t / READMEon commit test-lib: add the '--stress' option to run a test repeatedly under load (fb7d1e3)
   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 3 subdirectories.
  23    ok 3 - success is reported like this
  24    ...
  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
  36be run with any TAP harness. Here's an example of parallel testing
  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
  52
  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
  59You can also run each test individually from command line, like this:
  60
  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
  69
  70You can pass --verbose (or -v), --debug (or -d), and --immediate
  71(or -i) command line argument to the test, or by setting GIT_TEST_OPTS
  72appropriately before running "make".
  73
  74-v::
  75--verbose::
  76        This makes the test more verbose.  Specifically, the
  77        command being run and their output if any are also
  78        output.
  79
  80--verbose-only=<pattern>::
  81        Like --verbose, but the effect is limited to tests with
  82        numbers matching <pattern>.  The number matched against is
  83        simply the running count of the test within the file.
  84
  85-x::
  86        Turn on shell tracing (i.e., `set -x`) during the tests
  87        themselves. Implies `--verbose`.
  88        Ignored in test scripts that set the variable 'test_untraceable'
  89        to a non-empty value, unless it's run with a Bash version
  90        supporting BASH_XTRACEFD, i.e. v4.1 or later.
  91
  92-d::
  93--debug::
  94        This may help the person who is developing a new test.
  95        It causes the command defined with test_debug to run.
  96        The "trash" directory (used to store all temporary data
  97        during testing) is not deleted even if there are no
  98        failed tests so that you can inspect its contents after
  99        the test finished.
 100
 101-i::
 102--immediate::
 103        This causes the test to immediately exit upon the first
 104        failed test. Cleanup commands requested with
 105        test_when_finished are not executed if the test failed,
 106        in order to keep the state for inspection by the tester
 107        to diagnose the bug.
 108
 109-l::
 110--long-tests::
 111        This causes additional long-running tests to be run (where
 112        available), for more exhaustive testing.
 113
 114-r::
 115--run=<test-selector>::
 116        Run only the subset of tests indicated by
 117        <test-selector>.  See section "Skipping Tests" below for
 118        <test-selector> syntax.
 119
 120--valgrind=<tool>::
 121        Execute all Git binaries under valgrind tool <tool> and exit
 122        with status 126 on errors (just like regular tests, this will
 123        only stop the test script when running under -i).
 124
 125        Since it makes no sense to run the tests with --valgrind and
 126        not see any output, this option implies --verbose.  For
 127        convenience, it also implies --tee.
 128
 129        <tool> defaults to 'memcheck', just like valgrind itself.
 130        Other particularly useful choices include 'helgrind' and
 131        'drd', but you may use any tool recognized by your valgrind
 132        installation.
 133
 134        As a special case, <tool> can be 'memcheck-fast', which uses
 135        memcheck but disables --track-origins.  Use this if you are
 136        running tests in bulk, to see if there are _any_ memory
 137        issues.
 138
 139        Note that memcheck is run with the option --leak-check=no,
 140        as the git process is short-lived and some errors are not
 141        interesting. In order to run a single command under the same
 142        conditions manually, you should set GIT_VALGRIND to point to
 143        the 't/valgrind/' directory and use the commands under
 144        't/valgrind/bin/'.
 145
 146--valgrind-only=<pattern>::
 147        Like --valgrind, but the effect is limited to tests with
 148        numbers matching <pattern>.  The number matched against is
 149        simply the running count of the test within the file.
 150
 151--tee::
 152        In addition to printing the test output to the terminal,
 153        write it to files named 't/test-results/$TEST_NAME.out'.
 154        As the names depend on the tests' file names, it is safe to
 155        run the tests with this option in parallel.
 156
 157-V::
 158--verbose-log::
 159        Write verbose output to the same logfile as `--tee`, but do
 160        _not_ write it to stdout. Unlike `--tee --verbose`, this option
 161        is safe to use when stdout is being consumed by a TAP parser
 162        like `prove`. Implies `--tee` and `--verbose`.
 163
 164--with-dashes::
 165        By default tests are run without dashed forms of
 166        commands (like git-commit) in the PATH (it only uses
 167        wrappers from ../bin-wrappers).  Use this option to include
 168        the build directory (..) in the PATH, which contains all
 169        the dashed forms of commands.  This option is currently
 170        implied by other options like --valgrind and
 171        GIT_TEST_INSTALLED.
 172
 173--root=<directory>::
 174        Create "trash" directories used to store all temporary data during
 175        testing under <directory>, instead of the t/ directory.
