cmdtest - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

cmdtest - blackbox testing of Unix command line tools

SYNOPSIS

cmdtest [-cCOMMAND] [--command=COMMAND] [--config=FILE] [--dump-config]
[--dump-setting-names] [--generate-manpage=TEMPLATE] [-h] [--help] [--help-all]
[--list-config-files] [--version] [--no-default-configs] [--dump-memory-profile=METHOD]
[-k] [--keep] [--no-keep] [--log=FILE] [--log-keep=N] [--log-level=LEVEL] [--log-max=SIZE]
[--log-mode=MODE] [--memory-dump-interval=SECONDS] [--output=FILE] [-tTEST] [--test=TEST]
[--timings] [--no-timings] [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION

cmdtest black box tests Unix command line tools. Given some test scripts, their inputs,
and expected outputs, it verifies that the command line produces the expected output. If
not, it reports problems, and shows the differences.

Each test case foo consists of the following files:

foo.script
a script to run the test (this is required)

foo.stdin
the file fed to standard input

foo.stdout
the expected output to the standard output

foo.stderr
the expected output to the standard error

foo.exit
the expected exit code

foo.setup
a shell script to run before the test

foo.teardown
a shell script to run after test

Usually, a single test is not enough. All tests are put into the same directory, and they
may share some setup and teardown code:

setup-once
a shell script to run once, before any tests

setup a shell script to run before each test

teardown
a shell script to run after each test

teardown-once
a shell script to run once, after all tests

cmdtest is given the name of the directory with all the tests, or several such
directories, and it does the following:

· execute setup-once

· for each test case (unique prefix foo):

— execute setup

— execute foo.setup

— execute the command, by running foo.script, and redirecting standard input to
come from foo.stdin, and capturing standard output and error and exit codes

— execute foo.teardown

— execute teardown

— report result of test: does exit code match foo.exit, standard output match
foo.stdout, and standard error match foo.stderr?

· execute teardown-once

Except for foo.script, all of these files are optional. If a setup or teardown script is
missing, it is simply not executed. If one of the standard input, output, or error files
is missing, it is treated as if it were empty. If the exit code file is missing, it is
treated as if it specified an exit code of zero.

The shell scripts may use the following environment variables:

DATADIR
a temporary directory where files may be created by the test

TESTNAME
name of the current test (will be empty for setup-once and teardown-once)

SRCDIR directory from which cmdtest was launched

OPTIONS

-c, --command=COMMAND
ignored for backwards compatibility

--generate-manpage=TEMPLATE
SUPPRESSHELP

-h, --help
show this help message and exit

-k, --keep
keep temporary data on failure

--no-keep
opposite of --keep

--output=FILE
write output to FILE, instead of standard output

-t, --test=TEST
run only TEST (can be given many times)

--timings
report how long each test takes

--no-timings
opposite of --timings

--version
show program's version number and exit

Configuration files and settings
--config=FILE
add FILE to config files

--dump-config
write out the entire current configuration

--dump-setting-names
SUPPRESSHELP

--help-all
show all options

--list-config-files
SUPPRESSHELP

--no-default-configs
clear list of configuration files to read

Logging
--log=FILE
write log entries to FILE (default is to not write log files at all); use "syslog"
to log to system log, "stderr" to log to the standard error output, or "none" to
disable logging

--log-keep=N
keep last N logs (10)

--log-level=LEVEL
log at LEVEL, one of debug, info, warning, error, critical, fatal (default: debug)

--log-max=SIZE
rotate logs larger than SIZE, zero for never (default: 0)

--log-mode=MODE
set permissions of new log files to MODE (octal; default 0600)

Peformance
--dump-memory-profile=METHOD
make memory profiling dumps using METHOD, which is one of: none, simple, or meliae
(default: simple)

--memory-dump-interval=SECONDS
make memory profiling dumps at least SECONDS apart

EXAMPLE

To test that the echo(1) command outputs the expected string, create a file called echo-
tests/hello.script containing the following content:

#!/bin/sh
echo hello, world

Also create the file echo-tests/hello.stdout containing:

hello, world

Then you can run the tests:

$ cmdtest echo-tests
test 1/1
1/1 tests OK, 0 failures

If you change the stdout file to be something else, cmdtest will report the differences:

$ cmdtest echo-tests
FAIL: hello: stdout diff:
--- echo-tests/hello.stdout 2011-09-11 19:14:47 +0100
+++ echo-tests/hello.stdout-actual 2011-09-11 19:14:49 +0100
@@ -1 +1 @@
-something else
+hello, world

test 1/1
0/1 tests OK, 1 failures

Furthermore, the echo-tests directory will contain the actual output files, and diffs from
the expected files. If one of the actual output files is actually correct, you can
actualy rename it to be the expected file. Actually, that's a very convenient way of
creating the expected output files: you run the test, fixing things, until you've manually
checked the actual output is correct, then you rename the file.

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