Tast: Writing Tests (go/tast-writing)

Adding tests

Test names

Tests are identified by names like login.Chrome or platform.ConnectToDBus. The portion before the period, called the category, is the final component of the test's package name, while the portion after the period is the name of the exported Go function that implements the test.

Test function names should follow Go's naming conventions, and acronyms should be fully capitalized. Test names should not end with Test, both because it's redundant and because the _test.go filename suffix is reserved in Go for unit tests.

Test names are automatically derived from tests' package and function names and should not be explicitly specified when defining tests.

Code location

Public tests built into the default cros local and remote test bundles are checked into the tast-tests repository under the src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/bundles/cros/ and src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/remote/bundles/cros/ directories (where src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/ can also be accessed by the cros symlink at the top of the repository). Private tests are checked into private repositories such as the tast-tests-private repository, and built into non-cros test bundles.

Tests are categorized into packages based on the functionality that they exercise; for example, the ui package contains local tests that exercise the ChromeOS UI. The category package needs to be directly under the bundle package. Thus the category package path should be matched with go.chromium.org/tast/core/(local|remote)/bundles/(?P<bundlename>[^/]+)/(?P<category>[^/]+).

A local test named ui.DoSomething should be defined in a file named src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/bundles/cros/ui/do_something.go (i.e. convert the test name to lowercase and insert underscores between words).

Support packages used by multiple test categories located in src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/ and src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/remote/, alongside the bundles/ directories. For example, the chrome package can be used by local tests to interact with Chrome.

If there‘s a support package that’s specific to a single category, it‘s often best to place it underneath the category’s directory. See the Scoping and shared code section.

Tast-tests-private repository go.chromium.org/tast-tests-private/... should not import packages bundle in go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/bundles/... and go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/remote/bundles/...

Packages outside go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/... should not import packages in go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/..., and packages outside go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/remote/... should not import packages in go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/remote/.... If local and remote packages should share the same code, put them in go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/common/....

Test registration

A test needs to be registered by calling testing.AddTest() in the test entry file, which is located directly under a category package. The registration needs to be done in init() function in the file. The registration should be declarative, which means:

  • testing.AddTest() should be the only statement of init()'s body.
  • testing.AddTest() should take a pointer of a testing.Test composite literal.

Each field of testing.Test should be constant-like. Fields should not be set using the invocation of custom functions (however, append() is allowed), or using variables. In particular, we say constant-like is any of these things:

  • An array literal of constant-like.
  • A go constant.
  • A literal value.
  • A var defined as an array literal of go constants or literal values (N.B. not general constant-likes).
  • A var forwarding (set to) another constant-like var.
  • A call to append on some constant-likes.
  • A call to hwdep.D, but please apply the spirit of constant-like to the arguments to hwdep.D.

The test registration code will be similar to the following:

// Copyright 2018 The ChromiumOS Authors
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.

package ui

import (
	"context"

	"go.chromium.org/tast/core/testing"
)

func init() {
	testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
		Func:         DoSomething,
		Desc:         "Does X to verify Y",
		Contacts:     []string{"team@google.com", "me@chromium.org"},
		BugComponent: "b:12345",
		Attr:         []string{"group:mainline", "informational"},
		SoftwareDeps: []string{"chrome"},
		Timeout:      3 * time.Minute,
	})
}

func DoSomething(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
	// The actual test goes here.
}

Tests have to specify the descriptions in Desc, which should be a string literal.

Tests have to specify email addresses of persons and groups who are familiar with those tests in Contacts. The first element of the slice should be a group alias for the team ultimately responsible for the test. Subsequent elements should be individuals or groups who can be contacted for code reviews, bugs, and any issue with the test‘s usage. To help aid triage and on-call rotations, partner owned tests must specify a Google email contact that can be reached by on-call rotations. Any google.com or chromium.org groups listed should accept email posts from non-members within the organization. Users who no longer work on Chrome OS or with test’s owning team should remove themselves as a contact.

Tests have to specify a BugComponent, which should be a string with a prefix indicating the bug tracker. The string's contents point to the location where bugs regarding the test should initially be filed. A prefix is used to distinguish between different bug trackers. For Buganizer, use “b:” plus the componentid, e.g. “b:1034625”. Ensure that a componentid is used, not a specific bug id.

Tests have to specify attributes to describe how they are used in ChromeOS testing. A test belongs to zero or more groups by declaring attributes with group:-prefix. Typically functional tests belong to the mainline group by declaring the group:mainline attribute. New mainline tests should have the informational attribute, as tests without this attribute will block the Commit Queue on failure otherwise. The Attr fields should be an array literal of string literals.

The SoftwareDeps field lists software dependencies that should be satisfied in order for the test to run. Its value should be an array literal of string literals or (possibly qualified) identifiers which are constant value.

Tests should always set the Timeout field to specify the maximum duration for which Func may run before the test is aborted. If not specified, a reasonable default will be used, but tests should not depend on it.

Disabling tests

If a test has no group:* attribute assigned it will be effectively disabled, it will not be run by any automation. If a test needs to be disabled leave a comment in the test source with the reason. If applicable, create a bug explaining under what circumstances the test can be enabled.

Adding new test categories

When adding a new test category, you must update the test bundle's imports.go file (either local/bundles/cros/imports.go or remote/bundles/cros/imports.go) to underscore-import the new package so its init functions will be executed to register tests.

Coding style and best practices

Test code should be formatted by gofmt and checked by go vet, golint and tast-lint. These tools are configured to run as pre-upload hooks, so don't skip them.

Tast code should also follow Go's established best practices as described by these documents:

The Go FAQ may also be helpful. Additional resources are linked from the Go Documentation page.

Documentation

Packages and exported identifiers (e.g. types, functions, constants, variables) should be documented by Godoc-style comments. Godoc comments are optional for test functions, since the Test.Desc field already contains a brief description of the test.

Unit tests

Support packages should be exercised by unit tests when possible. Unit tests can cover edge cases that may not be typically seen when using the package, and they greatly aid in future refactorings (since it can be hard to determine the full set of Tast-based tests that must be run to exercise the package). See How to Write Go Code: Testing and Go's testing package for more information about writing unit tests for Go code. The Best practices for writing ChromeOS unit tests document contains additional suggestions that may be helpful (despite being C++-centric).

Setting FEATURES=test when emerging a test bundle package (tast-local-tests-cros or tast-remote-tests-cros) will run all unit tests for the corresponding packages in the tast-tests repository (i.e. go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/... or go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/remote/..., respectively).

During development, the fast_build.sh script can be used to quickly build and run tests for a single package or all packages.

Import

Entries in import declaration must be grouped by empty line, and sorted in following order.

  • Standard library packages
  • Third-party packages
  • chromiumos/ packages

In each group, entries must be sorted in the lexicographical order. For example:

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

	"github.com/godbus/dbus/v5"
	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"

	"go.chromium.org/tast/core/errors"
	"go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/chrome"
)

Note that, although github.com and golang.org are different domains, they should be in a group.

This is how goimports --local=chromiumos/ sorts. It may be valuable to run the command. Note that, 1) the command preserves existing group. So, it may be necessary to remove empty lines in import() in advance, and 2) use the command to add/remove import entries based on the following code. The path resolution may require setting GOPATH properly.

Test structure

As seen in the test declaration above, each test is comprised of a single exported function that receives a testing.State struct. This is defined in the Tast testing package (not to be confused with [Go's testing package] for unit testing) and is used to log progress and report failures.

Startup and shutdown

If a test requires the system to be in a particular state before it runs, it should include code that tries to get the system into that state if it isn‘t there already. Previous tests may have aborted mid-run; it’s not safe to make assumptions that they undid all temporary changes that they made.

Tests should also avoid performing unnecessary de-initialization steps on completion: UI tests should leave Chrome logged in at completion instead of restarting it, for example. Since later tests can‘t safely make assumptions about the initial state of the system, they’ll need to e.g. restart Chrome again regardless, which takes even more time. In addition to resulting in a faster overall running time for the suite, leaving the system in a logged-in state makes it easier for developers to manually inspect it after running the test when diagnosing a failure.

