'. We are not in the business
609 of verifying that the world given to us sanely works.
f445500e 610
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611 - Don't feed the output of a git command to a pipe, as in:
612
613 git -C repo ls-files |
614 xargs -n 1 basename |
615 grep foo
616
617 which will discard git's exit code and may mask a crash. In the
618 above example, all exit codes are ignored except grep's.
619
620 Instead, write the output of that command to a temporary
621 file with ">" or assign it to a variable with "x=$(git ...)" rather
622 than pipe it.
623
624 - Don't use command substitution in a way that discards git's exit
625 code. When assigning to a variable, the exit code is not discarded,
626 e.g.:
627
628 x=$(git cat-file -p $sha) &&
629 ...
630
631 is OK because a crash in "git cat-file" will cause the "&&" chain
632 to fail, but:
633
634 test "refs/heads/foo" = "$(git symbolic-ref HEAD)"
635
636 is not OK and a crash in git could go undetected.
637
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638 - Don't use perl without spelling it as "$PERL_PATH". This is to help
639 our friends on Windows where the platform Perl often adds CR before
ad78585e 640 the end of line, and they bundle Git with a version of Perl that
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641 does not do so, whose path is specified with $PERL_PATH. Note that we
642 provide a "perl" function which uses $PERL_PATH under the hood, so
643 you do not need to worry when simply running perl in the test scripts
644 (but you do, for example, on a shebang line or in a sub script
645 created via "write_script").
ad78585e 646
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647 - Don't use sh without spelling it as "$SHELL_PATH", when the script
648 can be misinterpreted by broken platform shell (e.g. Solaris).
ad78585e 649
441ee35d 650 - Don't chdir around in tests. It is not sufficient to chdir to
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651 somewhere and then chdir back to the original location later in
652 the test, as any intermediate step can fail and abort the test,
653 causing the next test to start in an unexpected directory. Do so
654 inside a subshell if necessary.
655
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656 - Don't save and verify the standard error of compound commands, i.e.
657 group commands, subshells, and shell functions (except test helper
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658 functions like 'test_must_fail') like this:
659
660 ( cd dir && git cmd ) 2>error &&
661 test_cmp expect error
662
663 When running the test with '-x' tracing, then the trace of commands
664 executed in the compound command will be included in standard error
665 as well, quite possibly throwing off the subsequent checks examining
666 the output. Instead, save only the relevant git command's standard
667 error:
668
669 ( cd dir && git cmd 2>../error ) &&
670 test_cmp expect error
671
441ee35d 672 - Don't break the TAP output
20873f45 673
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674 The raw output from your test may be interpreted by a TAP harness. TAP
675 harnesses will ignore everything they don't know about, but don't step
676 on their toes in these areas:
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677
678 - Don't print lines like "$x..$y" where $x and $y are integers.
679
680 - Don't print lines that begin with "ok" or "not ok".
681
6fd45295 682 TAP harnesses expect a line that begins with either "ok" and "not
20873f45
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683 ok" to signal a test passed or failed (and our harness already
684 produces such lines), so your script shouldn't emit such lines to
685 their output.
686
687 You can glean some further possible issues from the TAP grammar
c1d44cee 688 (see https://metacpan.org/pod/TAP::Parser::Grammar#TAP-GRAMMAR)
20873f45
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689 but the best indication is to just run the tests with prove(1),
690 it'll complain if anything is amiss.
691
20873f45 692
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693Skipping tests
694--------------
695
681186ae 696If you need to skip tests you should do so by using the three-arg form
99d9050d
ÆAB
697of the test_* functions (see the "Test harness library" section
698below), e.g.:
699
ad78585e 700 test_expect_success PERL 'I need Perl' '
a0e0ec9f 701 perl -e "hlagh() if unf_unf()"
ad78585e 702 '
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703
704The advantage of skipping tests like this is that platforms that don't
705have the PERL and other optional dependencies get an indication of how
706many tests they're missing.
707
708If the test code is too hairy for that (i.e. does a lot of setup work
709outside test assertions) you can also skip all remaining tests by
710setting skip_all and immediately call test_done:
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711
712 if ! test_have_prereq PERL
713 then
714 skip_all='skipping perl interface tests, perl not available'
715 test_done
716 fi
14cd1ff3 717
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718The string you give to skip_all will be used as an explanation for why
719the test was skipped.
