path: root/test/pacman/README

README
======

pactest is a test suite for the ArchLinux package manager: pacman.

It has a rather high level view of operations performed by pacman: it
automatically creates a test environment based on a test case file 
description, the run pacman, and finally check the results of test according 
to a set of rules defined in the test case.

It is written in Python and makes available most of what can be found in 
pacman's code to create ArchLinux packages or read and write databases entries.

Each test case is defined in a separate file that is sourced in order to set 
the environment.

pactest creates the environment in the subdirectory "root" created in the 
current directory.
The following directory structure is used:
  - var/lib/pacman: databases path (local and sync ones)
  - etc/pacman.conf for pacman configuration file
  - var/cache/pkg: sync packages cache
  - var/log/pactest.log: log file
  - var/pub: location for pseudo sync repositories
  - tmp: hold all local package archives (to be used with pacman -U)
 
Note: the logfile is used to capture all pacman outputs.

Test case example:
	self.description = "Install a package"

	p = pmpkg("dummy", "1.0-3")
	p.files = ["bin/dummy",
	           "usr/man/man1/dummy.1"]
	self.addpkg(p)

	self.args = "-U dummy-1.0-1.pkg.tar.gz"

	self.addrule("PACMAN_RETCODE=0")
	self.addrule("PKG_EXIST=dummy")
	for f in p.files:
		self.addrule("FILE_EXIST=%s" % f)

Basically, the above test case will try to install a package (dummy-1.0-3), 
including two files, from a local archive, by calling "pacman -U"
Upon completion, it checks that:
  - pacman returned no error code,
  - a "dummy" entry exists in the "local" database
  - all files from the package exist in the filesystem.


Usage
=====

pactest will run the suite of test files passed as arguments.

Example:
	./pactest.py tests/*.py

This example will run all tests from the "tests" directory.

Use the "help" option to get the full list of parameters:
	./pactest.py --help

When run with the `--valgrind' option, an additional rule will be added to all
tests to check for memory leaks.  To use `--valgrind' when running the full
test suite, run:
    make PY_LOG_FLAGS=--valgrind check

The following pieces of software are required to run the pactest suite:

fakeroot (required to run as non-root user)
http://fakeroot.alioth.debian.org

fakechroot
http://fakechroot.alioth.debian.org


Parameters
==========

The test environment is described by the following basic parameters:

	description
	-----------

A short string describing the aim of the test case.  It is displayed on the 
standard output during test execution.

	args
	----

A string of arguments that are passed to the pacman binary when the test is 
run.

Example:
	self.args = "-S dummy"

	option
	------

A dictionary that holds the data used in the pacman configuration file.
The following options are known to be useful in pactest tests; this list
is not necessarily complete:
  - HoldPkg
  - IgnorePkg
  - IgnoreGroup
  - NoExtract
  - NoUpgrade
  - XferCommand

For documentation on these options, see the pacman.conf documentation.

Examples:
	self.option["NoUpgrade"] = ["etc/X11/xorg.conf",
	                            "etc/pacman.conf"]
	self.option["NoExtract"] = ["etc/lilo.conf"]

	filesystem
	----------

A list of strings describing a set of files supposed to exist in the filesystem 
when the test case is run.
Upon test startup, pactest will automatically populate the test environment 
filesystem with this list of files.

Example:
	self.filesystem = ["bin/dummy",
	                   "etc/X11/xorg.conf.pacsave"]

Note that all paths are relative ones, and thus file names should not start 
with a "/".


Packages
========

The test case file description shall define a number of packages that can be 
used to either populate a database, or to feed pacman with data needed during 
its execution.

This can be achieved by creating pmpkg objects, with the following constructor:
  pmpkg(name, version)

Both "name" and "version" are strings.  Also, note that if not provided, the 
version defaults to "1.0-1".

Example:
	pkg1 = pmpkg("dummy", "2.1-1")
	pkg2 = pmpkg("foobar")

All fields from a ArchLinux package can be set and modified directly with no 
methods to access them.
Note: some fields are automatically set by pactest and should preferably not 
be modified by hand (i.e. "md5sum", "size", or "csize").

Examples:
	pkg.depends = ["pkg2", "pkg3>=2.0"]
	pkg.files = ["bin/dummy", "etc/dummy.conf", "usr/man/man1/dummy.1"]


Databases
=========

The test environment provides a way to create and fill databases (local or 
sync ones).

The following methods shall be used:

	* addpkg2db(database, package)

Notes: "database" is a string, and "package" shall be a previously created 
pmpkg object.