Note that tests should still undo atypical configuration that leaves the system in a non-fully-functional state, though. For example, if a test needs to temporarily stop a service, it should restart it before exiting.

Use defer statements to perform cleanup when your test exits. defer is explained in more detail in the Defer, Panic, and Recover blog post.

Put more succintly:

Assume you‘re getting a reasonable environment when your test starts, but don’t make assumptions about Chrome‘s initial state. Similarly, try to leave the system in a reasonable state when you go, but don’t worry about what Chrome is doing.

Contexts and timeouts

Tast uses context.Context to implement timeouts. A test function takes as its first argument a context.Context with an associated deadline that expires when the test‘s timeout is reached. The default timeout is 2 minutes for local tests and 5 minutes for remote tests. The context’s Done function returns a channel that can be used within a select statement to wait for expiration, after which the context's Err function returns a non-nil error.

The testing.Poll function makes it easier to honor timeouts while polling for a condition:

if err := testing.Poll(ctx, func (ctx context.Context) error {
	var url string
	if err := MustSucceedEval(ctx, "location.href", &url); err != nil {
		return testing.PollBreak(errors.Wrap(err, "failed to evaluate location.href"))
	}
	if url != targetURL {
		return errors.Errorf("current URL is %s", url)
	}
	return nil
}, &testing.PollOptions{Timeout: 10 * time.Second}); err != nil {
	return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to navigate")
}

Return a testing.PollBreak error to stop the polling. Useful when you get an unexpected error inside the polling.

Sleeping without polling for a condition is discouraged, since it makes tests flakier (when the sleep duration isn't long enough) or slower (when the duration is too long). If you really need to do so, use testing.Sleep to honor the context timeout.

Any function that performs a blocking operation should take a context.Context as its first argument and return an error if the context expires before the operation finishes.

Several blog posts discuss these patterns in more detail:

Note: there is an old equivalent “golang.org/x/net/context” package, but for consistency, the built-in “context” package is preferred.

As a rule of thumb, a timeout should be double of the expected worst case performance. If you're unsure, measure time multiple times in the worst case scenario and double that. Do not use timeouts to catch performance regressions. Instead consider writing a performance test. When a test hits a timeout that was sufficient before, investigate why it hit the timeout before increasing it.

The performance and worst case scenario can be obtained using the time calculation script. It parses the test result logs to obtain the average and max time from various executions.

Reserve time for clean-up task

For any function with a corresponding clean-up function, prefer using the defer statement to keep the two function calls close together (see the Startup and shutdown section for detail):

a := pkga.NewA(ctx, ...)
defer func(ctx context.Context) {
  if err := a.CleanUp(ctx); err != nil {
    // ...
  }
}(ctx)

Before creating A, make sure that the clean-up function has sufficient time to run:

ctxForCleanUpA := ctx
ctx, cancel := ctxutil.Shorten(ctx, pkga.TimeForCleanUpA)
defer cancel()
a := pkga.NewA(ctx, ...)
defer func(ctx context.Context) {
  if err := a.CleanUp(ctx); err != nil {
    // ...
  }
}(ctxForCleanUpA)

It ctxutil.Shortens ctx before calling pkga.NewA to ensure that after pkga.NewA(), a.CleanUp() still has time to perform the clean-up. Note that pkga should provide TimeForCleanUpA constant for its callers to reserve time for a.CleanUp(). Also, instead of assigning the shortened ctx to sCtx, it copies the original ctx to ctxForCleanUpA before shortening it. It is because we want to use ctx for the main logic and leave the longer name for the clean-up logic.

Another approach was used but discouraged now:

a := pkga.NewA(ctx, ...)
defer func(ctx context.Context) {
  if err := a.CleanUp(ctx); err != nil {
    // ...
  }
}(ctx)
ctx, cancel := a.ReserveForCleanUp(ctx)
defer cancel()

The reason why it is discouraged is because it needs pkga.NewA() to shorten ctx at the beginning of the function to ensure that it leaves enough time for a.CleanUp() to call.

Concurrency

Concurrency is rare in integration tests, but it enables doing things like watching for a D-Bus signal that a process emits soon after being restarted. It can also sometimes be used to make tests faster, e.g. by restarting multiple independent Upstart jobs simultaneously.

The preferred way to synchronize concurrent work in Go programs is by passing data between goroutines using a channel. This large topic is introduced in the Share Memory by Communicating blog post, and the Go Concurrency Patterns talk is also a good summary. The Go Memory Model provides guarantees about the effects of memory reads and writes across goroutines.

Scoping and shared code

Global variables in Go are scoped at the package level rather than the file level:

The scope of an identifier denoting a constant, type, variable, or function ... declared at top level (outside any function) is the package block.

As such, all tests within a package like platform or ui share the same namespace. It is ok to declare top level unexported symbols (e.g. functions, constants, etc), but please be careful of conflicts. Also, please avoid referencing identifiers declared in other files; otherwise repo upload will fail with lint errors.

If you need to share functionality between tests in the same package, please introduce a new descriptively-named subpackage; see e.g. the chromecrash package within the ui package, used by the ui.ChromeCrashLoggedIn and ui.ChromeCrashNotLoggedIn tests. Subpackages are described in more detail later in this document. Importing a subpackage is allowed only in the category package containing it; otherwise repo upload will fail with lint errors.

Test consolidation

Much praise has been written for verifying just one thing per test. A quick sampling of internal links:

While this is sound advice for fast-running, deterministic unit tests, it isn't necessarily always the best approach for integration tests:

  • There are unavoidable sources of non-determinism in ChromeOS integration tests. DUTs can experience hardware or networking issues, and flakiness becomes more likely as more tests are run.
  • When a lengthy setup process is repeated by many tests in a single suite, lab resources are consumed for a longer period of time and other testing is delayed.

If you need to verify multiple related aspects of a single feature that requires a time-consuming setup process like logging in to Chrome, starting Android, or launching a container, it's often preferable to write a single test that just does the setup once and then verifies all aspects of the feature. As described in the Errors and Logging section, multiple errors can be reported by a single test, so coverage need not be reduced when tests are consolidated and an early expectation fails.

For lightweight testing that doesn‘t need to interact with Chrome or restart services, it’s fine to use fine-grained tests — there's almost no per-test overhead in Tast; the overhead comes from repeating the same slow operations within multiple tests.

If all the time-consuming setup in your test suite is covered by a tast fixtures, then splitting your test into multiple fine-grained tests will incur negligible overhead.

Device dependencies

A Tast test either passes (by reporting zero errors) or fails (by reporting one or more errors, timing out, or panicking). If a test requires functionality that isn't provided by the DUT, the test is skipped entirely.

Avoid writing tests that probe the DUT's capabilities at runtime, e.g.

// WRONG: Avoid testing for software or hardware features at runtime.
func CheckCamera(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
    if !supports720PCamera() {
        s.Log("Skipping test; device unsupported")
        return
    }
    // ...
}

This approach results in the test incorrectly passing even though it actually didn‘t verify anything. (Tast doesn’t let tests report an “N/A” state at runtime since it would be slower than skipping the test altogether and since it will prevent making intelligent scheduling decisions in the future about where tests should be executed.)

Instead, specify software dependencies when declaring tests:

// OK: Specify dependencies when declaring the test.
func init() {
    testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
        Func: CheckCamera,
        SoftwareDeps: []string{"camera_720p", "chrome"},
        // ...
    })
}

The above document describes how to define new dependencies.

Also, there is an API Features which allows tests to get information regarding DUT features. However, it is purely used for informational purpose only. Do not use it to alter test behavior. Use it for only for informational purpose. Use parameterized tests for tests to have different behavior for different DUT features.