720
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721End with test_done
722------------------
723
724Your script will be a sequence of tests, using helper functions
725from the test harness library. At the end of the script, call
726'test_done'.
727
728
729Test harness library
730--------------------
731
732There are a handful helper functions defined in the test harness
733library for your script to use.
734
9a897893 735 - test_expect_success [<prereq>] <message> <script>
986aa7f1 736
72942a61 737 Usually takes two strings as parameters, and evaluates the
986aa7f1
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738 <script>. If it yields success, test is considered
739 successful. <message> should state what it is testing.
740
741 Example:
742
743 test_expect_success \
744 'git-write-tree should be able to write an empty tree.' \
745 'tree=$(git-write-tree)'
746
9a897893 747 If you supply three parameters the first will be taken to be a
72942a61 748 prerequisite; see the test_set_prereq and test_have_prereq
9a897893
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749 documentation below:
750
751 test_expect_success TTY 'git --paginate rev-list uses a pager' \
752 ' ... '
753
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754 You can also supply a comma-separated list of prerequisites, in the
755 rare case where your test depends on more than one:
756
757 test_expect_success PERL,PYTHON 'yo dawg' \
758 ' test $(perl -E 'print eval "1 +" . qx[python -c "print 2"]') == "4" '
759
9a897893 760 - test_expect_failure [<prereq>] <message> <script>
986aa7f1 761
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762 This is NOT the opposite of test_expect_success, but is used
763 to mark a test that demonstrates a known breakage. Unlike
764 the usual test_expect_success tests, which say "ok" on
765 success and "FAIL" on failure, this will say "FIXED" on
766 success and "still broken" on failure. Failures from these
767 tests won't cause -i (immediate) to stop.
986aa7f1 768
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769 Like test_expect_success this function can optionally use a three
770 argument invocation with a prerequisite as the first argument.
771
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772 - test_debug <script>
773
774 This takes a single argument, <script>, and evaluates it only
775 when the test script is started with --debug command line
776 argument. This is primarily meant for use during the
777 development of a new test script.
778
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779 - debug <git-command>
780
781 Run a git command inside a debugger. This is primarily meant for
782 use when debugging a failing test script.
783
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784 - test_done
785
786 Your test script must have test_done at the end. Its purpose
787 is to summarize successes and failures in the test script and
788 exit with an appropriate error code.
789
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790 - test_tick
791
792 Make commit and tag names consistent by setting the author and
63d32945 793 committer times to defined state. Subsequent calls will
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794 advance the times by a fixed amount.
795
796 - test_commit <message> [<filename> [<contents>]]
797
798 Creates a commit with the given message, committing the given
799 file with the given contents (default for both is to reuse the
800 message string), and adds a tag (again reusing the message
801 string as name). Calls test_tick to make the SHA-1s
802 reproducible.
803
804 - test_merge <message> <commit-or-tag>
805
806 Merges the given rev using the given message. Like test_commit,
807 creates a tag and calls test_tick before committing.
986aa7f1 808
72942a61 809 - test_set_prereq <prereq>
9a897893
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810
811 Set a test prerequisite to be used later with test_have_prereq. The
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812 test-lib will set some prerequisites for you, see the
813 "Prerequisites" section below for a full list of these.
814
815 Others you can set yourself and use later with either
816 test_have_prereq directly, or the three argument invocation of
817 test_expect_success and test_expect_failure.
9a897893 818
72942a61 819 - test_have_prereq <prereq>
9a897893 820
4473060b
ÆAB
821 Check if we have a prerequisite previously set with test_set_prereq.
822 The most common way to use this explicitly (as opposed to the
823 implicit use when an argument is passed to test_expect_*) is to skip
824 all the tests at the start of the test script if we don't have some
825 essential prerequisite:
9a897893
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826
827 if ! test_have_prereq PERL
828 then
829 skip_all='skipping perl interface tests, perl not available'
830 test_done
831 fi
832
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833 - test_external [<prereq>] <message> <external> <script>
834
835 Execute a <script> with an <external> interpreter (like perl). This
836 was added for tests like t9700-perl-git.sh which do most of their
837 work in an external test script.