 176        Using this option with a RAM-based filesystem (such as tmpfs)
 177        can massively speed up the test suite.
 178
 179--chain-lint::
 180--no-chain-lint::
 181        If --chain-lint is enabled, the test harness will check each
 182        test to make sure that it properly "&&-chains" all commands (so
 183        that a failure in the middle does not go unnoticed by the final
 184        exit code of the test). This check is performed in addition to
 185        running the tests themselves. You may also enable or disable
 186        this feature by setting the GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT environment
 187        variable to "1" or "0", respectively.
 188
 189--stress::
 190--stress=<N>::
 191        Run the test script repeatedly in multiple parallel jobs until
 192        one of them fails.  Useful for reproducing rare failures in
 193        flaky tests.  The number of parallel jobs is, in order of
 194        precedence: <N>, or the value of the GIT_TEST_STRESS_LOAD
 195        environment variable, or twice the number of available
 196        processors (as shown by the 'getconf' utility), or 8.
 197        Implies `--verbose -x --immediate` to get the most information
 198        about the failure.  Note that the verbose output of each test
 199        job is saved to 't/test-results/$TEST_NAME.stress-<nr>.out',
 200        and only the output of the failed test job is shown on the
 201        terminal.  The names of the trash directories get a
 202        '.stress-<nr>' suffix, and the trash directory of the failed
 203        test job is renamed to end with a '.stress-failed' suffix.
 204
 205You can also set the GIT_TEST_INSTALLED environment variable to
 206the bindir of an existing git installation to test that installation.
 207You still need to have built this git sandbox, from which various
 208test-* support programs, templates, and perl libraries are used.
 209If your installed git is incomplete, it will silently test parts of
 210your built version instead.
 211
 212When using GIT_TEST_INSTALLED, you can also set GIT_TEST_EXEC_PATH to
 213override the location of the dashed-form subcommands (what
 214GIT_EXEC_PATH would be used for during normal operation).
 215GIT_TEST_EXEC_PATH defaults to `$GIT_TEST_INSTALLED/git --exec-path`.
 216
 217
 218Skipping Tests
 219--------------
 220
 221In some environments, certain tests have no way of succeeding
 222due to platform limitation, such as lack of 'unzip' program, or
 223filesystem that do not allow arbitrary sequence of non-NUL bytes
 224as pathnames.
 225
 226You should be able to say something like
 227
 228    $ GIT_SKIP_TESTS=t9200.8 sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh
 229
 230and even:
 231
 232    $ GIT_SKIP_TESTS='t[0-4]??? t91?? t9200.8' make
 233
 234to omit such tests.  The value of the environment variable is a
 235SP separated list of patterns that tells which tests to skip,
 236and either can match the "t[0-9]{4}" part to skip the whole
 237test, or t[0-9]{4} followed by ".$number" to say which
 238particular test to skip.
 239
 240For an individual test suite --run could be used to specify that
 241only some tests should be run or that some tests should be
 242excluded from a run.
 243
 244The argument for --run is a list of individual test numbers or
 245ranges with an optional negation prefix that define what tests in
 246a test suite to include in the run.  A range is two numbers
 247separated with a dash and matches a range of tests with both ends
 248been included.  You may omit the first or the second number to
 249mean "from the first test" or "up to the very last test"
 250respectively.
 251
 252Optional prefix of '!' means that the test or a range of tests
 253should be excluded from the run.
 254
 255If --run starts with an unprefixed number or range the initial
 256set of tests to run is empty. If the first item starts with '!'
 257all the tests are added to the initial set.  After initial set is
 258determined every test number or range is added or excluded from
 259the set one by one, from left to right.
 260
 261Individual numbers or ranges could be separated either by a space
 262or a comma.
 263
 264For example, to run only tests up to a specific test (21), one
 265could do this:
 266
 267    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1-21'
 268
 269or this:
 270
 271    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='-21'
 272
 273Common case is to run several setup tests (1, 2, 3) and then a
 274specific test (21) that relies on that setup:
 275
 276    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1 2 3 21'
 277
 278or:
 279
 280    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run=1,2,3,21
 281
 282or:
 283
 284    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='-3 21'
 285
 286As noted above, the test set is built by going through the items
 287from left to right, so this:
 288
 289    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1-4 !3'
 290
 291will run tests 1, 2, and 4.  Items that come later have higher
 292precedence.  It means that this:
 293
 294    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='!3 1-4'
 295
 296would just run tests from 1 to 4, including 3.