Examples:
	self.addpkg2db("local", lpkg)
	self.addpkg2db("sync1", spkg11)
	self.addpkg2db("sync1", spkg12)
	self.addpkg2db("sync2", spkg21)

Note: there is no need to explicitly create a database.  The "local" one 
already exists (even if empty), and sync databases are created on the fly when 
a new database name is given.

	* addpkg(package)

package is an existing pmpkg object.
It creates a package archive based on the given object.  The resulting archive 
is located in the temporary directory of the test environment, ready to be 
supplied to pacman for test purposes.


Files
=====

All files created by pactest are filled with a content defaulting to the file
name, with an additional line feed.
For instance, the content of a file "bin/dummy" created in the test environment
file system is: "bin/dummy\n".

It is possible to create directories by appending a slash "/" to the name and 
to create symlinks by appending an arrow followed by a filename " -> target".

Note: only relative symlinks are supported.

Example:
	pkg = pmpkg("dummy")
	pkg.files = ["bin/dummy",
	             "usr/local/",
	             "lib/libfoo.so.O",
	             "lib/libfoo.so -> ./libfoo.so.0"]

In this example, "usr/local/" is a directory, and "libfoo.so" will be a 
symlink pointing at "libfoo.so.0".  It is usually a good idea to also define 
the target of the symlink!

It can be interesting for some tests to create altered files.  This can be 
done by appending one or more asterisks "*" to the file name.

Example:
	lpkg = pmpkg("dummy")
	lpkg.files = ["bin/dummy"]
	self.addpkg2db("local", lpkg)

	newpkg = pmpkg("dummy", "1.0-2")
	newpkg.files = ["bin/dummy*"]
	self.addpkg(newpkg)

	self.args = "-U dummy-1.0-2.pkg.tar.gz"

In this case, package "lpkg" will install a file "bin/dummy" with "bin/dummy\n" 
as its content.  Upon package upgrade, newpkg will provide a file named 
"bin/dummy" with "bin/dummy*\n" as its content.
This is useful to simulate that a file has been modified between two different 
releases of a same package.

The same also applies to files from  the "filesystem" parameter of the test 
environment, and to the "backup" attribute of a package object.


Rules
=====

Finally, to check test success or failure, one shall define a set of rules.

	addrule(rule)
	-------------

A rule is a string composed by a key and an item, joined with a "=" symbol.

Examples:
	self.addrule("PACMAN_RETCODE=0")
	self.addrule("PKG_EXIST=dummy")
	self.addrule("FILE_MODIFIED=bin/dummy")
	self.addrule("PKG_DEPENDS=xorg|fontconfig")

Note: an item can be divided into two arguments, as shown in the latter 
example.

All rules can be prepended with a bang "!" in order to tell pactest to expect 
the exact opposite result.

Example:
	self.addrule("!FILE_MODIFIED=bin/dummy")

Finally, the following rules are supported:

	. PACMAN rules

Possible rules are:

  PACMAN_RETCODE=value
  PACMAN_OUTPUT=value

For RETCODE, pactest will ensure the pacman return code is the value given.
For OUTPUT, pactest will grep pacman outputs for the given value.

Note: PACMAN_OUTPUT should not be used. Pacman outputs are likely to change 
from one release to another, so that it's reliability is quite low.

	. PKG rules

For each rule, pactest will read the entry "name" from the local database and 
challenge the requested data with it.

Possible rules are:

  PKG_EXIST=name
  PKG_VERSION=name|version
  PKG_GROUPS=name|group
  PKG_PROVIDES=name|providename
  PKG_DEPENDS=name|depname
  PKG_OPTDEPENDS=name|depname
  PKG_REASON=name|intvalue
  PKG_FILES=name|filename
  PKG_BACKUP=name|backupname

Example:
	PKG_DEPENDS=ncurses|glibc

pactest will test to ensure the local database entry "ncurses" has "glibc" in
its DEPENDS field.

	. FILE rules

  FILE_EXIST=path/to/file
  FILE_EMPTY=path/to/file
  FILE_MODIFIED=path/to/file
  FILE_MODE=path/to/file|octal
  FILE_TYPE=path/to/file|type  (possible types: dir, file, link)
  FILE_PACNEW=path/to/file
  FILE_PACSAVE=path/to/file

Example:
	FILE_EXIST=etc/test.conf

pactest will ensure the file /etc/test.conf exists in the filesystem.