838
839 test_external \
840 'GitwebCache::*FileCache*' \
a0e0ec9f 841 perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9503/test_cache_interface.pl
2fac6a4b
ÆAB
842
843 If the test is outputting its own TAP you should set the
844 test_external_has_tap variable somewhere before calling the first
845 test_external* function. See t9700-perl-git.sh for an example.
846
847 # The external test will outputs its own plan
848 test_external_has_tap=1
849
850 - test_external_without_stderr [<prereq>] <message> <external> <script>
851
852 Like test_external but fail if there's any output on stderr,
853 instead of checking the exit code.
854
855 test_external_without_stderr \
856 'Perl API' \
a0e0ec9f 857 perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9700/test.pl
2fac6a4b 858
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859 - test_expect_code <exit-code> <command>
860
861 Run a command and ensure that it exits with the given exit code.
862 For example:
863
864 test_expect_success 'Merge with d/f conflicts' '
865 test_expect_code 1 git merge "merge msg" B master
866 '
867
12e31a6b 868 - test_must_fail [<options>] <git-command>
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869
870 Run a git command and ensure it fails in a controlled way. Use
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BC
871 this instead of "! <git-command>". When git-command dies due to a
872 segfault, test_must_fail diagnoses it as an error; "! <git-command>"
873 treats it as just another expected failure, which would let such a
874 bug go unnoticed.
c9667456 875
12e31a6b
SG
876 Accepts the following options:
877
878 ok=<signal-name>[,<...>]:
879 Don't treat an exit caused by the given signal as error.
880 Multiple signals can be specified as a comma separated list.
881 Currently recognized signal names are: sigpipe, success.
882 (Don't use 'success', use 'test_might_fail' instead.)
883
884 - test_might_fail [<options>] <git-command>
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885
886 Similar to test_must_fail, but tolerate success, too. Use this
887 instead of "<git-command> || :" to catch failures due to segv.
888
12e31a6b
SG
889 Accepts the same options as test_must_fail.
890
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891 - test_cmp <expected> <actual>
892
893 Check whether the content of the <actual> file matches the
894 <expected> file. This behaves like "cmp" but produces more
895 helpful output when the test is run with "-v" option.
896
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TG
897 - test_cmp_rev <expected> <actual>
898
899 Check whether the <expected> rev points to the same commit as the
900 <actual> rev.
901
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902 - test_line_count (= | -lt | -ge | ...) <length> <file>
903
904 Check whether a file has the length it is expected to.
905
72942a61
ML
906 - test_path_is_file <path> [<diagnosis>]
907 test_path_is_dir <path> [<diagnosis>]
2caf20c5
MM
908 test_path_is_missing <path> [<diagnosis>]
909
72942a61
ML
910 Check if the named path is a file, if the named path is a
911 directory, or if the named path does not exist, respectively,
912 and fail otherwise, showing the <diagnosis> text.
2caf20c5 913
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914 - test_when_finished <script>
915
916 Prepend <script> to a list of commands to run to clean up
917 at the end of the current test. If some clean-up command
918 fails, the test will not pass.
919
920 Example:
921
922 test_expect_success 'branch pointing to non-commit' '
923 git rev-parse HEAD^{tree} >.git/refs/heads/invalid &&
924 test_when_finished "git update-ref -d refs/heads/invalid" &&
925 ...
926 '
927
900721e1
JS
928 - test_atexit <script>
929
930 Prepend <script> to a list of commands to run unconditionally to
931 clean up before the test script exits, e.g. to stop a daemon:
932
933 test_expect_success 'test git daemon' '
934 git daemon &
935 daemon_pid=$! &&
936 test_atexit 'kill $daemon_pid' &&
937 hello world
938 '
939
940 The commands will be executed before the trash directory is removed,
941 i.e. the atexit commands will still be able to access any pidfiles or
942 socket files.
943
944 Note that these commands will be run even when a test script run
945 with '--immediate' fails. Be careful with your atexit commands to
946 minimize any changes to the failed state.
