exactly 0.12.0

Tests a command line program by executing it in a temporary sandbox directory and inspecting its result.

Tests a command line program by executing it in a temporary sandbox directory and inspecting its result.

Or tests properties of existing files, directories etc.

Supports individual test cases and test suites.

Exactly has a Wiki. It also has a built in help system, which can, among other things, generate this Reference manual.

Contents

• TEST CASES

  • Testing stdin, stdout, stderr, exit code

  • Testing side effects on files and directories

  • Using predefined source files

  • Testing and transforming the contents of files

  • Using external helper programs

  • Testing source code files

  • Print output from the tested program

  • Testing existing OS environment - tests without [act]

  • Testing a git commit hook

• ORGANIZING TESTS

  • File inclusion

  • Test suites

• MORE EXAMPLES

• INSTALLING

• DEVELOPMENT STATUS

  • Future development

• AUTHOR

• THANKS

• DEDICATION

  • Project dedications

  • Release dedications

  • Release soundtrack

TEST CASES

A test case is written as a plain text file.

Testing stdin, stdout, stderr, exit code

The following checks that your new my-contacts-program reads a contact list from stdin, and is able to find the email of a person:

[setup]

stdin = -file some-test-contacts.txt

[act]

my-contacts-program get-email-of --name 'Pablo Gauss'

[assert]

exit-code == 0

stdout equals <<EOF
[e-mail]
EOF

stderr empty

If the file ‘contacts.case’ contains this test case, then Exactly can execute it:

> exactly contacts.case
PASS

“PASS” means that all assertions were satisfied.

This test assumes that

• the system under test - my-contacts-program - is is found in the same directory as the test case file

• the file “some-test-contacts.txt” (that is referenced from the test case) is found in the same directory as the test case file

The home and act-home instructions can be used to change the directories where Exactly looks for files referenced from the test case.

Testing side effects on files and directories

When the execution of a test case starts, the current directory is set to a temporary directory. This gives the test case a sandbox where it can create and manipulate files.

The sandbox - and all files within it - are removed when the execution ends.

The following tests a program that classifies files as either good or bad, by moving them to the appropriate directory:

[setup]

dir input
dir output/good
dir output/bad

file input/a.txt = <<EOF
GOOD contents
EOF

file input/b.txt = <<EOF
bad contents
EOF

[act]

classify-files-by-moving-to-appropriate-dir GOOD input/ output/

[assert]

dir-contents input empty

exists       output/good/a.txt : type file
dir-contents output/good         num-files == 1

exists       output/bad/b.txt : type file
dir-contents output/bad         num-files == 1

file and dir makes files in the current directory (by default).

Using predefined source files

The home directory structure is directories containing predefined files involved in a test case:

act-home

Location of the program file being tested

home

Location of arbitrary test resources

Both of them defaults to the directory that contains the test case file, but can be changed via [conf].

There are options for making paths relative to them, and also to the temporary sandbox directories.

-rel-home refers to the home directory, and -rel-act to the temporary directory that is the current directory at the start of the execution:

[conf]

act-home = ../bin/

home     = data/

[setup]

copy  -rel-home input.txt  -rel-act actual.txt

[act]

my-grep-tool "text to find" actual.txt

[assert]

contents -rel-act actual.txt
         equals
         -file -rel-home expected.txt

These “relativity” options have defaults designed to minimize the need for them. The following case does the same thing as the one above:

[conf]

act-home = ../bin/

home     = data/

[setup]

copy input.txt actual.txt

[act]

my-grep-tool "text to find" actual.txt

[assert]

contents actual.txt
         equals
         -file expected.txt

Testing and transforming the contents of files

Use contents to test the contents of a file, or a transformed version of it, by applying a “string transformer”.

Such a “string transformer” may be given a name using the def instruction to make the test easier to read.

The following case tests that “timing lines” are output as part of a log file “log.txt”.

The challenge is that the (fictive) log file contains non-timing lines that the test is not interested in, and that timing lines contains a time stamp of the form “NN:NN”, who’s exact value also is not interesting.