If a test depends on the DUT being in a specific configurable state (e.g. tablet mode), it should put it into that state. For example, chrome.ExtraArgs can be passed to chrome.New to pass additional command-line flags (e.g. --force-tablet-mode=touch_view) when starting Chrome.

The tast-users mailing list is a good place to ask questions about test dependencies.

Fixtures

Sometimes a lengthy setup process (e.g. restarting Chrome and logging in, which takes at least 6-7 seconds) is needed by multiple tests. Rather than running the same setup for each of those tests, tests can declare the shared setup, which is named “fixtures” in Tast.

Tests sharing the same fixture run consecutively. A fixture implements several lifecycle methods that are called by the framework as it executes tests associated with the fixture. SetUp() of the fixture runs once just before the first of them starts, and TearDown() is called once just after the last of them completes. Reset() runs after each but the last test to roll back changes a test made to the environment.

  • Fixture SetUp()
  • Test 1 runs
  • Fixture Reset()
  • Test 2 runs
  • Fixture Reset()
  • ...
  • Fixture Reset()
  • Test N runs
  • Fixture TearDown()

Reset() should be a light-weight and idempotent operation. If it fails (returns a non-nil error), framework falls back to TearDown() and SetUp() to completely restart the fixture. Tests should not leave too much change on system environment, so that the next Reset() does not fail.

Currently Reset errors do not mark a test as failed. We plan to change this behavior in the future (b/187795248).

Fixtures also have PreTest() and PostTest() methods, which run before and after each test. They get called with testing.FixtTestState with which you can report errors as a test. It's a good place to set up logging for individual test for example.

For details of these fixture lifecycle methods, please see the GoDoc testing.FixtureImpl.

Each test can declare its fixture by setting testing.Test.Fixture an fixture name. The fixture's SetUp() returns an arbitrary value that can be obtained by calling s.FixtValue() in the test. Because s.FixtValue() returns an interface{}, type assertion is needed to cast it to the actual type. However, s.FixtValue() will always return nil when local tests/fixtures try to access values from remote fixtures because Tast does not know the actual types of fixture values to deserialize them. Therefore, there is another function s.FixtFillValue(v, any) which requires user to pass in a pointer, and it will store the deserialized result in the value pointed to by pointer.

Fixtures are composable. A fixture can declare its parent fixture with testing.Fixture.Parent. Parent‘s SetUp() is executed before the fixture’s SetUp() is executed, parent‘s TearDown() is executed after the fixtures’s TearDown(), and so on. Fixtures can use the parent's value in the same way tests use it.

Local tests/fixtures can depend on a remote fixture if they live in test bundles with the same name (e.g. local cros and remote cros).

Fixtures are registered by calling testing.AddFixture with testing.Fixture struct in init(). testing.Fixture.Name specifies the fixture name, testing.Fixture.Impl specifies implementation of the fixture, testing.Fixture.Parent specifies the parent fixture if any, testing.Fixture.SetUpTimeout and the like specify methods' timeout, and the other fields are analogous to testing.Test.

Fixtures can be registered outside bundles directory. It's best to initialize and register fixtures outside bundles if it is shared by tests in multiple categories.

Examples

  • Rather than calling chrome.New at the beginning of each test, tests can declare that they require a logged-in Chrome instance by setting testing.Test.Fixture to “chromeLoggedIn” in init(). This enables Tast to just perform login once and then share the same Chrome instance with all tests that specify the fixture. See the chromeLoggedIn documentation for more details, and example.ChromeFixture for a test using the fixture.

  • If you want a new Chrome fixture with custom options, call testing.AddFixture from chrome/fixture.go with different options, and give it a unique name.

Theory behind fixtures

On designing composable fixtures, understanding the theory behind fixtures might help.

Let us think of a space representing all possible system states. A fixture‘s purpose is to change the current system state to be in a certain subspace. For example, the fixture chromeLoggedIn‘s purpose is to provide a clean environment similar to soon after logging into a Chrome session. This can be rephased that there’s a subspace where “the system state is clean similar to soon after logging into a Chrome session” and the fixture’s designed to change the system state to some point inside the subspace.

To denote these concepts a bit formally: let U be a space representing all possible system states. Let f be a function that maps a fixture to its target system state subspace. Then, for any fixture X, f(X) ⊆ U. Note that f(F) is a subspace of U, not a point in U; there can be some degrees of freedom in a resulting system state.

A fixture's property is as follows: if a test depends on a fixture F directly or indirectly, it can assume that the system state is in f(F) on its start. This also applies to fixtures: if a fixture depends on a fixture F directly or indirectly, it can assume that the system state is in f(F) on its setup.

To fulfill this property, all fixtures should satisfy the following rule: if a fixture X has a child fixture Y, then f(X) ⊇ f(Y). Otherwise, calling Y's reset may put the system state to one not accepted by X, failing to fulfill the aforementioned property.

Parameterized Fixtures

Similar to tests, parameterized fixtures are also supported. They can be used to define multiple similar fixtures with different features/options.

To parameterize a fixture, specify a slice of testing.FixtureParam in the Params field on fixture registration. If Params is non-empty, testing.AddFixture will expand the fixture into one or more tests corresponding to each item in Params by merging testing.Fixture and testing.FixtureParam.

Here is an example with normal parameterized fixtures and an example of a test using the normal parameterized fixtures.

FixtureParam should be a literal in general since fixture registration should be declarative. However, a fixture may need to support a different combination of features or options. For fixtures that support a lot of different features/options, fixture writers and users may have a hard time to figure out what parameters have been declared for a particular combination of features/options. To ease the effort for composing a fixture with a lot of features/options, factory-like functions are allowed to be used for FixtureParam declaration and reference to the parameterized fixture. Even with the exception, the fixture writers and test writers should always make sure the function always returns the same fixture name for the same build. Otherwise, the generated metadata will produce the wrong data and cause issues in the test executions. Also, the factory function should be simple and the name of the parameter should allow users to identify the combination of features/options easily.

Here is an example of parameterized fixtures with a factory, and an example of a test use a parameterized fixture with a factory.

Preconditions

Preconditions, predecessor of fixtures, are not recommended for new tests.

Hooks/Remote Root Fixture

Tast remote root fixture which allows test writers to add hooks that affect every test (except test with Pre-Condition) in a Tast session. Those hooks can perform different functions such as checking DUT state between tests.

All tests and fixtures will depend on the remote root fixture directly or indirectly. The Setup phase of the remote root fixture which will be run at the beginning of the execution of a Tast bundle. It can allow different hooks to be run during different phases of the remote root fixture: Setup, PreTest, Reset, PostTest, and TearDown. Hook writers can do something applicable to all tests.

Tast's fixture tree is constructed separately while running tests for different bundles. Since a Tast session may include tests from different bundles, the setup for the root fixture may be invoked multiple times during a Tast session. Also, if the retries flag of Tast is set to be greater than zero, Tast will need to re-construct and run the fixture tree. Hence, the setup of the root fixture will be invoked again.

The root fixture will allow us to add framework level setups and monitors. For example, we can start servod on the labstation at the beginning of the running a bundle so that all tests in the bundle can use servo. It will also allow test writers to create hooks that affect every test in a Tast session. It will allow users to create a customized environment for each test suite.

Adding a Hook

All hooks should be in the hooks directory. Hooks can depend on remote and common Tast libraries. On the other hand, tests or fixtures should not have any dependencies on hooks.

addHook

The function addHook for users to add a hook to the root fixture. It is intentionally not to export this function’s symbol so that all hooks and the remote root fixture will be created in the same package. This will allow Tast team to have better control what hooks are allowed.

