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29.Dd August 27, 2023
30.Dt ATF-TEST-CASE 4
31.Os
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm atf-test-case
34.Nd generic description of test cases
35.Sh DESCRIPTION
36A
37.Em test case
38is a piece of code that stress-tests a specific feature of the software.
39This feature is typically self-contained enough, either in the amount of
40code that implements it or in the general idea that describes it, to
41warrant its independent testing.
42Given this, test cases are very fine-grained, but they attempt to group
43similar smaller tests which are semantically related.
44.Pp
45A test case is defined by three components regardless of the language it is
46implemented in: a header, a body and a cleanup routine.
47The
48.Em header
49is, basically, a declarative piece of code that defines several
50properties to describe what the test case does and how it behaves.
51In other words: it defines the test case's
52.Em meta-data ,
53further described in the
54.Sx Meta-data
55section.
56The
57.Em body
58is the test case itself.
59It executes all actions needed to reproduce the test, and checks for
60failures.
61This body is only executed if the abstract conditions specified by the
62header are met.
63The
64.Em cleanup
65routine is a piece of code always executed after the body, regardless of
66the exit status of the test case.
67It can be used to undo side-effects of the test case.
68Note that almost all side-effects of a test case are automatically cleaned
69up by the library; this is explained in more detail in the rest of this
70document.
71.Pp
72It is extremely important to keep the separation between a test case's
73header and body well-defined, because the header is
74.Em always
75parsed, whereas the body is only executed when the conditions defined in
76the header are met and when the user specifies that test case.
77.Pp
78At last, test cases are always contained into test programs.
79The test programs act as a front-end to them, providing a consistent
80interface to the user and several APIs to ease their implementation.
81.Ss Results
82Upon termination, a test case reports a status and, optionally, a textual
83reason describing why the test reported such status.
84The caller must ensure that the test case really performed the task that its
85status describes, as the test program may be bogus and therefore providing a
86misleading result (e.g. providing a result that indicates success but the
87error code of the program says otherwise).
88.Pp
89The possible exit status of a test case are one of the following:
90.Bl -tag -width expectedXfailureXX
91.It expected_death
92The test case expects to terminate abruptly.
93.It expected_exit
94The test case expects to exit cleanly.
95.It expected_failure
96The test case expects to exit with a controller fatal/non-fatal failure.
97If this happens, the test program exits with a success error code.
98.It expected_signal
99The test case expects to receive a signal that makes it terminate.
100.It expected_timeout
101The test case expects to execute for longer than its timeout.
102.It passed
103The test case was executed successfully.
104The test program exits with a success error code.
105.It skipped
106The test case could not be executed because some preconditions were not
107met.
108This is not a failure because it can typically be resolved by adjusting
109the system to meet the necessary conditions.
110This is always accompanied by a
111.Em reason ,
112a message describing why the test was skipped.
113The test program exits with a success error code.
114.It failed
115An error appeared during the execution of the test case.
116This is always accompanied by a
117.Em reason ,
118a message describing why the test failed.
119The test program exits with a failure error code.
120.El
121.Pp
122The usefulness of the
123.Sq expected_*
124results comes when writing test cases that verify known failures caused,
125in general, due to programming errors (aka bugs).
126Whenever the faulty condition that the
127.Sq expected_*
128result is trying to cover is fixed, then the test case will be reported as
129.Sq failed
130and the developer will have to adjust it to match its new condition.
131.Pp
132It is important to note that all
133.Sq expected_*
134results are only provided as a
135.Em hint
136to the caller; the caller must verify that the test case did actually terminate
137as the expected condition says.
138.Ss Input/output
139Test cases are free to print whatever they want to their
140.Xr stdout 4
141and
142.Xr stderr 4
143file descriptors.
144They are, in fact, encouraged to print status information as they execute
145to keep the user informed of their actions.
146This is specially important for long test cases.
147.Pp
148Test cases will log their results to an auxiliary file, which is then
149collected by the test program they are contained in.
150The developer need not care about this as long as he uses the correct
151APIs to implement the test cases.
152.Pp
153The standard input of the test cases is unconditionally connected to
154.Sq /dev/zero .
155.Ss Meta-data
156The following meta-data properties can be exposed via the test case's head:
157.Bl -tag -width requireXmachineXX
158.It descr
159Type: textual.
160Required.
161.Pp
162A brief textual description of the test case's purpose.
163Will be shown to the user in reports.
164Also good for documentation purposes.
165.It has.cleanup
166Type: boolean.
167Optional.
168.Pp
169If set to true, specifies that the test case has a cleanup routine that has
170to be executed by
171.Xr atf-run 1
172during the cleanup phase of the execution.