 297
 298You may use negation with ranges.  The following will run all
 299test in the test suite except from 7 up to 11:
 300
 301    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='!7-11'
 302
 303Some tests in a test suite rely on the previous tests performing
 304certain actions, specifically some tests are designated as
 305"setup" test, so you cannot _arbitrarily_ disable one test and
 306expect the rest to function correctly.
 307
 308--run is mostly useful when you want to focus on a specific test
 309and know what setup is needed for it.  Or when you want to run
 310everything up to a certain test.
 311
 312
 313Running tests with special setups
 314---------------------------------
 315
 316The whole test suite could be run to test some special features
 317that cannot be easily covered by a few specific test cases. These
 318could be enabled by running the test suite with correct GIT_TEST_
 319environment set.
 320
 321GIT_TEST_GETTEXT_POISON=<non-empty?> turns all strings marked for
 322translation into gibberish if non-empty (think "test -n"). Used for
 323spotting those tests that need to be marked with a C_LOCALE_OUTPUT
 324prerequisite when adding more strings for translation. See "Testing
 325marked strings" in po/README for details.
 326
 327GIT_TEST_SPLIT_INDEX=<boolean> forces split-index mode on the whole
 328test suite. Accept any boolean values that are accepted by git-config.
 329
 330GIT_TEST_FULL_IN_PACK_ARRAY=<boolean> exercises the uncommon
 331pack-objects code path where there are more than 1024 packs even if
 332the actual number of packs in repository is below this limit. Accept
 333any boolean values that are accepted by git-config.
 334
 335GIT_TEST_OE_SIZE=<n> exercises the uncommon pack-objects code path
 336where we do not cache object size in memory and read it from existing
 337packs on demand. This normally only happens when the object size is
 338over 2GB. This variable forces the code path on any object larger than
 339<n> bytes.
 340
 341GIT_TEST_OE_DELTA_SIZE=<n> exercises the uncommon pack-objects code
 342path where deltas larger than this limit require extra memory
 343allocation for bookkeeping.
 344
 345GIT_TEST_VALIDATE_INDEX_CACHE_ENTRIES=<boolean> checks that cache-tree
 346records are valid when the index is written out or after a merge. This
 347is mostly to catch missing invalidation. Default is true.
 348
 349GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH=<boolean>, when true, forces the commit-graph to
 350be written after every 'git commit' command, and overrides the
 351'core.commitGraph' setting to true.
 352
 353GIT_TEST_FSMONITOR=$PWD/t7519/fsmonitor-all exercises the fsmonitor
 354code path for utilizing a file system monitor to speed up detecting
 355new or changed files.
 356
 357GIT_TEST_INDEX_VERSION=<n> exercises the index read/write code path
 358for the index version specified.  Can be set to any valid version
 359(currently 2, 3, or 4).
 360
 361GIT_TEST_PRELOAD_INDEX=<boolean> exercises the preload-index code path
 362by overriding the minimum number of cache entries required per thread.
 363
 364GIT_TEST_REBASE_USE_BUILTIN=<boolean>, when false, disables the
 365builtin version of git-rebase. See 'rebase.useBuiltin' in
 366git-config(1).
 367
 368GIT_TEST_INDEX_THREADS=<n> enables exercising the multi-threaded loading
 369of the index for the whole test suite by bypassing the default number of
 370cache entries and thread minimums. Setting this to 1 will make the
 371index loading single threaded.
 372
 373GIT_TEST_MULTI_PACK_INDEX=<boolean>, when true, forces the multi-pack-
 374index to be written after every 'git repack' command, and overrides the
 375'core.multiPackIndex' setting to true.
 376
 377Naming Tests
 378------------
 379
 380The test files are named as:
 381
 382        tNNNN-commandname-details.sh
 383
 384where N is a decimal digit.
 385
 386First digit tells the family:
 387
 388        0 - the absolute basics and global stuff
 389        1 - the basic commands concerning database
 390        2 - the basic commands concerning the working tree
 391        3 - the other basic commands (e.g. ls-files)
 392        4 - the diff commands
 393        5 - the pull and exporting commands
 394        6 - the revision tree commands (even e.g. merge-base)
 395        7 - the porcelainish commands concerning the working tree
 396        8 - the porcelainish commands concerning forensics
 397        9 - the git tools
 398
 399Second digit tells the particular command we are testing.
 400
 401Third digit (optionally) tells the particular switch or group of switches
 402we are testing.
 403
 404If you create files under t/ directory (i.e. here) that is not
 405the top-level test script, never name the file to match the above
 406pattern.  The Makefile here considers all such files as the
 407top-level test script and tries to run all of them.  Care is
 408especially needed if you are creating a common test library
 409file, similar to test-lib.sh, because such a library file may
 410not be suitable for standalone execution.