HookImpl

HookImpl is an interface that users have to implement so that the root fixture can invoke the corresponding action in each step of a fixture process.

type HookImpl interface {
        // SetUp will be called during root fixture Setup.
        SetUp(ctx context.Context, s *HookState) error
        // Reset will be called during root fixture Reset.
        Reset(ctx context.Context) error
        // PreTest will be called during root fixture PreTest.
        PreTest(ctx context.Context, s *HookTestState) error
        // PostTest will be called during root fixture PostTest.
        PostTest(ctx context.Context, s *HookTestState) error
        // TearDown will be called during root fixture TearDown.
        TearDown(ctx context.Context, s *HookState) error
}

orderedHooks

To avoid non-deterministic order of the execution, a variable “orderHooks” will be used to maintain the order of execution. To add a new hook, the author needs to add the name of the hook to the list. Otherwise, the hook will not be executed. The order of the execution On the other hand, PostTest and TearDown will be executed in the reverse order of this list.

var orderedHooks []string

HookState

HookState includes certain fixture state information that is available for each hook to be used during Setup and Teardown.

HookTestState

HookTestState includes fixture state information that is available for each hook to be used during PreTest and PostTest.

Service Dependencies

Since the remote root fixture is a remote fixture, all hooks are running on the host side. Some hooks may need to use GPRC services that are running on the DUT to perform actions on the DUT. Users can add ServiceDeps to the root fixture if their hooks need GPRC services.

Code Review

Since all hooks affect the entire Tast session, they affect all tests. Therefore, any additions and changes of hooks will require approval from a member of the Tast team. Also, at least one expert reviewer will be needed for each hook related CL.

Example of Adding A Hook

Here is a hook example.

Add Hook

All hooks should be added in the “init” function of a file.

func init() {
    addHook(&Hook{
        Name:         "exampleHook",
        Desc:         "Demonstrate how to use hook",
        Contacts:     []string{"tast-core@google.com"},
        BugComponent: "b:1034522",
        Impl:         &testhook{},
    })
}

Create A Runtime Variable

In the hook example, the hook will use a Tast global variable to determine whether actions should be performed. This variable is for this example only.

var shouldRun = testing.RegisterVarString(
    "hooks.example.shouldrun",
    "",
    "A variable to decide whether example hook should run",
)

Implement The Hook

The implementation of a hook needs to include five functions: Setup, PreTest, PostTest, Reset, and Teardown. In this example, all five functions will only perform action if the variable hooks.example.shouldrun is set to true.

type testhook struct {
    shouldRun bool
}

// SetUp will be called during root fixture Setup.
func (h *testhook) SetUp(ctx context.Context, s *HookState) error {
    h.shouldRun = shouldRun.Value() == "true"
    if !h.shouldRun {
        return nil
    }
    testing.ContextLog(ctx, "testhook Setup")
    return nil
}

// Reset will be called during root fixture Reset.
func (h *testhook) Reset(ctx context.Context) error {
    if !h.shouldRun {
        return nil
    }
    testing.ContextLog(ctx, "testhook Reset")
    return nil
}

// PreTest will be called during root fixture PreTest.
func (h *testhook) PreTest(ctx context.Context, s *HookTestState) error {
    if !h.shouldRun {
            return nil
    }
    testing.ContextLog(ctx, "testhook PreTest: ", s.TestName())
    return nil
}

// PostTest will be called during root fixture PostTest.
func (h *testhook) PostTest(ctx context.Context, s *HookTestState) error {
    if !h.shouldRun {
        return nil
    }
    testing.ContextLog(ctx, "testhook PostTest: ", s.TestName())
    return nil
}

// TearDown will be called during root fixture TearDown.
func (h *testhook) TearDown(ctx context.Context, s *HookState) error {
    if !h.shouldRun {
        return nil
    }
    testing.ContextLog(ctx, "testhook TearDown")
    return nil
}

Add the Example Hook To the Execution List

New hook will not be executed until it is added to the list “orderedHooks” of the remote root fixture.

var orderedHooks []string = []string{
    "exampleHook",
}

Turning On Example Hook During Test

This example show how to turn on the example hook with Tast command line.

tast run -var=hooks.example.shouldrun=true <dut> <tests>

Policy

Since hooks can affect every test and fixture in a Tast session, we need to be careful about what hooks can go in the remote root fixture. Here is the policy that we have at this moment. The policy may be revised in future.

  • All hook related CLs have to be reviewed and approved by Tast team members.

  • An 1-pager should be sent to Tast team to review in advance.

  • For more complicated hooks, proper design documents should be reviewed.

  • Most hooks should be guarded by Tast global runtime variables which means that most hooks should only be triggered when the corresponding runtime variables are set.

Common testing patterns

Table-driven tests

It is sometimes the case that multiple scenarios with very slight differences should be tested. In this case you can write a table-driven test, which is a common pattern in Go unit tests. testing.State.Run can be used to start a subtest.

for _, tc := range []struct {
    format   string
    filename string
    duration time.Duration
}{
    {
        format:   "VP8",
        filename: "sample.vp8",
        duration: 3 * time.Second,
    },
    {
        format:   "VP9",
        filename: "sample.vp9",
        duration: 3 * time.Second,
    },
    {
        format:   "H.264",
        filename: "sample.h264",
        duration: 5 * time.Second,
    },
} {
    s.Run(ctx, tc.format, func(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
        if err := testPlayback(ctx, tc.filename, tc.duration); err != nil {
            s.Error("Playback test failed: ", err)
        }
    })
}

Errors and logging

The testing.State struct provides functions that tests may use to report their status:

  • Log and Logf record informational messages about the test's progress.
  • Error and Errorf record errors and mark the test as failed but allow it to continue, similar to Google Test's EXPECT_ set of macros. Multiple errors may be reported by a single test.
  • Fatal and Fatalf record errors and stop the test immediately, similar to the ASSERT_ set of macros.

Note that higher-level functions for stating expectations and assertions are not provided; this was a conscious decision. See “Where is my favorite helper function for testing?” from the Go FAQ. That answer refers to Go's testing package rather than Tast's, but the same reasoning and suggestions are applicable to Tast tests.

When to log

When you‘re about to do something that could take a while or even hang, log a message using Log or Logf first. This both lets developers know what’s happening when they run your test interactively and helps when looking at logs to investigate timeout failures.

On the other hand, avoid logging unnecessary information that would clutter the logs. If you want to log a verbose piece of information to help determine the cause of an error, only do it after the error has occurred. Also, if you are interested in which part of a test is time-consuming, please see the Reporting timing section for details.

See the fmt package's documentation for available “verbs”.

Log/Error/Fatal vs. Logf/Errorf/Fatalf

Log, Error, and Fatal should be used in conjunction with a single string literal or when passing a string literal followed by a single value:

s.Log("Doing something slow")
s.Log("Loading ", url)
s.Error("Encountered an error: ", err)
s.Fatal("Everything is broken: ", err)

Logf, Errorf, and Fatalf should only be used in conjunction with printf-style format strings:

s.Logf("Read %q from %v", data, path)
s.Errorf("Failed to load %v: %v", url, err)
s.Fatalf("Got invalid JSON object %+v", obj)

When concatenating a string and a value using default formatting, use s.Log("Some value: ", val) rather than the more-verbose s.Logf("Some value: %v", val).

The same considerations apply to testing.ContextLog vs. testing.ContextLogf.

Error construction

To construct new errors or wrap other errors, use the go.chromium.org/tast/core/errors package rather than standard libraries (errors.New, fmt.Errorf) or any other third-party libraries. It records stack traces and chained errors, and leaves nicely formatted logs when tests fail.

To construct a new error, use errors.New or errors.Errorf.

errors.New("process not found")
errors.Errorf("process %d not found", pid)

To construct an error by adding context to an existing error, use errors.Wrap or errors.Wrapf.

errors.Wrap(err, "failed to connect to Chrome browser process")
errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to connect to Chrome renderer process %d", pid)

To examine sentinel errors which may be Wraped, use errors.Is or errors.As. The usage is the same as the functions with the same names in the official errors package.

