package testo

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Testo library - Utilities for writing OCaml test suites

Internal types

These types are documented in the library's source code in Types.ml. They are subject to frequent and unannounced changes at the whim of the library's authors. A casual user should not need them.

type expected_outcome =
  1. | Should_succeed
  2. | Should_fail of string
    (*

    explains why we expect this test to fail

    *)
type outcome =
  1. | Succeeded
  2. | Failed
type captured_output =
  1. | Ignored of string
    (*

    unchecked combined output

    *)
  2. | Captured_stdout of string * string
    (*

    stdout, unchecked output

    *)
  3. | Captured_stderr of string * string
    (*

    stderr, unchecked output

    *)
  4. | Captured_stdout_stderr of string * string
    (*

    stdout, stderr

    *)
  5. | Captured_merged of string
    (*

    combined output

    *)
type expected_output =
  1. | Ignored
  2. | Expected_stdout of string
  3. | Expected_stderr of string
  4. | Expected_stdout_stderr of string * string
    (*

    stdout, stderr

    *)
  5. | Expected_merged of string
    (*

    combined output

    *)
type result = {
  1. outcome : outcome;
  2. captured_output : captured_output;
}
type missing_files =
  1. | Missing_files of Fpath.t list
type expectation = {
  1. expected_outcome : expected_outcome;
  2. expected_output : (expected_output, missing_files) Result.t;
}
type status = {
  1. expectation : expectation;
  2. result : (result, missing_files) Result.t;
}
type fail_reason =
  1. | Exception
  2. | Wrong_output
  3. | Exception_and_wrong_output
type status_class =
  1. | PASS
  2. | FAIL of fail_reason
  3. | XFAIL of fail_reason
  4. | XPASS
  5. | MISS
type status_summary = {
  1. status_class : status_class;
  2. has_expected_output : bool;
}

Main interface

Test creation

type checked_output_kind

This type specifies what part of the output of a test (stdout, stderr) should be captured and compared against expectations.

Use the provided functions stdout, stderr, stdxxx, and split_stdout_stderr to create such an object.

val stdout : ?expected_stdout_path:Fpath.t -> unit -> checked_output_kind

Create an object of type checked_output_kind specifying that the test's standard output must be checked against a reference file.

val stderr : ?expected_stderr_path:Fpath.t -> unit -> checked_output_kind

Same as stdout but for capturing stderr instead.

val stdxxx : ?expected_stdxxx_path:Fpath.t -> unit -> checked_output_kind

Same as stdout but for capturing the combined stdout and stderr outputs.

val split_stdout_stderr : ?expected_stdout_path:Fpath.t -> ?expected_stderr_path:Fpath.t -> unit -> checked_output_kind

Same as stdxxx but keep stdout and stderr separate.

module Promise : module type of Promise

Wrapper allowing for asynchronous test functions (Lwt and such).

module Tag : module type of Testo_util.Tag

The type of tags which can be used to define subsets of tests precisely.

type t = private {
  1. id : string;
    (*

    Hash of the full name of the test, computed automatically.

    *)
  2. internal_full_name : string;
    (*

    Full name of the test, derived automatically from category and name.

    *)
  3. category : string list;
    (*

    Categories are made for organizing tests as a tree which is useful for display and filtering. A new category is created typically when grouping multiple test suites into one with 'categorize_suites' or when assigning a category to a list of tests with 'categorize'. e.g. ["food"; "fruit"; "kiwi"]

    *)
  4. name : string;
  5. func : unit -> unit Promise.t;
  6. broken : string option;
    (*

    If not None, the broken property causes the test to run normally but it will be ignored when determining the success of the test suite. This allows flaky tests to be kept around until they can be fixed. Use the string argument to explain briefly why the test is marked as broken. The --strict command-line option causes the broken status to be ignored i.e. a test run will fail if a broken test fails.

    *)
  7. checked_output : checked_output_kind;
  8. expected_outcome : expected_outcome;
  9. normalize : (string -> string) list;
    (*

    An optional function to rewrite any output data so as to mask the variable parts.

    *)
  10. skipped : string option;
    (*

    If not None, the skipped property causes a test to be skipped by Alcotest but still shown as "[SKIP]" rather than being omitted. The string should give a reason why the test is being skipped.

    *)
  11. solo : string option;
    (*

    If not None, this test will never run concurrently with other tests. The string should give a reason why the test should not run in parallel with other tests.

    *)
  12. tags : Tag.t list;
    (*

    Tags must be declared once using create_tag.