 411
 412
 413Writing Tests
 414-------------
 415
 416The test script is written as a shell script.  It should start
 417with the standard "#!/bin/sh", and an
 418assignment to variable 'test_description', like this:
 419
 420        #!/bin/sh
 421
 422        test_description='xxx test (option --frotz)
 423
 424        This test registers the following structure in the cache
 425        and tries to run git-ls-files with option --frotz.'
 426
 427
 428Source 'test-lib.sh'
 429--------------------
 430
 431After assigning test_description, the test script should source
 432test-lib.sh like this:
 433
 434        . ./test-lib.sh
 435
 436This test harness library does the following things:
 437
 438 - If the script is invoked with command line argument --help
 439   (or -h), it shows the test_description and exits.
 440
 441 - Creates an empty test directory with an empty .git/objects database
 442   and chdir(2) into it.  This directory is 't/trash
 443   directory.$test_name_without_dotsh', with t/ subject to change by
 444   the --root option documented above, and a '.stress-<N>' suffix
 445   appended by the --stress option.
 446
 447 - Defines standard test helper functions for your scripts to
 448   use.  These functions are designed to make all scripts behave
 449   consistently when command line arguments --verbose (or -v),
 450   --debug (or -d), and --immediate (or -i) is given.
 451
 452Do's & don'ts
 453-------------
 454
 455Here are a few examples of things you probably should and shouldn't do
 456when writing tests.
 457
 458Here are the "do's:"
 459
 460 - Put all code inside test_expect_success and other assertions.
 461
 462   Even code that isn't a test per se, but merely some setup code
 463   should be inside a test assertion.
 464
 465 - Chain your test assertions
 466
 467   Write test code like this:
 468
 469        git merge foo &&
 470        git push bar &&
 471        test ...
 472
 473   Instead of:
 474
 475        git merge hla
 476        git push gh
 477        test ...
 478
 479   That way all of the commands in your tests will succeed or fail. If
 480   you must ignore the return value of something, consider using a
 481   helper function (e.g. use sane_unset instead of unset, in order
 482   to avoid unportable return value for unsetting a variable that was
 483   already unset), or prepending the command with test_might_fail or
 484   test_must_fail.
 485
 486 - Check the test coverage for your tests. See the "Test coverage"
 487   below.
 488
 489   Don't blindly follow test coverage metrics; if a new function you added
 490   doesn't have any coverage, then you're probably doing something wrong,
 491   but having 100% coverage doesn't necessarily mean that you tested
 492   everything.
 493
 494   Tests that are likely to smoke out future regressions are better
 495   than tests that just inflate the coverage metrics.
 496
 497 - When a test checks for an absolute path that a git command generated,
 498   construct the expected value using $(pwd) rather than $PWD,
 499   $TEST_DIRECTORY, or $TRASH_DIRECTORY. It makes a difference on
 500   Windows, where the shell (MSYS bash) mangles absolute path names.
 501   For details, see the commit message of 4114156ae9.
 502
 503 - Remember that inside the <script> part, the standard output and
 504   standard error streams are discarded, and the test harness only
 505   reports "ok" or "not ok" to the end user running the tests. Under
 506   --verbose, they are shown to help debug the tests.
 507
 508And here are the "don'ts:"
 509
 510 - Don't exit() within a <script> part.
 511
 512   The harness will catch this as a programming error of the test.
 513   Use test_done instead if you need to stop the tests early (see
 514   "Skipping tests" below).
 515
 516 - Don't use '! git cmd' when you want to make sure the git command
 517   exits with failure in a controlled way by calling "die()".  Instead,
 518   use 'test_must_fail git cmd'.  This will signal a failure if git
 519   dies in an unexpected way (e.g. segfault).
 520
 521   On the other hand, don't use test_must_fail for running regular
 522   platform commands; just use '! cmd'.  We are not in the business
 523   of verifying that the world given to us sanely works.
 524
 525 - Don't feed the output of a git command to a pipe, as in:
 526
 527     git -C repo ls-files |
 528     xargs -n 1 basename |
 529     grep foo
 530
 531   which will discard git's exit code and may mask a crash. In the
 532   above example, all exit codes are ignored except grep's.
 533
 534   Instead, write the output of that command to a temporary
 535   file with ">" or assign it to a variable with "x=$(git ...)" rather
 536   than pipe it.
 537
 538 - Don't use command substitution in a way that discards git's exit
 539   code. When assigning to a variable, the exit code is not discarded,
 540   e.g.:
 541
 542     x=$(git cat-file -p $sha) &&
 543     ...