A “string transformer” is used to extract all timing lines and to replace “NN:NN” time stamps with the constant string TIMESTAMP:

[setup]

def line-matcher       IS_TIMING_LINE     = matches ^timing

def string-transformer REPLACE_TIMESTAMPS = replace [0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} TIMESTAMP

def string-transformer GET_TIMING_LINES   = filter IS_TIMING_LINE | REPLACE_TIMESTAMPS

[act]

program-that-writes-log-file

[assert]

contents log.txt
         -transformed-by GET_TIMING_LINES
         equals <<EOF
timing TIMESTAMP begin
timing TIMESTAMP preprocessing
timing TIMESTAMP validation
timing TIMESTAMP execution
timing TIMESTAMP end
EOF

The -transformed-by option does not modify the tested file, it just applies the assertion to a transformed version of it.

Using external helper programs

External programs can help with setup and assertions etc.

Exactly can run executable files, shell commands and programs in the OS PATH, using run, $, %.

The following case shows some examples, but doesn’t make sense tough:

[setup]

run my-setup-helper-program first "second arg"

run % mysql -uu -pp -hlocalhost -Dd --batch --execute "create table my_table(id int)"

$ touch file

file root-files.txt = -stdout-from $ ls /

[act]

$ echo ${PATH}

[assert]

run my-assert-helper-program

$ test -f root-files.txt

stdout -from
       % echo 'Interesting output'
       equals
<<EOF
Interesting output
EOF

[cleanup]

run % mysql -uu -pp -hlocalhost -Dd --batch --execute "drop table my_table"

A program executed in [assert] becomes an assertion that depends on the exit code.

Program values can be defined for reuse using def and run using @:

[setup]

def program RUN_MYSQL   = % mysql -uu -pp -hlocalhost -Dd
def program EXECUTE_SQL = @ RUN_MYSQL --skip-column-names --batch --execute


run @ EXECUTE_SQL "create table my_table(id int)"

[act]

system-under-test

[assert]

stdout -from
       @ EXECUTE_SQL "select * from my_table"
       ! empty

[cleanup]

run @ EXECUTE_SQL "drop table my_table"

Testing source code files

The actor instruction can specify an interpreter to test a source code file:

[conf]

actor = -file python

[act]

my-python-program.py 'an argument' second third

[assert]

stdout equals
<<EOF
Argument: an argument
Argument: second
Argument: third
EOF

Print output from the tested program

If --act is used, the output of the “act” phase (the “action to check”) will become the output of exactly - stdout, stderr and exit code

[setup]

dir  a-dir
file a-file

[act]

$ ls

[assert]

stdout num-lines == 314

> exactly --act my-test.case
a-dir
a-file

The test case is executed in a temporary sandbox, as usual, but assertions are ignored.

Testing existing OS environment - tests without [act]

A test case does not need to have an [act] phase. This way, Exactly can be used to check existing files and directories, for example.

The following case checks your hierarchy of software projects.

The projects are rooted at the directory ‘my-projects’. Each ‘project’ sub directory contains a project, and must contain a ‘Makefile’ with a target ‘all’:

[assert]

exists @[MY_PROJECTS_ROOT_DIR]@ : type dir && @[ALL_PROJECT_DIRS_ARE_VALID]@

[setup]

def path   MY_PROJECTS_ROOT_DIR = -rel-act-home 'my-projects'
def string MY_PROJECT_DIR_NAME  = 'project'

def file-matcher IS_VALID_MAKEFILE =

    type file &&
    contents
      any line : matches '^all:$'


def file-matcher IS_VALID_PROJECT_DIR =

    type dir &&
    dir-contents
       any file : name 'Makefile' && @[IS_VALID_MAKEFILE]@


def file-matcher ALL_PROJECT_DIRS_ARE_VALID =

    dir-contents -recursive
      -selection name @[MY_PROJECT_DIR_NAME]@
        every file : @[IS_VALID_PROJECT_DIR]@

Testing a git commit hook

The following tests a git commit hook (prepare-commit-msg).