    *)
  13. tolerate_chdir : bool;
    (*

    If the test function changes the current directory without restoring it, it's an error unless this flag is set. All the tests in a test suite should share this field.

    *)
  14. tracking_url : string option;
    (*

    A link to the relevant entry in a bug tracking system.

    *)
}

t is the type of a test. A test suite is a flat list of tests.

A test is at a minimum a name and a test function that raises exceptions to signal test failure. It is created with create or other similar functions provided by this module.

There are two main recommended ways of writing the test function:

1. With assert false:

Each test may use assert false to indicate that the test doesn't pass. This is the simplest way of failing while also showing the location of the failure. When using assert false, you should generally take care of printing the expected value and actual value to make debugging easier later.

2. With Alcotest.(check ...):

This is a little nicer because the error messages print something like "Expecting 'foo', got 'bar'". However, this can make tests slightly more complicated to write. If the test already prints the expected value and the actual value as its output, it's just easier to fail with assert false.

In any case, Alcotest will capture the output (stdout, stderr) of each test and put it in its own file so we can consult it later. Don't hesitate to log a lot during the execution of the test.

type test_with_status = t * status * status_summary
type subcommand_result =
  1. | Run_result of test_with_status list
  2. | Status_result of test_with_status list
  3. | Approve_result

The return type of each subcommand. It allows custom code to do something with the test data e.g. export to the JUnit format via the optional handle_subcommand_result argument of interpret_argv.

val create : ?broken:string -> ?category:string list -> ?checked_output:checked_output_kind -> ?expected_outcome:expected_outcome -> ?normalize:(string -> string) list -> ?skipped:string -> ?solo:string -> ?tags:Tag.t list -> ?tolerate_chdir:bool -> ?tracking_url:string -> string -> (unit -> unit Promise.t) -> t

Create a test to appear in a test suite.

  • category: the nested category to assign to the test. The category can be nested further using categorize or categorize_suites.
  • checked_output: determines how to capture the test's output. Defaults to no capture.
  • expected_outcome: whether a test is expected to complete without raising an exception (default) or by raising an exception.
  • normalize: a list of functions applied in turn to transform the captured output before comparing it to the reference snapshot. See mask_line and other functions with the mask prefix which are provided for this purpose.
  • skipped: specify that the test must be skipped. This is intended for tests that give inconsistent results and need fixing. The string should explain why the test is being skipped. See also expected_outcome.
  • solo: specify that the test may not run in concurrently with other tests. The string should explain why.
  • tags: a list of tags to apply to the test. See Tag.
  • tolerate_chdir: by default, a test will fail if it modifies the current directory and doesn't restore it. This flag cancels this check. Note that Testo will always restore the current directory after running a test regardless of this setting.
val update : ?broken:string option -> ?category:string list -> ?checked_output:checked_output_kind -> ?expected_outcome:expected_outcome -> ?func:(unit -> unit Promise.t) -> ?normalize:(string -> string) list -> ?name:string -> ?skipped:string option -> ?solo:string option -> ?tags:Tag.t list -> ?tolerate_chdir:bool -> ?tracking_url:string option -> t -> t

Update some of the test's fields. This ensures that the test's unique identifier id is recomputed correctly. When specified, an optional property will replace the previous value.

Assertions and exceptions

Signaling a test failure is done by raising an exception. You may raise any exception to signal a test failure.

At this time, Testo doesn't provide advanced functions for checking a result against an expected value and printing these values nicely. For these, you may want to use `Alcotest.check` from the alcotest library.

exception Test_failure of string

The exception raised by fail

val fail : string -> unit

Raise the Test_failure exception with a message indicating the reason for the failure.

Temporary files and output redirection

val write_file : Fpath.t -> string -> unit

Write data to a regular file. Create the file if it doesn't exist. Erase any existing data.

Usage: write_file path data

val read_file : Fpath.t -> string

Read the contents of a regular file.

val with_temp_file : ?contents:string -> ?persist:bool -> ?prefix:string -> ?suffix:string -> ?temp_dir:Fpath.t -> (Fpath.t -> 'a Promise.t) -> 'a Promise.t

with_temp_file func creates a temporary file, passes its path to the user-specified function func, and returns the result. The temporary file is deleted when func terminates, even if it raises an exception.

Options:

  • contents: data to write to the file. If unspecified, the file is created empty.
  • persist: if true, the temporary file is not deleted when done as is normally the case. This intended for a user to inspect the file when debugging.
  • prefix: prefix for the temporary file name. The default is "testo-".
  • suffix: a suffix to append to the temporary file name. The default is empty.
  • temp_dir: the path to the folder where the temporary file must be created. The default is the system default returned by Filename.get_temp_dir_name ().
val with_capture : out_channel -> (unit -> 'a Promise.t) -> ('a * string) Promise.t

with_capture stdout func evaluates func () while capturing the output of the given channel stdout as a string.