 544
 545   is OK because a crash in "git cat-file" will cause the "&&" chain
 546   to fail, but:
 547
 548     test "refs/heads/foo" = "$(git symbolic-ref HEAD)"
 549
 550   is not OK and a crash in git could go undetected.
 551
 552 - Don't use perl without spelling it as "$PERL_PATH". This is to help
 553   our friends on Windows where the platform Perl often adds CR before
 554   the end of line, and they bundle Git with a version of Perl that
 555   does not do so, whose path is specified with $PERL_PATH. Note that we
 556   provide a "perl" function which uses $PERL_PATH under the hood, so
 557   you do not need to worry when simply running perl in the test scripts
 558   (but you do, for example, on a shebang line or in a sub script
 559   created via "write_script").
 560
 561 - Don't use sh without spelling it as "$SHELL_PATH", when the script
 562   can be misinterpreted by broken platform shell (e.g. Solaris).
 563
 564 - Don't chdir around in tests.  It is not sufficient to chdir to
 565   somewhere and then chdir back to the original location later in
 566   the test, as any intermediate step can fail and abort the test,
 567   causing the next test to start in an unexpected directory.  Do so
 568   inside a subshell if necessary.
 569
 570 - Don't save and verify the standard error of compound commands, i.e.
 571   group commands, subshells, and shell functions (except test helper
 572   functions like 'test_must_fail') like this:
 573
 574     ( cd dir && git cmd ) 2>error &&
 575     test_cmp expect error
 576
 577   When running the test with '-x' tracing, then the trace of commands
 578   executed in the compound command will be included in standard error
 579   as well, quite possibly throwing off the subsequent checks examining
 580   the output.  Instead, save only the relevant git command's standard
 581   error:
 582
 583     ( cd dir && git cmd 2>../error ) &&
 584     test_cmp expect error
 585
 586 - Don't break the TAP output
 587
 588   The raw output from your test may be interpreted by a TAP harness. TAP
 589   harnesses will ignore everything they don't know about, but don't step
 590   on their toes in these areas:
 591
 592   - Don't print lines like "$x..$y" where $x and $y are integers.
 593
 594   - Don't print lines that begin with "ok" or "not ok".
 595
 596   TAP harnesses expect a line that begins with either "ok" and "not
 597   ok" to signal a test passed or failed (and our harness already
 598   produces such lines), so your script shouldn't emit such lines to
 599   their output.
 600
 601   You can glean some further possible issues from the TAP grammar
 602   (see https://metacpan.org/pod/TAP::Parser::Grammar#TAP-GRAMMAR)
 603   but the best indication is to just run the tests with prove(1),
 604   it'll complain if anything is amiss.
 605
 606
 607Skipping tests
 608--------------
 609
 610If you need to skip tests you should do so by using the three-arg form
 611of the test_* functions (see the "Test harness library" section
 612below), e.g.:
 613
 614    test_expect_success PERL 'I need Perl' '
 615        perl -e "hlagh() if unf_unf()"
 616    '
 617
 618The advantage of skipping tests like this is that platforms that don't
 619have the PERL and other optional dependencies get an indication of how
 620many tests they're missing.
 621
 622If the test code is too hairy for that (i.e. does a lot of setup work
 623outside test assertions) you can also skip all remaining tests by
 624setting skip_all and immediately call test_done:
 625
 626        if ! test_have_prereq PERL
 627        then
 628            skip_all='skipping perl interface tests, perl not available'
 629            test_done
 630        fi
 631
 632The string you give to skip_all will be used as an explanation for why
 633the test was skipped.
 634
 635End with test_done
 636------------------
 637
 638Your script will be a sequence of tests, using helper functions
 639from the test harness library.  At the end of the script, call
 640'test_done'.
 641
 642
 643Test harness library
 644--------------------
 645
 646There are a handful helper functions defined in the test harness
 647library for your script to use.
 648
 649 - test_expect_success [<prereq>] <message> <script>
 650
 651   Usually takes two strings as parameters, and evaluates the
 652   <script>.  If it yields success, test is considered
 653   successful.  <message> should state what it is testing.