Sometimes you may want to define custom error types, for example, to inspect and react to errors. In that case, embed *errors.E to your custom error struct.

type CustomError struct {
    *errors.E
}

if err := doSomething(); err != nil {
    return &CustomError{E: errors.Wrap(err, "something failed")}
}

It is recommended to wrap when you cross package boundary, which represents some kind of barrier beneath which everything is an implementation detail. Otherwise it is fine to return an error without wrapping, if you can't really add much context to make debugging easier. Use your best judgement to decide wrap or not.

Following quotes from The Go programming language 5.4.1 Error-Handling Strategies are useful to design good errors:

  • When designing error messages, be deliberate, so that each one is a meaningful description of the problem with sufficient and relevant detail.
  • In general, the call f(x) is responsible for reporting the attempted operation f and the argument value x as they relate to the context of the error.
  • The caller is responsible for adding further information that it has but the call f(x) does not.

Formatting

Please follow Go's error string conventions when producing error values.

Error strings should not be capitalized (unless beginning with proper nouns or acronyms) or end with punctuation, since they are usually printed following other context.

For example:

if err := doSomething(id); err != nil {
	return errors.Wrapf(err, "doing something to %q failed", id)
}

Log and error messages printed by tests via testing.State's Log, Logf, Error, Errorf, Fatal, or Fatalf methods, or via testing.ContextLog or testing.ContextLogf, should be capitalized phrases without any trailing punctuation that clearly describe what is about to be done or what happened:

s.Log("Asking Chrome to log in")
...
if err != nil {
	s.Fatal("Failed to log in: ", err)
}
s.Logf("Logged in as user %v with ID %v", user, id)

In all cases, please avoid multiline strings since they make logs difficult to read. To preserve multiline output from an external program, please write it to an output file instead of logging it.

When including a path, URL, or other easily-printable value in a log message or an error, omit leading colons or surrounding quotes:

s.Logf("Trying to log in up to %d time(s)", numLogins)
errors.Errorf("%v not found", path)

Use quotes when including arbitrary data that may contain hard-to-print characters like spaces:

s.Logf("Successfully read %q from %v", data, path)

Use a colon followed by a space when appending a separate clause that contains additional detail (typically an error):

s.Error("Failed to log in: ", err)

Semicolons are appropriate for joining independent clauses:

s.Log("Attempt failed; trying again")

Support packages

Support packages should not record test failures directly. Instead, return error values (using the errors package) and allow tests to decide how to handle them. Support packages' exported functions should typically take context.Context arguments and use them to return an error early when the test's deadline is reached and to log informative messages using testing.ContextLog and testing.ContextLogf.

Similarly, support packages should avoid calling panic when errors are encountered. When a test is running, panic has the same effect as State's Fatal and Fatalf methods: the test is aborted immediately. Returning an error gives tests the ability to choose how to respond.

The Error handling and Go and Errors are values blog posts offer guidance on using the error type.

Test subpackages

The above guidelines do not necessarily apply to test subpackages that are located in subdirectories below test files. If a subpackage actually contains the test implementation (typically because it‘s shared across several tests), it’s okay to pass testing.State to it so it can report test errors itself.

Subpackages are typically aware of how they will be used, so an argument can be made for letting them abort testing using Fatal or even panic in cases where it improves code readability (e.g. for truly exceptional cases like I/O failures). Use your best judgement.

Note that it‘s still best to practice information hiding and pass only as much data is needed. Avoid passing testing.State when it’s not actually necessary:

  • If a function just needs the output directory, pass a path.
  • If a function just needs to log its progress, pass a context.Context so it can call testing.ContextLog.

Reporting timing

The timing package can be used to measure and report the time taken by different “stages” of a test. It helps you identify which stage takes an unexpectedly long time to complete.

An example to time a test with two stages:

func TestFoo(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
    // Tast framework already adds a stage for the test function.
    stageA(ctx)
    stageB(ctx)
}

func stageA(ctx context.Context) {
    ctx, st := timing.Start(ctx, "stage_a")
    defer st.End()
    ...
}

func stageB(ctx context.Context) {
    ctx, st := timing.Start(ctx, "stage_b")
    defer st.End()
    ...
}

By default, the result will be written to timing.json (see timing#Log.Write for details) in the Tast results dir. The above example will generate:

[4.000, "example.TestFoo", [
    [1.000, "stage_a"],
    [3.000, "stage_b"]]]

Logged in users home directory

Within the scope of a test, it might be useful to put files in the users Downloads directory or My Files directory. To achieve there are 2 helper methods that calculate the logged in user's hash and return the path to either Downloads or MyFiles. To use these, do the following:

import "go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/cryptohome"

downloadsPath, err := cryptohome.DownloadsPath(ctx, cr.NormalizedUser())
if err != nil {
  s.Fatal("Failed to get users Download path: ", err)
}

An alternative MyFilesPath if you require the My Files location directly. Please avoid using the /home/chronos/user path directly as these are being deprecated.

Output files

Tests can write output files that are automatically copied to the host system that was used to initiate testing:

func WriteOutput(s *testing.State) {
	if err := ioutil.WriteFile(filepath.Join(s.OutDir(), "my_output.txt"),
		[]byte("Here's my output!"), 0644); err != nil {
		s.Error(err)
	}
}

As described in the Running tests document, a test's output files are copied to a tests/<test-name>/ subdirectory within the results directory.

Performance measurements

The perf package is provided to record the results of performance tests. See the perf documentation for more details.

Data files

Tests can register ancillary data files that will be copied to the DUT and made available while the test is running; consider a JavaScript file that Chrome loads or a short binary audio file that is played in a loop, for example.

Internal data files

Small non-binary data files should be directly checked into a data/ subdirectory under the test package as internal data files. Prefix their names by the test file's name (e.g. data/user_login_some_data.txt for a test file named user_login.go) to make ownership obvious.

Per the Chromium guidelines for third-party code, place (appropriately-licensed) data that wasn't created by Chromium developers within a third_party subdirectory under the data directory.

External data files

Larger data files like audio, video, or graphics files should be stored in Google Cloud Storage and registered as external data files to avoid permanently bloating the test repository. External data files are not installed to test images but are downloaded at run time by local_test_runner on DUT.

To add external data files, put external link files named <original-name>.external in data/ subdirectory whose content is JSON in the external link format.

For example, a data file belonging to a test named ui.UserLogin in the default cros bundle might be declared in user_login_some_image.jpg.external with the following content:

{
  "url": "gs://chromiumos-test-assets-public/tast/cros/ui/user_login_some_image_20181210.jpg",
  "size": 12345,
  "sha256sum": "0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef"
}

Old versions of external data files should be retained indefinitely in Google Cloud Storage so as to not break tests on older system images. Include the date as a suffix in the filename to make it easy to add a new version when needed, e.g. user_login_data_20180812.bin.

The commands du -b $FILE and sha256sum $FILE can calculate the size and sha256sum respectively.

If data files are produced as build artifacts of ChromeOS, they can be also used as external data files. However, build artifacts are available only for ChromeOS images built by official builders; for developer builds, tests requiring build artifacts will fail.

An example external link file to reference a build artifact is below:

{
  "type": "artifact",
  "name": "license_credits.html"
}

To upload a file to Google Cloud Storage you can use the gsutil cp command.

Example gsutil command to upload the user login image above:

$ gsutil cp /tmp/your/local_file/user_login_some_image_20181210.jpg gs://chromiumos-test-assets-public/tast/cros/ui/user_login_some_image_20181210.jpg

IMPORTANT: Don't use space in the file name until this bug is fixed b/271155369.

To list all uploaded versions of the file, use the gsutil ls -a command.

External files are cached in two locations: /usr/local/share/tast/data_pushed on the DUT and /tmp/tast/devserver on the host machine. To ensure the reproducibility of tests and prevent stale cache data from being served, cloud storage files should never be overwritten once they have been used in a CQ run or dry-run. If overwriting a cloud storage file, remember to manually clear the cache folders before running Tast tests to prevent stale files from being served.

Internal vs. external

As internal data files are much easier to view and modify than external data files, it's usually better to check in textual data. Only store binaries as external data.

