expect/

Goal Testing with Expect

Expect is a framework for testing command line interfaces (CLI). It is a extension to the TCL shell designed to automate invoking, interacting with, and validating results of CLIs.

We use expect to test the Algorand Goal CLI.

Setup

From the go-algorand root directory, setup the environment and build the binaries as described in the top-level project README.md file.

Initialize the project

git clone https://github.com/algorand/go-algorand
cd go-algorand
./scripts/configure_dev.sh

Build the binaries

make clean install

Running the integration tests

Running the integration tests will invoke the expect tests. Execute the following command to run the integration tests.

make integration

Set environment variables

The GOPATH should be set to your local Go projects directory. The PATH environment variable should include $GOPATH/bin. For example:

export GOPATH=~/path/to/goprojects
export PATH=$(go env GOPATH | cut -d':' -f1 ):${PATH}

Running the Expect Tests

There are three (optional) environment variables that can be used to control the behavior of the tests:

• TESTDATADIR

  • The location of the genesis.json file.
  • Defaults to $GOPATH/src/github.com/algorand/go-algorand/test/testdata.

• TESTDIR

  • This is the location to where test artifacts will be written.
  • Defaults to a location in the /tmp directory tree that is created at runtime.

• TESTFILTER

  • Allows for fine-grained control over which tests are selected to be run.
  • The filter is a regular expression.
    • For example, if you had hundreds of tests and only wanted to test barTest.exp and carTest.exp, you'd set the filter to be export TESTFILTER=[b,c]ar.
  • Defaults to all tests (.*).

NOTE: the file name should have the suffix: "Test.exp"

To run the Goal Expect test, run the following command from the top level go-algorand directory:

go test -v test/e2e-go/cli/goal/expect/goal_expect_test.go

Here is an example of running the tests with a preset TESTDIR and TESTFILTER:

# This will target all tests such as `foobar1Test.exp`, `foobar2Test.exp`, etc. but not `foobar10Test.exp`.
export TESTFILTER=foobar[0-9]Test
export TESTDIR=baz

go test -v test/e2e-go/cli/goal/expect/goal_expect_test.go

# OR

TESTFILTER=foobar[0-9]Test TESTDIR=baz go test -v test/e2e-go/cli/goal/expect/goal_expect_test.go

In particular, if you want to run goalAccountInfoTest.exp you'll need to create a temporary directory such as deletemeTemp with

mkdir test/e2e-go/cli/goal/expect/deletemeTemp

and then run the following command:

TESTFILTER=goalAccountInfoTest TESTDIR=deletemeTemp go test -v test/e2e-go/cli/goal/expect/goal_expect_test.go

If you're running exactly the same command again, make sure to delete and re-create the temp directory first.

Of course, a test can always be run directly by expect, i.e. expect rekeyTest.exp $TESTDIR $TESTDATADIR.

Adding New Tests

To add a test, create a copy of the test/e2e-go/cli/goal/expect/basicGoalTest.exp file within the same directory. Give it a name that reflects the purpose of the test, and make sure the file name suffix matches 'Test.exp'. This will allow it to be included when running the expect tests.

Common Procedures

Reusable and commonly used goal commands can be defined as procedures. This helps reduce code bulk and errors in the expect tests. See the file goalExpectCommon.exp for the list of available procedures.