 654
 655   Example:
 656
 657        test_expect_success \
 658            'git-write-tree should be able to write an empty tree.' \
 659            'tree=$(git-write-tree)'
 660
 661   If you supply three parameters the first will be taken to be a
 662   prerequisite; see the test_set_prereq and test_have_prereq
 663   documentation below:
 664
 665        test_expect_success TTY 'git --paginate rev-list uses a pager' \
 666            ' ... '
 667
 668   You can also supply a comma-separated list of prerequisites, in the
 669   rare case where your test depends on more than one:
 670
 671        test_expect_success PERL,PYTHON 'yo dawg' \
 672            ' test $(perl -E 'print eval "1 +" . qx[python -c "print 2"]') == "4" '
 673
 674 - test_expect_failure [<prereq>] <message> <script>
 675
 676   This is NOT the opposite of test_expect_success, but is used
 677   to mark a test that demonstrates a known breakage.  Unlike
 678   the usual test_expect_success tests, which say "ok" on
 679   success and "FAIL" on failure, this will say "FIXED" on
 680   success and "still broken" on failure.  Failures from these
 681   tests won't cause -i (immediate) to stop.
 682
 683   Like test_expect_success this function can optionally use a three
 684   argument invocation with a prerequisite as the first argument.
 685
 686 - test_debug <script>
 687
 688   This takes a single argument, <script>, and evaluates it only
 689   when the test script is started with --debug command line
 690   argument.  This is primarily meant for use during the
 691   development of a new test script.
 692
 693 - debug <git-command>
 694
 695   Run a git command inside a debugger. This is primarily meant for
 696   use when debugging a failing test script.
 697
 698 - test_done
 699
 700   Your test script must have test_done at the end.  Its purpose
 701   is to summarize successes and failures in the test script and
 702   exit with an appropriate error code.
 703
 704 - test_tick
 705
 706   Make commit and tag names consistent by setting the author and
 707   committer times to defined state.  Subsequent calls will
 708   advance the times by a fixed amount.
 709
 710 - test_commit <message> [<filename> [<contents>]]
 711
 712   Creates a commit with the given message, committing the given
 713   file with the given contents (default for both is to reuse the
 714   message string), and adds a tag (again reusing the message
 715   string as name).  Calls test_tick to make the SHA-1s
 716   reproducible.
 717
 718 - test_merge <message> <commit-or-tag>
 719
 720   Merges the given rev using the given message.  Like test_commit,
 721   creates a tag and calls test_tick before committing.
 722
 723 - test_set_prereq <prereq>
 724
 725   Set a test prerequisite to be used later with test_have_prereq. The
 726   test-lib will set some prerequisites for you, see the
 727   "Prerequisites" section below for a full list of these.
 728
 729   Others you can set yourself and use later with either
 730   test_have_prereq directly, or the three argument invocation of
 731   test_expect_success and test_expect_failure.
 732
 733 - test_have_prereq <prereq>
 734
 735   Check if we have a prerequisite previously set with test_set_prereq.
 736   The most common way to use this explicitly (as opposed to the
 737   implicit use when an argument is passed to test_expect_*) is to skip
 738   all the tests at the start of the test script if we don't have some
 739   essential prerequisite:
 740
 741        if ! test_have_prereq PERL
 742        then
 743            skip_all='skipping perl interface tests, perl not available'
 744            test_done
 745        fi
 746
 747 - test_external [<prereq>] <message> <external> <script>
 748
 749   Execute a <script> with an <external> interpreter (like perl). This
 750   was added for tests like t9700-perl-git.sh which do most of their
 751   work in an external test script.
 752
 753        test_external \
 754            'GitwebCache::*FileCache*' \
 755            perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9503/test_cache_interface.pl
 756
 757   If the test is outputting its own TAP you should set the
 758   test_external_has_tap variable somewhere before calling the first
 759   test_external* function. See t9700-perl-git.sh for an example.
 760
 761        # The external test will outputs its own plan
 762        test_external_has_tap=1
 763
 764 - test_external_without_stderr [<prereq>] <message> <external> <script>
 765
 766   Like test_external but fail if there's any output on stderr,
 767   instead of checking the exit code.
 768
 769        test_external_without_stderr \
 770            'Perl API' \
 771            perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9700/test.pl
 772
 773 - test_expect_code <exit-code> <command>
 774
 775   Run a command and ensure that it exits with the given exit code.
 776   For example:
 777
 778        test_expect_success 'Merge with d/f conflicts' '
 779                test_expect_code 1 git merge "merge msg" B master
 780        '
 781
 782 - test_must_fail [<options>] <git-command>
 783
 784   Run a git command and ensure it fails in a controlled way.  Use
 785   this instead of "! <git-command>".  When git-command dies due to a
 786   segfault, test_must_fail diagnoses it as an error; "! <git-command>"
 787   treats it as just another expected failure, which would let such a
 788   bug go unnoticed.