Environment control

val with_environment_variables : (string * string) list -> (unit -> 'a Promise.t) -> 'a Promise.t

with_environment_variables ["FOO", "42"; "BAR", "hello"] func sets the environment variables FOO and BAR during the execution of func and then restores them to their original values.

Additionally, a test failure is produced if func modifies these environment variables without restoring them to the state in which it found them.

Due to a limitation in OCaml's "Unix" library, environment variables cannot be unset. If an environment variable was originally unset, restoring this original state isn't possible. Instead, the environment variable will be set to the empty string when with_environment_variables returns.

Output masking functions

Functions with the mask_ prefix are string replacement utilities to be used for masking the variable parts of test output in order to make them stable and comparable. This is for the normalize option of create.

Testo will keep a copy of the original, unmasked output for the developer to consult. In particular, this masking functionality will not prevent sensitive data such as passwords or secret keys from being stored in the local file system.

val mask_line : ?mask:string -> ?after:string -> ?before:string -> unit -> string -> string

Mask partially each line that contains before or after.

If both after and before are specified, they must occur in that order on a line to have an effect. The text between these markers is replaced by mask. If only before is specified, the portion of masked text starts at the beginning of the line. If only after is specified, the portion of masked text extends to the end of the line.

For example, (mask_line ~after:"time:" ()) "London time: 10:15,\nBlah" produces "London time:<MASKED>\nBlah".

val mask_pcre_pattern : ?replace:(string -> string) -> string -> string -> string

Mask all occurrences of this PCRE pattern. The syntax is limited to what the ocaml-re library supports.

In the case that the pattern contains a capturing group and it (the first group) matches, only this substring is replaced rather than the whole match. The default replace function replaces the capture by "<MASKED>".

Examples:

     (* without a capturing group: *)
     mask_pcre_pattern ~replace:(fun _ -> "X") {|<[0-9]+>|} "xxx <42> xxx"
       = "xxx X xxx"
     (* with a capturing group: *)
     mask_pcre_pattern ~replace:(fun _ -> "X") {|<([0-9]+)>|} "xxx <42> xxx"
       = "xxx <X> xxx"
val contains_substring : sub:string -> string -> bool

Test if a string contains a substring sub.

val contains_pcre_pattern : pat:string -> string -> bool

Test if a string contains an unanchored PCRE pattern pat.

val filter_map_lines : (string -> string option) -> string -> string

Edit or remove each line of text. filter_map_lines edit text applies the function edit in turn to each line of text without its line terminator. Returning None removes the line. Line terminators \n or \r\n are preserved if and only if the line is not removed.

val remove_matching_lines : (string -> bool) -> string -> string

remove_matching_lines cond text removes any line from text that validates cond.

For example, remove_matching_lines (contains_substring ~sub:"DEBUG") is a function that removes from a string all the lines containing DEBUG. remove_matching_lines (contains_pcre_pattern ~pat:"^DEBUG") is a function that removes only the lines that start with DEBUG.

val keep_matching_lines : (string -> bool) -> string -> string

remove_matching_lines cond text removes any line from text that that doesn't validate cond.

val mask_temp_paths : ?depth:int option -> ?replace:(string -> string) -> ?temp_dir:Fpath.t -> unit -> string -> string

Mask strings that look like temporary file paths. This is useful in the following cases:

  • the temporary folder depends on the platform (Unix, Windows) or on the environment (TMPDIR environment variable or equivalent);
  • the files placed in the system's temporary folder are assigned random names.

Options:

  • depth: maximum number of path segments to mask after /tmp or equivalent. For example, /tmp/b4ac9882/foo/bar will become <TMP>/<MASKED>/foo/bar with the default depth of Some 1. With a depth of 2, if would become <TMP>/<MASKED>/<MASKED>/bar. Use None to mask the full path. Use Some 0 to mask only /tmp or equivalent.
  • replace: function that determines what to replace the matched path with.
  • temp_dir: the path to the temporary folder to use instead of the system default.
val mask_not_substring : ?mask:string -> string -> string -> string

Keep the given substring and mask everything else. This is for tests that only care about a particular substring being present in the output.

val mask_not_substrings : ?mask:string -> string list -> string -> string

Keep all the given substrings and mask everything else.

In case of overlaps between matching substrings, priority is given to the one starting earlier. If two substrings share a prefix, the longest match is preferred.