The hook should add the issue id in the branch name, to commit messages:

[setup]


def string ISSUE_ID            = ABC-123
def string MESSAGE_WO_ISSUE_ID = "commit message without issue id"

def program GET_LOG_MESSAGE_OF_LAST_COMMIT = % git log -1 --format=%s


## Setup a (non empty) git repo.

$ git init

file file-in-repo = "A file in the repo"

$ git add file-in-repo

$ git commit -m "commit of file already in repo"


## Install the commit hook to test.

copy prepare-commit-msg .git/hooks


## Setup a branch, with issue number in its name,
# and a file to commit.

$ git checkout -b "@[ISSUE_ID]@-branch-with-issue-id"

file file-to-add = "A file to add on the branch"

$ git add file-to-add


[act]


$ git commit -m "@[MESSAGE_WO_ISSUE_ID]@"


[assert]


stdout -from
       @ GET_LOG_MESSAGE_OF_LAST_COMMIT
       equals
<<-
@[ISSUE_ID]@ : @[MESSAGE_WO_ISSUE_ID]@
-

Note: Since a test is executed in a sandbox directory, it is ok to create the git repo in CWD.

Note: Since the test is rather long, it would increase readability to put part of it in external files, and including them using including. E.g.:

[setup]
...
including repo-in-cwd-with-installed-commit-hook.setup

ORGANIZING TESTS

File inclusion

Test case contents can be included from external files:

[setup]

including my-dir-symbols.def

including my-common-setup-and-cleanup.xly

Test suites

Tests can be grouped in suites:

first.case
second.case

or:

[cases]

helloworld.case
*.case
**/*.case


[suites]

sub-suite.suite
*.suite
pkg/suite.suite
**/*.suite

If the file my-suite.suite contains this text, then Exactly can run it:

> exactly suite my-suite.suite
...
OK

The result of a suite can be reported as simple progress information, or JUnit XML.

Suites can contain test case functionality that is common to all cases in the suite. For example:

[cases]

*.case

[conf]

act-home = ../bin/

[setup]

def string CONF_FILE = my.conf

file @[CONF_FILE]@ =
<<EOF
common = configuration
EOF

The common functionality is included in each test case.

MORE EXAMPLES

The examples/ directory of the source distribution contains more examples.

INSTALLING

Exactly is written in Python and does not require any external libraries.

Exactly requires Python >= 3.5.4.

Use pip or pip3 to install:

> pip3 install exactly

The program can also be run from a source distribution:

> python3 src/default-main-program-runner.py

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

Current version is fully functional, but some syntax and semantics is inconsistent:

• Some instructions allow arguments to span multiple lines, some do not.

• Support for escapes characters in strings is missing.

Incompatible changes to syntax and semantics may occur in every 0.x release.

Comments are welcome!

Future development

More functionality is needed, smaller and larger. Including (but not limited to):

• Improved string character escaping

• More string transformers, matchers, etc

• Possibility to use PROGRAM in more places, e.g. in [act], as matchers and as a string-transformer

• Type for REG-EX

• Separate sets of environment variables for “action to check” and other processes

• Possibility to set stdin for processes other than the “action to check”

• dir-contents: Add convenience matcher for containment of set of files

• Symbol substitution in files

• Dynamic symbol values - e.g. contents of dir, current date

• Macros and functions

• Ability to embed Python code in test cases

• Python library for running cases and suites from within Python as a DSEL

AUTHOR

Emil Karlén

[e-mail]

THANKS

The Python IDE PyCharm from JetBrains has greatly helped the development of this software.

Thanks for the great

• Python language

• Linux

• Emacs

• Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s “De Staalmeesters”

DEDICATION

Project dedications

Aron Karlén

Tommy Karlsson

Götabergsgatan 10, lägenhet 4

Release dedications

Elizabeth Wulcan

Sven Karlén

Release soundtrack

“Reachy Prints” by “Plaid”