t / READMEon commit test-lib.sh: add --long-tests option (5e2c08c)
   1Core GIT Tests
   2==============
   3
   4This directory holds many test scripts for core GIT tools.  The
   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 ***
  21    *   ok 1: .git/objects should be empty after git-init in an empty repo.
  22    *   ok 2: .git/objects should have 256 subdirectories.
  23    *   ok 3: git-update-index without --add should fail adding.
  24    ...
  25    *   ok 23: no diff after checkout and git-update-index --refresh.
  26    * passed all 23 test(s)
  27    *** t0100-environment-names.sh ***
  28    *   ok 1: using old names should issue warnings.
  29    *   ok 2: using old names but having new names should not issue warnings.
  30    ...
  31
  32Or you can run each test individually from command line, like
  33this:
  34
  35    $ sh ./t3001-ls-files-killed.sh
  36    *   ok 1: git-update-index --add to add various paths.
  37    *   ok 2: git-ls-files -k to show killed files.
  38    *   ok 3: validate git-ls-files -k output.
  39    * passed all 3 test(s)
  40
  41You can pass --verbose (or -v), --debug (or -d), and --immediate
  42(or -i) command line argument to the test.
  43
  44--verbose::
  45        This makes the test more verbose.  Specifically, the
  46        command being run and their output if any are also
  47        output.
  48
  49--debug::
  50        This may help the person who is developing a new test.
  51        It causes the command defined with test_debug to run.
  52
  53--immediate::
  54        This causes the test to immediately exit upon the first
  55        failed test.
  56
  57--long-tests::
  58        This causes additional long-running tests to be run (where
  59        available), for more exhaustive testing.
  60
  61
  62Naming Tests
  63------------
  64
  65The test files are named as:
  66
  67        tNNNN-commandname-details.sh
  68
  69where N is a decimal digit.
  70
  71First digit tells the family:
  72
  73        0 - the absolute basics and global stuff
  74        1 - the basic commands concerning database
  75        2 - the basic commands concerning the working tree
  76        3 - the other basic commands (e.g. ls-files)
  77        4 - the diff commands
  78        5 - the pull and exporting commands
  79        6 - the revision tree commands (even e.g. merge-base)
  80        7 - the porcelainish commands concerning the working tree
  81        8 - the porcelainish commands concerning forensics
  82        9 - the git tools
  83
  84Second digit tells the particular command we are testing.
  85
  86Third digit (optionally) tells the particular switch or group of switches
  87we are testing.
  88
  89If you create files under t/ directory (i.e. here) that is not
  90the top-level test script, never name the file to match the above
  91pattern.  The Makefile here considers all such files as the
  92top-level test script and tries to run all of them.  A care is
  93especially needed if you are creating a common test library
  94file, similar to test-lib.sh, because such a library file may
  95not be suitable for standalone execution.
  96
  97
  98Writing Tests
  99-------------
 100
 101The test script is written as a shell script.  It should start
 102with the standard "#!/bin/sh" with copyright notices, and an
 103assignment to variable 'test_description', like this:
 104
 105        #!/bin/sh
 106        #
 107        # Copyright (c) 2005 Junio C Hamano
 108        #
 109
 110        test_description='xxx test (option --frotz)
 111
 112        This test registers the following structure in the cache
 113        and tries to run git-ls-files with option --frotz.'
 114
 115
 116Source 'test-lib.sh'
 117--------------------
 118
 119After assigning test_description, the test script should source
 120test-lib.sh like this:
 121
 122        . ./test-lib.sh
 123
 124This test harness library does the following things:
 125
 126 - If the script is invoked with command line argument --help
 127   (or -h), it shows the test_description and exits.
 128
 129 - Creates an empty test directory with an empty .git/objects
 130   database and chdir(2) into it.  This directory is 't/trash directory'
 131   if you must know, but I do not think you care.
 132
 133 - Defines standard test helper functions for your scripts to
 134   use.  These functions are designed to make all scripts behave
 135   consistently when command line arguments --verbose (or -v),
 136   --debug (or -d), and --immediate (or -i) is given.
 137
 138
 139End with test_done
 140------------------
 141
 142Your script will be a sequence of tests, using helper functions
 143from the test harness library.  At the end of the script, call
 144'test_done'.
 145
 146
 147Test harness library
 148--------------------
 149
 150There are a handful helper functions defined in the test harness
 151library for your script to use.
 152
 153 - test_expect_success <message> <script>
 154
 155   This takes two strings as parameter, and evaluates the
 156   <script>.  If it yields success, test is considered
 157   successful.  <message> should state what it is testing.
 158
 159   Example:
 160
 161        test_expect_success \
 162            'git-write-tree should be able to write an empty tree.' \
 163            'tree=$(git-write-tree)'
 164
 165 - test_expect_failure <message> <script>
 166
 167   This is NOT the opposite of test_expect_success, but is used
 168   to mark a test that demonstrates a known breakage.  Unlike
 169   the usual test_expect_success tests, which say "ok" on
 170   success and "FAIL" on failure, this will say "FIXED" on
 171   success and "still broken" on failure.  Failures from these
 172   tests won't cause -i (immediate) to stop.
 173
 174 - test_debug <script>
 175
 176   This takes a single argument, <script>, and evaluates it only
 177   when the test script is started with --debug command line
 178   argument.  This is primarily meant for use during the
 179   development of a new test script.
 180
 181 - test_done
 182
 183   Your test script must have test_done at the end.  Its purpose
 184   is to summarize successes and failures in the test script and
 185   exit with an appropriate error code.
 186
 187
 188Tips for Writing Tests
 189----------------------
 190
 191As with any programming projects, existing programs are the best
 192source of the information.  However, do _not_ emulate
 193t0000-basic.sh when writing your tests.  The test is special in
 194that it tries to validate the very core of GIT.  For example, it
 195knows that there will be 256 subdirectories under .git/objects/,
 196and it knows that the object ID of an empty tree is a certain
 19740-byte string.  This is deliberately done so in t0000-basic.sh
 198because the things the very basic core test tries to achieve is
 199to serve as a basis for people who are changing the GIT internal
 200drastically.  For these people, after making certain changes,
 201not seeing failures from the basic test _is_ a failure.  And
 202such drastic changes to the core GIT that even changes these
 203otherwise supposedly stable object IDs should be accompanied by
 204an update to t0000-basic.sh.
 205
 206However, other tests that simply rely on basic parts of the core
 207GIT working properly should not have that level of intimate
 208knowledge of the core GIT internals.  If all the test scripts
 209hardcoded the object IDs like t0000-basic.sh does, that defeats
 210the purpose of t0000-basic.sh, which is to isolate that level of
 211validation in one place.  Your test also ends up needing
 212updating when such a change to the internal happens, so do _not_
 213do it and leave the low level of validation to t0000-basic.sh.