947
bb98b01e 948 - test_write_lines <lines>
ac9afcc3 949
bb98b01e 950 Write <lines> on standard output, one line per argument.
ac9afcc3
MT
951 Useful to prepare multi-line files in a compact form.
952
953 Example:
954
bb98b01e 955 test_write_lines a b c d e f g >foo
ac9afcc3
MT
956
957 Is a more compact equivalent of:
958 cat >foo <<-EOF
959 a
960 b
961 c
962 d
963 e
964 f
965 g
966 EOF
967
968
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969 - test_pause
970
971 This command is useful for writing and debugging tests and must be
972 removed before submitting. It halts the execution of the test and
973 spawns a shell in the trash directory. Exit the shell to continue
974 the test. Example:
975
976 test_expect_success 'test' '
977 git do-something >actual &&
978 test_pause &&
979 test_cmp expected actual
980 '
981
9ce415d9
JS
982 - test_ln_s_add <path1> <path2>
983
984 This function helps systems whose filesystem does not support symbolic
985 links. Use it to add a symbolic link entry to the index when it is not
986 important that the file system entry is a symbolic link, i.e., instead
987 of the sequence
988
989 ln -s foo bar &&
990 git add bar
991
992 Sometimes it is possible to split a test in a part that does not need
993 the symbolic link in the file system and a part that does; then only
994 the latter part need be protected by a SYMLINKS prerequisite (see below).
995
2c02b110 996 - test_oid_init
997
998 This function loads facts and useful object IDs related to the hash
999 algorithm(s) in use from the files in t/oid-info.
1000
1001 - test_oid_cache
1002
1003 This function reads per-hash algorithm information from standard
1004 input (usually a heredoc) in the format described in
1005 t/oid-info/README. This is useful for test-specific values, such as
1006 object IDs, which must vary based on the hash algorithm.
1007
1008 Certain fixed values, such as hash sizes and common placeholder
1009 object IDs, can be loaded with test_oid_init (described above).
1010
1011 - test_oid <key>
1012
1013 This function looks up a value for the hash algorithm in use, based
1014 on the key given. The value must have been loaded using
1015 test_oid_init or test_oid_cache. Providing an unknown key is an
1016 error.
1017
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1018 - yes [<string>]
1019
1020 This is often seen in modern UNIX but some platforms lack it, so
1021 the test harness overrides the platform implementation with a
1022 more limited one. Use this only when feeding a handful lines of
1023 output to the downstream---unlike the real version, it generates
1024 only up to 99 lines.
1025
43a2afee
SG
1026 - test_bool_env <env-variable-name> <default-value>
1027
1028 Given the name of an environment variable with a bool value,
1029 normalize its value to a 0 (true) or 1 (false or empty string)
1030 return code. Return with code corresponding to the given default
1031 value if the variable is unset.
1032 Abort the test script if either the value of the variable or the
1033 default are not valid bool values.
1034
11f470ae 1035
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ÆAB
1036Prerequisites
1037-------------
1038
1039These are the prerequisites that the test library predefines with
1040test_have_prereq.
1041
1042See the prereq argument to the test_* functions in the "Test harness
1043library" section above and the "test_have_prereq" function for how to
1044use these, and "test_set_prereq" for how to define your own.
1045
f8fc0ee3 1046 - PYTHON
be53deef 1047
f8fc0ee3
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1048 Git wasn't compiled with NO_PYTHON=YesPlease. Wrap any tests that
1049 need Python with this.
1050
1051 - PERL
1052
1053 Git wasn't compiled with NO_PERL=YesPlease.
1054
1055 Even without the PERL prerequisite, tests can assume there is a
1056 usable perl interpreter at $PERL_PATH, though it need not be
1057 particularly modern.
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1058
1059 - POSIXPERM
1060
1061 The filesystem supports POSIX style permission bits.
1062
1063 - BSLASHPSPEC
1064
1065 Backslashes in pathspec are not directory separators. This is not
1066 set on Windows. See 6fd1106a for details.
1067
1068 - EXECKEEPSPID
1069
1070 The process retains the same pid across exec(2). See fb9a2bea for
1071 details.
1072
20073274
AS
1073 - PIPE
1074
1075 The filesystem we're on supports creation of FIFOs (named pipes)
1076 via mkfifo(1).