Examples:

  • ["cute"; "exec"] will cause "execute" to become "exec<MASKED>" because exec occurs first in the target string.
  • ["wat"; "water"] will cause "hard water" to become "<MASKED>water" and not "<MASKED>wat<MASKED>" because water is a longer match than wat starting at the same position.
val mask_not_pcre_pattern : ?mask:string -> string -> string -> string

Keep the substrings that match the given PCRE pattern and mask everything else.

Inline tests

val test : ?category:string list -> ?checked_output:checked_output_kind -> ?expected_outcome:expected_outcome -> ?normalize:(string -> string) list -> ?skipped:string -> ?solo:string -> ?tags:Tag.t list -> ?tolerate_chdir:bool -> string -> (unit -> unit Promise.t) -> unit

Add a test to the global test suite that can be recovered with get_registered_tests.

This mechanism supports only synchronous tests i.e. ordinary tests whose test function has type unit -> unit.

It is meant to declare inline tests as follows:

     let () = Testo.test "foo" (fun () ->
       (* test body raising exceptions to signal failure *)
       ...
     )
val get_registered_tests : unit -> t list

Recover the list of tests registered with test.

Categorization and filtering of test suites

A Testo test suite is a flat list of test cases. However, each test belongs to a category. Categories can be arbitrarily nested and can be exported as a tree if desired.

val categorize : string -> t list -> t list

Put a list of tests into a parent category.

Usage:

     let apple_tests =
       categorize "apples" [test_color; test_juiciness]
val categorize_suites : string -> t list list -> t list

Variant of categorize that flattens the nested list first.

     let fruit_tests =
       categorize_suites "fruit" [apple_tests; banana_tests; strawberry_tests]
val sort : t list -> t list

Sort tests by category and name, alphabetically.

Non-ASCII path components are currently sorted by byte order, possibly giving unexpected results.

val has_tag : Tag.t -> t -> bool

Whether a test has this tag. This is meant for filtering test suites.

Conversion to Alcotest test suites

type alcotest_test_case = string * [ `Quick | `Slow ] * (unit -> unit Promise.t)

A type alias for Alcotest test cases.

type alcotest_test = string * alcotest_test_case list

A type alias for an Alcotest test.

val to_alcotest : alcotest_skip:(unit -> _) -> t list -> alcotest_test list

Export our tests to a list of tests that can run in Alcotest. This removes the ability to store test outcomes or to check the test output against expectations. Tests that are expected to fail and indeed fail (XFAIL) will be treated as successful by Alcotest. Conversely, tests that fail to raise an exception (XPASS) will be shown as failed by Alcotest.

This function is provided to facilitate migrations between Alcotest and Testo, not for long-term use. It is independent of the Alcotest library except for the Alcotest.skip function that must be provided via the alcotest_skip argument.

Usage: Testo.to_alcotest ~alcotest_skip:Alcotest.skip tests

Command-line interpretation

val interpret_argv : ?argv:string array -> ?default_workers:int option -> ?expectation_workspace_root:Fpath.t -> ?handle_subcommand_result:(int -> subcommand_result -> unit) -> ?status_workspace_root:Fpath.t -> project_name:string -> ((string * string) list -> t list) -> unit Promise.t

Launch the command-line interface. It provides subcommands for running the tests, for checking test statuses, and for approving new output.

A simple call is of the form interpret_argv ~project_name:"my project" create_tests where create_tests is the user-defined function that produces the test suite. create_tests gets called as create_tests env where env is the list of key/value pairs specified on the command line with -e KEY1=VALUE1 -e KEY2=VALUE2 .... It gives an opportunity to parametrize the tests or to even ignore some tests. Note however that in general, it is preferable for create_tests to always produce the same list of tests regardless of the parameters passed to the program. For skipping a test without making it invisible, use create ~skipped:true. For running a test that is expected to fail, use create ~expected_outcome:(Should_fail "reason"). For filtering tests in other ways, use tags or search by substring. See create and the command-line help available with --help.

  • argv: command line to parse. Defaults to Sys.argv.
  • default_workers: the default number of workers to use in parallel runs when -j or --jobs isn't specified on the command line. It defaults to None, indicating that the number of workers will be set to the number of CPUs detected on the machine.
  • expectation_workspace_root: storage path for expected output. The default is tests/snapshots.
  • handle_subcommand_result: optional function to call on the result of the subcommand before exiting. It can be used to export test results to a specific format.
  • status_workspace_root: storage path for test results. The default is _build/testo/status.
  • project_name: name of the program as shown in the --help page and used as a folder name for storing test results.
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