Executables

If your test depends on outside executables, use Portage to build and package those executables separately and include them in test ChromeOS system images. Tast intentionally does not support compiling or deploying other packages that tests depend on.

Sharing data files between test packages

If a data file is needed by a support package that‘s used by tests in multiple packages, it should be stored in a data subdirectory within the support package and symlinked into each test package’s data subdirectory. See the media_session_test.html file used by the mediasession package and shared by the ui.PlayPauseChrome and arc.MediaSessionGain tests, for example.

Using data files in tests

To register data files (regardless of whether they‘re checked into the test repository or stored externally), in your test’s testing.AddTest call, set the testing.Test struct's Data field to contain a slice of data file names (omitting the data/ subdirectory, and the .external suffix for external data files):

testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
	...
	Data: []string{"user_login_data.bin"},
	...
})

Later, within the test function, pass the same filename to testing.State's DataPath function to receive the path to the data file on the DUT:

b, err := ioutil.ReadFile(s.DataPath("user_login_data.bin"))

See the example.DataFiles test for a complete example of using both local and external data files.

Runtime variables

Occasionally tests need to access dynamic or secret data (i.e. out-of-band data), and that's when runtime variables become useful.

Setting values

To set runtime variables, add (possibly repeated) -var=name=value flags to tast run.

Accessing values

Tast users can access runtime variables in two different ways. One way is to declare global runtime variables which can be used by all testing entities: services, fixtures, library functions and tests. Other entities can use the variables by importing the package that defines the variables. The other way is to declare test runtime variables which can be used by fixture and tests.

Global runtime variables (recommended for new code)

To declare a global runtime variable, use testing.RegisterVarString in an entity. It should be a top-level variable declaration which should include the name of the variable, default value and description. A duplicate of the variable name in the same bundle will result in an error during registration when a bundle starts. Other files can access the variable by importing the package that contains the declaration of the variable.

Example:

package example

...

var exampleStrVar = testing.RegisterVarString(
        "example.AccessVars.globalString",
        "Default value",
        "An example variable of string type",
)

...

func AccessVars(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
        strVal := exampleStrVar.Value()
}

All variables should have the prefix “<package_name>.” to avoid name collision. If one violates this convention, runtime error will happen.

Test runtime variables

To declare test runtime variables, set the testing.Test struct‘s Vars or VarDeps field inside your tests’ testing.AddTest call. Vars specifies optional runtime variables, and VarDeps specifies required runtime variables to run the test. VarDeps should be the default choice, and Vars should be used only when there's a fallback in case the variables are missing.

Vars and VarDeps should be an array literal of string literals or constants. The test can later access the values by calling s.Var or s.RequiredVar methods.

For variables only used in a single test, prefix them with the test name (e.g. arc.Boot.foo for a variable used only in arc.Boot). For variables used from multiple tests, prefix them with the category name which mainly uses the variable (e.g. arc.foo). Such variables can be used from any tests, not only ones in the same category.

Variables without a dot in its name are called global variables. They are set by the framework, and individual tests don't have control over them. Other variables should follow these rules:

  • Variable name should have the form of foo.Bar.something or foo.something, where something matches [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*
  • Only the test foo.Bar can access foo.Bar.something
  • Any tests can access foo.something

If one violates this convention, runtime error will happen.

Skipping tests if a variable is not set.

If you wish to skip tests if a variable is not set, your should use VarDeps field inside those tests' testing.AddTest call regardless which methods you choose to access the variable.

When runtime variables in VarDeps are missing, by default the test fails before it runs. -maybemissingvars=<regex> can be used to specify possibly missing runtime variables and if every missing runtime variable in VarDeps matches with the regex, the test is skipped.

Secret variables

This feature is for internal developers, who has access to tast-tests-private package.

What is it

This feature allows you to store secret key/value pairs in a private repository, and use them from public tests.

For example, tests no longer have to be private just because they access secret GAIA credentials.

How to do it

Let foo.Bar be the test which should access secret username and password.

If the variables are only used from the test, create the file tast-tests-private/vars/foo.Bar.yaml with the contents:

foo.Bar.user: someone@something.com
foo.Bar.password: whatever

If the values are shared among tests, create foo.yaml file instead.

foo.user: someone@something.com
foo.password: whatever

Then the test can access the variables just like normal variables assigned to the tast command with -var. Secret variables cannot be used to define global variables.

Don't log secrets in tests to avoid possible data leakage.

func init() {
	testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
		Func:     Bar,
	...
		VarDeps: []string{"foo.Bar.user", "foo.Bar.password"},
		// or foo.user, foo.password
	})
}

func Bar(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
	user := s.RequiredVar("foo.Bar.user")
	...
}

See example.SecretVars for working example.

Naming convention

  • The file defining foo.Bar.something should be foo.Bar.yaml
  • The file defining foo.something should be foo.yaml

If one violates this convention, Tast linter will complain. Please honor the linter errors.

Parameterized tests

When multiple scenarios with very slight differences should be tested, the most common pattern is to write table-driven tests. However testing everything in a single test is sometimes undesirable for several reasons:

  • Tests should have different attributes. For example, we might want to set some of them critical to avoid regressions, while keeping others informational due to test flakiness.
  • Tests should declare different dependencies. For example, VP8 playback test should declare the “hardware-accelerated VP8 decoding” hardware dependency, while other playback tests should declare their respective dependencies.
  • Test results should be reported separately. For example, video playback performance tests may want to report performance metrics separately for different video formats (VP8/VP9/H.264/...).

In such cases, parameterized tests can be used to define multiple similar tests with different test properties.

To parameterize a test, specify a slice of testing.Param in the Params field on test registration. Params should be a literal since test registration should be declarative. If Params is non-empty, testing.AddTest expands the test into one or more tests corresponding to each item in Params by merging testing.Test and testing.Param with the rules described below.

Here is an example of a parameterized test registration:

func init() {
    testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
        Func:     Playback,
        Desc:     "Tests media playback",
        Contacts: []string{"someone@chromium.org"},
        Attr:     []string{"group:mainline"},
        Params: []testing.Param{{
            Name:      "vp8",
            Val:       "sample.vp8",
            ExtraData: []string{"sample.vp8"},
            ExtraAttr: []string{"informational"},
        }, {
            Name:      "vp9",
            Val:       "sample.vp9",
            ExtraData: []string{"sample.vp9"},
            // No ExtraAttr; this test is critical.
        }, {
            Name:              "h264",
            Val:               "sample.h264",
            ExtraSoftwareDeps: []string{"chrome_internal"}, // H.264 codec is unavailable on ChromiumOS
            ExtraData:         []string{"sample.h264"},
            ExtraAttr:         []string{"informational"},
        }},
    })
}

func Playback(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
    filename := s.Param().(string)
    if err := playback(ctx, filename); err != nil {
        s.Fatal("Failed to playback: ", err)
    }
}

Name in testing.Param is appended to the base test name with a leading dot to compute the test name, just like category.TestName.parameter_name. If Name is empty, the base test name is used as-is. Name should be in lower_snake_case style. Name must be unique within a parameterized test.

Val in testing.Param is an arbitrary value that can be accessed in the test body via the testing.State.Param method. Since it returns the value as interface{}, it should be type-asserted to the original type immediately. All Val in a parameterized test must have the same type.

Pre and Timeout in testing.Param are equivalent to those in testing.Test. They can be set only if the corresponding fields in the base test are not set.

Extra* in testing.Param (such as ExtraAttr) contains items added to their corresponding base test properties (such as Attr) to obtain the test properties.

Because test registration should be declarative as written in test registration, Params should be an array literal containing Param struct literals. In each Param struct, Name should be a string literal with snake_case name if present. ExtraAttr, ExtraData, ExtraSoftwareDeps and Pre should follow the rule of the corresponding Attr, Data ,SoftwareDeps and Pre in test registration.

See documentation of testing.Param for the full list of customizable properties.