1077
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ÆAB
1078 - SYMLINKS
1079
1080 The filesystem we're on supports symbolic links. E.g. a FAT
1081 filesystem doesn't support these. See 704a3143 for details.
2fac6a4b 1082
c91cfd19
ÆAB
1083 - SANITY
1084
1085 Test is not run by root user, and an attempt to write to an
1086 unwritable file is expected to fail correctly.
2fac6a4b 1087
3eb585c1 1088 - PCRE
8f852ce6 1089
3eb585c1 1090 Git was compiled with support for PCRE. Wrap any tests
8f852ce6
MK
1091 that use git-grep --perl-regexp or git-grep -P in these.
1092
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ÆAB
1093 - LIBPCRE1
1094
1095 Git was compiled with PCRE v1 support via
1096 USE_LIBPCRE1=YesPlease. Wrap any PCRE using tests that for some
1097 reason need v1 of the PCRE library instead of v2 in these.
1098
1099 - LIBPCRE2
1100
1101 Git was compiled with PCRE v2 support via
1102 USE_LIBPCRE2=YesPlease. Wrap any PCRE using tests that for some
1103 reason need v2 of the PCRE library instead of v1 in these.
1104
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1105 - CASE_INSENSITIVE_FS
1106
1107 Test is run on a case insensitive file system.
1108
5b0b5dd4
MG
1109 - UTF8_NFD_TO_NFC
1110
1111 Test is run on a filesystem which converts decomposed utf-8 (nfd)
1112 to precomposed utf-8 (nfc).
1113
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1114 - PTHREADS
1115
1116 Git wasn't compiled with NO_PTHREADS=YesPlease.
1117
986aa7f1
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1118Tips for Writing Tests
1119----------------------
1120
1121As with any programming projects, existing programs are the best
1122source of the information. However, do _not_ emulate
1123t0000-basic.sh when writing your tests. The test is special in
788db145 1124that it tries to validate the very core of Git. For example, it
986aa7f1
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1125knows that there will be 256 subdirectories under .git/objects/,
1126and it knows that the object ID of an empty tree is a certain
112740-byte string. This is deliberately done so in t0000-basic.sh
1128because the things the very basic core test tries to achieve is
788db145 1129to serve as a basis for people who are changing the Git internals
986aa7f1
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1130drastically. For these people, after making certain changes,
1131not seeing failures from the basic test _is_ a failure. And
788db145 1132such drastic changes to the core Git that even changes these
986aa7f1
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1133otherwise supposedly stable object IDs should be accompanied by
1134an update to t0000-basic.sh.
1135
1136However, other tests that simply rely on basic parts of the core
788db145
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1137Git working properly should not have that level of intimate
1138knowledge of the core Git internals. If all the test scripts
986aa7f1
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1139hardcoded the object IDs like t0000-basic.sh does, that defeats
1140the purpose of t0000-basic.sh, which is to isolate that level of
1141validation in one place. Your test also ends up needing
1142updating when such a change to the internal happens, so do _not_
1143do it and leave the low level of validation to t0000-basic.sh.
d15e9ebc 1144
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ÆAB
1145Test coverage
1146-------------
1147
1148You can use the coverage tests to find code paths that are not being
1149used or properly exercised yet.
1150
1151To do that, run the coverage target at the top-level (not in the t/
1152directory):
1153
1154 make coverage
1155
1156That'll compile Git with GCC's coverage arguments, and generate a test
1157report with gcov after the tests finish. Running the coverage tests
1158can take a while, since running the tests in parallel is incompatible
1159with GCC's coverage mode.
1160
1161After the tests have run you can generate a list of untested
1162functions:
1163
1164 make coverage-untested-functions
1165
1166You can also generate a detailed per-file HTML report using the
1167Devel::Cover module. To install it do:
1168
1169 # On Debian or Ubuntu:
1170 sudo aptitude install libdevel-cover-perl
1171
1172 # From the CPAN with cpanminus
1173 curl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - --sudo --self-upgrade
1174 cpanm --sudo Devel::Cover
1175
1176Then, at the top-level:
1177
1178 make cover_db_html
1179
1180That'll generate a detailed cover report in the "cover_db_html"
1181directory, which you can then copy to a webserver, or inspect locally
1182in a browser.