simulation

Overview ¶

Package simulation implements a full fledged Cosmos SDK application used for executing simulation test suites.

Simulation App ¶

The SimApp type defines an application used for running extensive simulation testing suites. It contains all core modules, including governance, staking, slashing, and distribution.

Simulation is executed with various inputs including the number of blocks to simulate, the block size, whether the app should commit or not, the invariant checking period, and a seed which is used as a source of pseudo-randomness.

In addition to the various inputs, simulation runs mainly in three modes:

1. Completely random where the initial state, module parameters and simulation parameters are pseudo-randomly generated.

2. From a genesis file where the initial state and the module parameters are defined. This mode is helpful for running simulations on a known state such as a live network export where a new (mostly likely breaking) version of the application needs to be tested.

3. From a params file where the initial state is pseudo-randomly generated but the module and simulation parameters can be provided manually. This allows for a more controlled and deterministic simulation setup while allowing the state space to still be pseudo-randomly simulated.

The simulation test suite also supports testing determinism and import/export functionality.

Randomness ¶

Currently, simulation uses a single seed (integer) as a source for a PRNG by which all random operations are executed from. Any call to the PRNG changes all future operations as the internal state of the PRNG is modified. For example, if a new message type is created and needs to be simulated, the new introduced PRNG call will change all subsequent operations.

This may can often be problematic when testing fixes to simulation faults. One current solution to this is to use a params file as mentioned above. In the future the simulation suite is expected to support a series of PRNGs that can be used uniquely per module and simulation component so that they will not effect each others state execution outcome.

Usage ¶

To execute a completely pseudo-random simulation:

 $ go test -mod=readonly github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp \
	-run=TestFullAppSimulation \
	-Enabled=true \
	-NumBlocks=100 \
	-BlockSize=200 \
	-Commit=true \
	-Seed=99 \
	-Period=5 \
	-v -timeout 24h

To execute simulation from a genesis file:

 $ go test -mod=readonly github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp \
 	-run=TestFullAppSimulation \
 	-Enabled=true \
 	-NumBlocks=100 \
 	-BlockSize=200 \
 	-Commit=true \
 	-Seed=99 \
 	-Period=5 \
	-Genesis=/path/to/genesis.json \
 	-v -timeout 24h

To execute simulation from a simulation params file:

 $ go test -mod=readonly github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp \
	-run=TestFullAppSimulation \
	-Enabled=true \
	-NumBlocks=100 \
	-BlockSize=200 \
	-Commit=true \
	-Seed=99 \
	-Period=5 \
	-Params=/path/to/params.json \
	-v -timeout 24h

To export the simulation params to a file at a given block height:

 $ go test -mod=readonly github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp \
 	-run=TestFullAppSimulation \
 	-Enabled=true \
 	-NumBlocks=100 \
 	-BlockSize=200 \
 	-Commit=true \
 	-Seed=99 \
 	-Period=5 \
	-ExportParamsPath=/path/to/params.json \
	-ExportParamsHeight=50 \
	 -v -timeout 24h

To export the simulation app state (i.e genesis) to a file:

 $ go test -mod=readonly github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp \
 	-run=TestFullAppSimulation \
 	-Enabled=true \
 	-NumBlocks=100 \
 	-BlockSize=200 \
 	-Commit=true \
 	-Seed=99 \
 	-Period=5 \
	-ExportStatePath=/path/to/genesis.json \
	 v -timeout 24h

Params ¶

Params that are provided to simulation from a JSON file are used to used to set both module parameters and simulation parameters. See sim_test.go for the full set of parameters that can be provided.