173This property is automatically set by the framework when defining a test case
174with a cleanup routine, so it should never be set by hand.
175.It ident
176Type: textual.
177Required.
178.Pp
179The test case's identifier.
180Must be unique inside the test program and should be short but descriptive.
181.It require.arch
182Type: textual.
183Optional.
184.Pp
185A whitespace separated list of architectures that the test case can be run
186under without causing errors due to an architecture mismatch.
187.It require.config
188Type: textual.
189Optional.
190.Pp
191A whitespace separated list of configuration variables that must be defined
192to execute the test case.
193If any of the required variables is not defined, the test case is
194.Em skipped .
195.It require.files
196Type: textual.
197Optional.
198.Pp
199A whitespace separated list of files that must be present to execute the
200test case.
201The names of these files must be absolute paths.
202If any of the required files is not found, the test case is
203.Em skipped .
204.It require.machine
205Type: textual.
206Optional.
207.Pp
208A whitespace separated list of machine types that the test case can be run
209under without causing errors due to a machine type mismatch.
210.It require.memory
211Type: integer.
212Optional.
213Specifies the minimum amount of physical memory needed by the test.
214The value can have a size suffix such as
215.Sq K ,
216.Sq M ,
217.Sq G
218or
219.Sq T
220to make the amount of bytes easier to type and read.
221.It require.progs
222Type: textual.
223Optional.
224.Pp
225A whitespace separated list of programs that must be present to execute
226the test case.
227These can be given as plain names, in which case they are looked in the
228user's
229.Ev PATH ,
230or as absolute paths.
231If any of the required programs is not found, the test case is
232.Em skipped .
233.It require.user
234Type: textual.
235Optional.
236.Pp
237The required privileges to execute the test case.
238Can be one of
239.Sq root
240or
241.Sq unprivileged .
242.Pp
243If the test case is running as a regular user and this property is
244.Sq root ,
245the test case is
246.Em skipped .
247.Pp
248If the test case is running as root and this property is
249.Sq unprivileged ,
250.Xr atf-run 1
251will automatically drop the privileges if the
252.Sq unprivileged-user
253configuration property is set; otherwise the test case is
254.Em skipped .
255.It timeout
256Type: integral.
257Optional; defaults to
258.Sq 300 .
259.Pp
260Specifies the maximum amount of time the test case can run.
261This is particularly useful because some tests can stall either because they
262are incorrectly coded or because they trigger an anomalous behavior of the
263program.
264It is not acceptable for these tests to stall the whole execution of the
265test program.
266.Pp
267Can optionally be set to zero, in which case the test case has no run-time
268limit.
269This is discouraged.
270.It X- Ns Sq NAME
271Type: textual.
272Optional.
273.Pp
274A user-defined property named
275.Sq NAME .
276These properties are free form, have no special meaning within ATF, and can
277be specified at will by the test case.
278The runtime engine should propagate these properties from the test case to
279the end user so that the end user can rely on custom properties for test case
280tagging and classification.
281.El
282.Ss Environment
283Every time a test case is executed, several environment variables are
284cleared or reseted to sane values to ensure they do not make the test fail
285due to unexpected conditions.
286These variables are:
287.Bl -tag -width LCXMESSAGESXX
288.It Ev HOME
289Set to the work directory's path.
290.It Ev LANG
291Undefined.
292.It Ev LC_ALL
293Undefined.
294.It Ev LC_COLLATE
295Undefined.
296.It Ev LC_CTYPE
297Undefined.
298.It Ev LC_MESSAGES
299Undefined.
300.It Ev LC_MONETARY
301Undefined.
302.It Ev LC_NUMERIC
303Undefined.
304.It Ev LC_TIME
305Undefined.
306.It Ev TZ
307Hardcoded to
308.Sq UTC .
309.El
310.Ss Work directories
311The test program always creates a temporary directory
312and switches to it before running the test case's body.
313This way the test case is free to modify its current directory as it
314wishes, and the runtime engine will be able to clean it up later on in a
315safe way, removing any traces of its execution from the system.
316To do so, the runtime engine will perform a recursive removal of the work
317directory without crossing mount points; if a mount point is found, the
318file system will be unmounted (if possible).
319.Ss File creation mode mask (umask)
320Test cases are always executed with a file creation mode mask (umask) of
321.Sq 0022 .
322The test case's code is free to change this during execution.
323.Sh SEE ALSO
324.Xr atf-run 1 ,
325.Xr atf-test-program 1 ,
326.Xr atf-formats 5 ,
327.Xr atf 7
328