 789
 790   Accepts the following options:
 791
 792     ok=<signal-name>[,<...>]:
 793       Don't treat an exit caused by the given signal as error.
 794       Multiple signals can be specified as a comma separated list.
 795       Currently recognized signal names are: sigpipe, success.
 796       (Don't use 'success', use 'test_might_fail' instead.)
 797
 798 - test_might_fail [<options>] <git-command>
 799
 800   Similar to test_must_fail, but tolerate success, too.  Use this
 801   instead of "<git-command> || :" to catch failures due to segv.
 802
 803   Accepts the same options as test_must_fail.
 804
 805 - test_cmp <expected> <actual>
 806
 807   Check whether the content of the <actual> file matches the
 808   <expected> file.  This behaves like "cmp" but produces more
 809   helpful output when the test is run with "-v" option.
 810
 811 - test_cmp_rev <expected> <actual>
 812
 813   Check whether the <expected> rev points to the same commit as the
 814   <actual> rev.
 815
 816 - test_line_count (= | -lt | -ge | ...) <length> <file>
 817
 818   Check whether a file has the length it is expected to.
 819
 820 - test_path_is_file <path> [<diagnosis>]
 821   test_path_is_dir <path> [<diagnosis>]
 822   test_path_is_missing <path> [<diagnosis>]
 823
 824   Check if the named path is a file, if the named path is a
 825   directory, or if the named path does not exist, respectively,
 826   and fail otherwise, showing the <diagnosis> text.
 827
 828 - test_when_finished <script>
 829
 830   Prepend <script> to a list of commands to run to clean up
 831   at the end of the current test.  If some clean-up command
 832   fails, the test will not pass.
 833
 834   Example:
 835
 836        test_expect_success 'branch pointing to non-commit' '
 837                git rev-parse HEAD^{tree} >.git/refs/heads/invalid &&
 838                test_when_finished "git update-ref -d refs/heads/invalid" &&
 839                ...
 840        '
 841
 842 - test_write_lines <lines>
 843
 844   Write <lines> on standard output, one line per argument.
 845   Useful to prepare multi-line files in a compact form.
 846
 847   Example:
 848
 849        test_write_lines a b c d e f g >foo
 850
 851   Is a more compact equivalent of:
 852        cat >foo <<-EOF
 853        a
 854        b
 855        c
 856        d
 857        e
 858        f
 859        g
 860        EOF
 861
 862
 863 - test_pause
 864
 865        This command is useful for writing and debugging tests and must be
 866        removed before submitting. It halts the execution of the test and
 867        spawns a shell in the trash directory. Exit the shell to continue
 868        the test. Example:
 869
 870        test_expect_success 'test' '
 871                git do-something >actual &&
 872                test_pause &&
 873                test_cmp expected actual
 874        '
 875
 876 - test_ln_s_add <path1> <path2>
 877
 878   This function helps systems whose filesystem does not support symbolic
 879   links. Use it to add a symbolic link entry to the index when it is not
 880   important that the file system entry is a symbolic link, i.e., instead
 881   of the sequence
 882
 883        ln -s foo bar &&
 884        git add bar
 885
 886   Sometimes it is possible to split a test in a part that does not need
 887   the symbolic link in the file system and a part that does; then only
 888   the latter part need be protected by a SYMLINKS prerequisite (see below).
 889
 890 - test_oid_init
 891
 892   This function loads facts and useful object IDs related to the hash
 893   algorithm(s) in use from the files in t/oid-info.
 894
 895 - test_oid_cache
 896
 897   This function reads per-hash algorithm information from standard
 898   input (usually a heredoc) in the format described in
 899   t/oid-info/README.  This is useful for test-specific values, such as
 900   object IDs, which must vary based on the hash algorithm.
 901
 902   Certain fixed values, such as hash sizes and common placeholder
 903   object IDs, can be loaded with test_oid_init (described above).
 904
 905 - test_oid <key>
 906
 907   This function looks up a value for the hash algorithm in use, based
 908   on the key given.  The value must have been loaded using
 909   test_oid_init or test_oid_cache.  Providing an unknown key is an
 910   error.
 911
 912Prerequisites
 913-------------
 914
 915These are the prerequisites that the test library predefines with
 916test_have_prereq.
 917
 918See the prereq argument to the test_* functions in the "Test harness
 919library" section above and the "test_have_prereq" function for how to
 920use these, and "test_set_prereq" for how to define your own.
 921
 922 - PYTHON
 923
 924   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PYTHON=YesPlease. Wrap any tests that
 925   need Python with this.
 926
 927 - PERL
 928
 929   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PERL=YesPlease.