Remote procedure calls with gRPC

In many cases, remote tests have to run some Go functions on the DUT, possibly calling some support libraries for local tests (e.g. the chrome package). For this purpose, Tast supports defining, implementing, and calling into gRPC services.

For the general usage of gRPC-Go, see also the official tutorial.

Defining gRPC services

gRPC services are defined as protocol buffer files stored under tast-tests/src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/services. The directory is organized in the similar way as test bundles at tast-tests/src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/{local,remote}/bundles. Below is an example of an imaginary gRPC service arc.BootService:

tast-tests/src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/services/
  cros/                   ... test bundle name where this service is included
    arc/                  ... service category name
      gen.go              ... Go file containing go generate directives
      boot_service.proto  ... gRPC service definition
      boot_service.pb.go  ... generated gRPC bindings

gRPC services are defined in .proto files. boot_service.proto would look like:

syntax = "proto3";

package tast.cros.arc;

import "google/protobuf/empty.proto";

option go_package = "go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/services/cros/arc";

// BootService allows remote tests to boot ARC on the DUT.
service BootService {
  // CheckBoot logs into a new Chrome session, starts ARC and waits for its
  // successful boot.
  rpc CheckBoot (CheckBootRequest) returns (google.protobuf.Empty) {}
}

message CheckBootRequest {
  enum AndroidImpl {
    DEFAULT = 0;
    CONTAINER = 1;
    VM = 2;
  }
  // impl specifies which ARC implementation to use.
  AndroidImpl impl = 1;
}

Protocol buffers files should follow the official protocol buffers style guide, as well as several Tast-specific guidelines:

  • File names: Name .proto files in the same way as test .go files. For example, a service named TPMStressService should be defined in tpm_stress_service.proto.
  • Package names: Protocol buffer package name specified in the package directive should be tast.<bundle-name>.<category-name>. Go package name specified in the option go_package directive should be go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/services/<bundle-name>/<category-name>.
  • Service names: Name services with Service suffix.
  • Message names: Method request/response messages should be named FooBarRequest/FooBarResponse.
  • Comments: Write comments in the godoc style since these protocol buffers are used only by Tast tests in Go.

gen.go is a small file containing a go generate directive to regenerate .pb.go files, looking like the following:

// Copyright 2019 The ChromiumOS Authors
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.

//go:generate protoc -I . --go_out=plugins=grpc:../../../../.. boot_service.proto

package arc

// Run the following command in CrOS chroot to regenerate protocol buffer bindings:
//
// ~/chromiumos/src/platform/tast/tools/go.sh generate go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/services/cros/arc

To regenerate .pb.go files, run the command mentioned in the file in ChromeOS chroot (remember to replace the last argument of the command with the path to the directory containing the protocol buffer files). This has to be done manually whenever .proto files are edited. Updated .pb.go files should be included and submitted in CLs adding/modifying/deleting .proto files.

Implementing gRPC services

gRPC service implementations should be placed at the same location as local tests, i.e. tast-tests/src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/bundles. For example, an imaginary arc.BootService would be implemented in tast-tests/src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/bundles/arc/boot_service.go.

gRPC services can be registered with testing.AddService by passing testing.Service containing service descriptions. The most important field is Register, specifying a function to register a gRPC service to grpc.Server. Below is an implementation of the arc.BootService:

// tast-tests/src/go.chromium.org/tast-tests/cros/local/bundles/arc/boot_service.go
package arc

func init() {
    testing.AddService(&testing.Service{
        Register: func(srv *grpc.Server, s *testing.ServiceState) {
            pb.RegisterBootServiceServer(srv, &BootService{s})
        },
    })
}

// BootService implements tast.cros.arc.BootService.
type BootService struct {
    s *testing.ServiceState
}

func (*BootService) CheckBoot(ctx context.Context, req *pb.CheckBootRequest) (*empty.Empty, error) {
    ...
}

For consistency, please follow these guidelines on implementing gRPC services:

  • File names: Name gRPC service implementation .go files in the exactly same way as test .go files. For example, a service named TPMStressService should be implemented in tpm_stress_service.go. This means that gRPC implementation files always have _service.go suffix.
  • Implementation type: A type implementing gRPC service should have exactly the same name as the service name. The type should be the only exported symbol in the _service.go file. Exactly one gRPC service implementation should be registered in a single file.
  • Inter-file references: Similarly to test files, _service.go file should not refer symbols in different files in the same directory. Consequently, a gRPC service has to be implemented in a single file. If the file gets too long, please consider introducing a subpackage just like tests.

context.Context passed to a gRPC method can be used to call some of testing.Context* functions:

  • testing.ContextLog, testing.ContextLogf, testing.ContextLogger work fine. Emitted logs are recorded as if they were emitted by a remote test that called into a gRPC method.
  • testing.ContextOutDir returns a path to a temporary directory. Files saved in the directory during a gRPC method call are copied back to the host machine's test output directory, as if they were saved by a remote test that called into a gRPC method. Note that this function does not allow gRPC methods to read output files from a remote test nor previous gRPC method calls. Files are overwritten in the case of name conflicts.
  • testing.ContextSoftwareDeps does not work. This function is planned to be deprecated (crbug.com/1135996).

Register function receives testing.ServiceState which you can keep in a field of the struct type implementing the gRPC service. It allows the service to access service-specific information, such as runtime variables and data files (not implemented yet: crbug.com/1027381).

Calling gRPC services

A remote test should declare in its metadata which gRPC services it will call into. Undeclared gRPC method calls shall be rejected internally. For example, an imaginary remote test arc.RemoteBoot would be declared as:

func init() {
    testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
        Func:         RemoteTest,
        SoftwareDeps: []string{"chrome", "android_p"},
        ServiceDeps:  []string{"tast.cros.arc.BootService"},
    })
}

Call rpc.Dial in remote tests to establish a connection to the gRPC server. On success, it returns a struct containing grpc.ClientConn with which you can construct gRPC stubs.

cl, err := rpc.Dial(ctx, s.DUT(), s.RPCHint())
if err != nil {
    s.Fatal("Failed to connect to the RPC service on the DUT: ", err)
}
defer cl.Close(ctx)

bc := pb.NewBootServiceClient(cl.Conn)

req := pb.CheckBootRequest{Impl: pb.CheckBootRequest_VM}
var res empty.Empty
if err := bc.CheckBoot(ctx, &req, &res); err != nil {
    ...
}

Panics in gRPC services

If a gRPC call fails with “error reading from server: EOF”, it may indicate the service panicked. The panic message is not currently logged or propagated to the caller. This issue is tracked in b/187794185.

Notes on designing gRPC services

As with anything involving protos, when updating them, please make sure you maintain compatibility with older versions of the proto, as it is possible that you can have a new gRPC server with an old gRPC client, and vice versa. To do this, just ensure that you follow the principles outlined in this document.

Tast‘s gRPC services don’t necessarily have to provide general-purpose APIs. It is perfectly fine to define gRPC services specific to a particular test case. For example, one may want to write a local test which exercises some features, and a remote test that performs the same testing after rebooting the DUT. In this case, they can put the whole local test content to a subpackage, and introduce a local test and a gRPC service both of which call into the subpackage.

Companion DUTs (Multi-DUTs) Support

Most tests are written to test against one DUT, but multiple DUTs are needed for tests that are testing the interaction between two or more DUTs. Tast uses companion DUTs feature to support those tests. Please notice that Tast currently only support companion DUTs for remote tests, and they are not accessible by local tests.

Tast Companion DUT CLI

Users can use the run flag -companiondut to specify a companion DUT to be used in tests. The flag is repeatable so users can specify more than one companion DUT. The value of the flag specifies a role and a dut address in this format, :.

Examples

Here is an example of how a companion DUT is specified on the Tast command line. In this example, primary DUT has the address 127.0.0.1:2222 and the companion DUT has the address 127.0.0.1:2223.

% tast run --companiondut=cd1:127.0.0.1:2223 127.0.0.1:2222 <tests>

Accessing Companion DUTs In A Remote Test

Users can use the function testing.State.CompanionDUT to get the pointer to dut.DUT of a companion DUT. The function take the role name of the companion DUT as the input parameter.

Examples

// CompanionDUTs ensures DUT and companion DUTs are accessible in test.
// Tast command line:
// tast run -build=true -companiondut=cd1:dut1 dut0 meta.CompanionDUTs
func CompanionDUTs(ctx context.Context, s *testing.State) {
	cl, err := rpc.Dial(ctx, s.DUT(), s.RPCHint(), "cros")
	if err != nil {
		s.Fatal("Failed to connect to the RPC service on the DUT: ", err)
	}
	defer cl.Close(ctx)

	companionDUT := s.CompanionDUT("cd1")
	if companionDUT == nil {
		s.Fatal("Failed to get companion DUT cd1")
	}
	companionCl, err := rpc.Dial(ctx, companionDUT, s.RPCHint(), "cros")
if err != nil {
		s.Fatal("Failed to connect to the RPC service on the companion DUT: ", err)
	}
	defer companionCl.Close(ctx)
}

Software/Hardware Dependencies Of Companion DUTs

Users can use HardwareDepsForAll and SoftwareDepsAll of testing.Test to specify the hardware/software dependencies on all DUTs used in a test. Furthermore, users can use HardwareDepsForAll and SoftwareDepsAll of testing.Test to specify the ExtraHardwareDepsForAll and ExtraSoftwareDepsForAll of testing.Param to specify the hardware/software dependencies on all DUTs of a parameterized test.

Example of Specifying Companion Dependencies In A Test

type Test struct {
             …
        // SoftwareDepsForAll lists software features of all DUTs that
        // are required to run the test.
        // It is a map of companion roles and software features.
        // The role for primary DUT should be "".
        // The primary DUT software dependency will be the union of
        // SoftwareDeps and SoftwareDepsForAll[""].
        // If any dependencies are not satisfied, the test will be skipped.
        SoftwareDepsForAll map[string][]string

        // HardwareDepsForAll describes hardware features and setup of all
        // DUTs that are required to run the test.
        // It is a map of companion roles and hardware features.
        // The role for primary DUT should be "".
        // The primary DUT hardware dependency will be the union of
        // HardwareDeps and HardwareDepsForAll[""].
        // If any dependencies are not satisfied, the test will be skipped.
        HardwareDepsForAll map[string]hwdep.Deps
        …
}

Specifying Hardware/Software Dependencies Of Companion DUTs In Parameterized Test

type Param struct {
        …

        // ExtraSoftwareDepsForAll lists software features of all DUTs
        // that are required to run the test case for this param,
        // in addition to SoftwareDepsForAll in the enclosing Test.
        // The primary DUT software dependency will be the union of
        // SoftwareDeps, SoftwareDepsForAll[""], ExtraSoftwareDeps and
        // ExtraSoftwareDepsForAll[""].
        // It is a map of companion roles and software features.
        ExtraSoftwareDepsForAll map[string][]string

        // ExtraHardwareDepsForAll describes hardware features and setup
        // companion DUTs that are required to run the test case for this param,
        // in addition to HardwareDepsForAll in the enclosing Test.
        // It is a map of companion roles and hardware features.
        // The role for primary DUT should be ""
        // The primary DUT hardware dependency will be the union of
        // HardwareDeps, HardwareDepsForAll[""], ExtraHardwareDeps and
        // ExtraHardwareDep and ExtraHardwareDepsForAll[""].
        ExtraHardwareDepsForAll map[string]hwdep.Deps
}

Example of Specifying Companion Dependencies In A Test

func init() {
        testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
                Func:         CompanionDepsUsage,
                …
                SoftwareDeps: []string{"chrome"},
                SoftwareDepsForAll: map[string][]string{
                    // Additional primary DUT dependency.
                    // As a result, primary will have dependency on "lacros"
                    "": []string{"lacros"},
                    // Companion DUT 1 dependency.
                    "cd1": []string{"chrome"},
                },
                HardwareDepsForAll: map[string]hwdep.Deps {
                    // Companion DUT 1 dependency.
                    "cd1": hwdep.D(hwdep.InternalDisplay()),
                },
        })
}

Example of Specifying Companion Dependencies In Parameterized Tests

func init() {
    testing.AddTest(&testing.Test{
        Func:         CompanionDepsParamUsage,
        …
          SoftwareDeps: []string{"chrome"},
          …
          Params: []testing.Param{
            {
             …
              Name: "P1",
              ExtraSoftwareDepsAll: map[string][]string{
                "cd1": []string{ "android_p"},
              },
             },
              ExtraHardwareDepsForAll: map[string]hwdep.Deps {
                "cd1": hwdep.D(hwdep.InternalDisplay()),
            },
            {
              …
              Name: "p2",
              ExtraSoftwareDepsForAll: map[string][]string{
                "cd1": []string{ "android_vm"},
              },
             },
              ExtraHardwareDepsForAll: map[string]hwdep.Deps {
                "cd1": hwdep.D(hwdep.InternalDisplay()),
              },
            },
         },
    })
}

Utilities

Tast contains many utilities for common operations. Some of them are briefly described below; see the package links for additional documentation and examples.

lsbrelease

The lsbrelease package provides access to the fields in /etc/lsb-release. Usually Tast tests are not supposed to that information to change their behavior, so lsbrelease contains a list of packages that are allowed to use it. Attempting to use lsbrelease in a package that is not in the allow list will cause a panic.

testexec

The testexec package provides a convenient interface to run processes on the DUT. It should be used instead of the standard os/exec package.

Use of third party libraries

  1. Add an ebuild to package the code as a Portage package in third_party/chromiumos-overlay, and they will effectively review third party licensing (example).
  2. Add the dependency to tast-build-deps (example). Please send this CL to tast-owners@.

Tast doesn't have any official process to review third party libraries. Just take usual precautions on introducing libraries, such as

  • Is the library popular?
  • Is the author reliable? Do they respond to issues, solve bugs and accept pull requests?
  • Is the API well-documented?
  • Does the library cover all your requirements?

If you are in doubt, please feel free to send your proposal to tast-reviewers@google.com.

When testing locally, remember to cros_workon --host start tast-build-deps and ./update_chroot to build Tast with your new dependencies.

Dependencies with 9999 ebuilds

Dependencies are picked up from the host, not any board. So if you have updated a dependency with a 9999 ebuild, then you‘ll need to workon start it. For example if you’ve added something to system_api:

(cr) ~/chromiumos/src/scripts $ cros_workon --host start chromeos-base/system_api tast-build-deps
(cr) ~/chromiumos/src/scripts $ ./update_chroot

And cleanup after you're done with local changes:

(cr) ~/chromiumos/src/scripts $ cros_workon --host stop chromeos-base/system_api tast-build-deps

Test promotion process for mainline tests

The group:mainline non-informational tests are run in ChromeOS lab for CQs.

Please see the Google internal link go/tast-add-test (Googler only) for the promotion process from informational to non-informational.

Useful Fixtures

Here are some fixtures that may come in handy when writing tast tests.

Virtual multidisplay testing fixture

There is a multidisplay testing fixture designed to be used as a parent fixture for multidisplay test cases.

This fixture needs to be loaded as a top level parent in order to do it's work of reloading and configuring the VKMS driver to support multiple virtual displays.

The pattern used for the ARC and chromium tests can be found in their respective fixture definitions.

There is a HasParentState interface that can be implemented by your child fixture state returned by the SetUp function which can be used and casted within tests to the VirtualMultidisplayController interface returned by this fixture.

A simple example of this can be seen in the hotplug test or a more complex example in the arc tests.

Requirements

In order for virtual multidisplay tests to run and pass, the VKMS driver with the configFS patches must be loaded.

This is true for betty boards on 6.1+ already.