 930
 931   Even without the PERL prerequisite, tests can assume there is a
 932   usable perl interpreter at $PERL_PATH, though it need not be
 933   particularly modern.
 934
 935 - POSIXPERM
 936
 937   The filesystem supports POSIX style permission bits.
 938
 939 - BSLASHPSPEC
 940
 941   Backslashes in pathspec are not directory separators. This is not
 942   set on Windows. See 6fd1106a for details.
 943
 944 - EXECKEEPSPID
 945
 946   The process retains the same pid across exec(2). See fb9a2bea for
 947   details.
 948
 949 - PIPE
 950
 951   The filesystem we're on supports creation of FIFOs (named pipes)
 952   via mkfifo(1).
 953
 954 - SYMLINKS
 955
 956   The filesystem we're on supports symbolic links. E.g. a FAT
 957   filesystem doesn't support these. See 704a3143 for details.
 958
 959 - SANITY
 960
 961   Test is not run by root user, and an attempt to write to an
 962   unwritable file is expected to fail correctly.
 963
 964 - PCRE
 965
 966   Git was compiled with support for PCRE. Wrap any tests
 967   that use git-grep --perl-regexp or git-grep -P in these.
 968
 969 - LIBPCRE1
 970
 971   Git was compiled with PCRE v1 support via
 972   USE_LIBPCRE1=YesPlease. Wrap any PCRE using tests that for some
 973   reason need v1 of the PCRE library instead of v2 in these.
 974
 975 - LIBPCRE2
 976
 977   Git was compiled with PCRE v2 support via
 978   USE_LIBPCRE2=YesPlease. Wrap any PCRE using tests that for some
 979   reason need v2 of the PCRE library instead of v1 in these.
 980
 981 - CASE_INSENSITIVE_FS
 982
 983   Test is run on a case insensitive file system.
 984
 985 - UTF8_NFD_TO_NFC
 986
 987   Test is run on a filesystem which converts decomposed utf-8 (nfd)
 988   to precomposed utf-8 (nfc).
 989
 990 - PTHREADS
 991
 992   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PTHREADS=YesPlease.
 993
 994Tips for Writing Tests
 995----------------------
 996
 997As with any programming projects, existing programs are the best
 998source of the information.  However, do _not_ emulate
 999t0000-basic.sh when writing your tests.  The test is special in
1000that it tries to validate the very core of GIT.  For example, it
1001knows that there will be 256 subdirectories under .git/objects/,
1002and it knows that the object ID of an empty tree is a certain
100340-byte string.  This is deliberately done so in t0000-basic.sh
1004because the things the very basic core test tries to achieve is
1005to serve as a basis for people who are changing the GIT internal
1006drastically.  For these people, after making certain changes,
1007not seeing failures from the basic test _is_ a failure.  And
1008such drastic changes to the core GIT that even changes these
1009otherwise supposedly stable object IDs should be accompanied by
1010an update to t0000-basic.sh.
1011
1012However, other tests that simply rely on basic parts of the core
1013GIT working properly should not have that level of intimate
1014knowledge of the core GIT internals.  If all the test scripts
1015hardcoded the object IDs like t0000-basic.sh does, that defeats
1016the purpose of t0000-basic.sh, which is to isolate that level of
1017validation in one place.  Your test also ends up needing
1018updating when such a change to the internal happens, so do _not_
1019do it and leave the low level of validation to t0000-basic.sh.
1020
1021Test coverage
1022-------------
1023
1024You can use the coverage tests to find code paths that are not being
1025used or properly exercised yet.
1026
1027To do that, run the coverage target at the top-level (not in the t/
1028directory):
1029
1030    make coverage
1031
1032That'll compile Git with GCC's coverage arguments, and generate a test
1033report with gcov after the tests finish. Running the coverage tests
1034can take a while, since running the tests in parallel is incompatible
1035with GCC's coverage mode.
1036
1037After the tests have run you can generate a list of untested
1038functions:
1039
1040    make coverage-untested-functions
1041
1042You can also generate a detailed per-file HTML report using the
1043Devel::Cover module. To install it do:
1044
1045   # On Debian or Ubuntu:
1046   sudo aptitude install libdevel-cover-perl
1047
1048   # From the CPAN with cpanminus
1049   curl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - --sudo --self-upgrade
1050   cpanm --sudo Devel::Cover
1051
1052Then, at the top-level:
1053
1054    make cover_db_html
1055
1056That'll generate a detailed cover report in the "cover_db_html"
1057directory, which you can then copy to a webserver, or inspect locally
1058in a browser.