NAME
TB2::Design - Explaining the design of Test::Builder2
DESCRIPTION
This document is about the design and philosophy of Test::Builder2. It is written for the curious, as well as for interested in contributing to the project, designing their own advanced testing modules, or extending Test::Builder2.
Having a gander at Test::Builder may also be useful, if you're not already familiar with it.
There is a glossary of terms at the end of this document.
What is Test::Builder2?
Test::Builder2 is a complete rewrite of Test::Builder with fewer assumptions about how testing is to be done, and more extensibility.
So what is Test::Builder? It is the object that backs all the Perl testing modules worth knowing about. It provides the baseline functionality of testing, coordinates testing modules and formats the results as TAP. It is what allows you to use multiple independent Test:: modules, written by completely different authors, together in the same test script without them stepping on each other.
Fundamentally, TB2 coordinates these things:
- Recording when a test starts and ends
-
TB2 allows a
Test::module to set a plan, and to print out headers, if required. - Recording results
-
TB2 hands results to a TB2::History object.
- Formatting results
-
TB2 hands results to a TB2::Formatter object.
- Streaming (outputting) results
-
The TB2::Formatter hands results to a TB2::Streamer.
In short, you hand TB2 the result of an assert, and it decides when and how to format and output it. That's about it (rjbs gets credit for bringing this revelation of simplicity).
TB2 also takes on the additional meta-responsibility of providing a central point to coordinate extensions and to provide hooks into testing events.
Design Goals
To understand Test::Builder2 you must understand its design goals.
Test::Builder2 takes a very long and broad view in its design. As such, many things which might seem overcomplicated at first glance have been deliberately thought out to cover an obscure, but important, condition.
Universal
If TB2 were a person, "thou shalt be universally applicable" would be tattooed upside down on its belly in flaming, writhing letters, to remind itself of its responsbility to all Perl users everywhere.
This is the goal which has the farthest reaching consequences. Every testing module worth knowing about is backed by TB1 and will be backed by TB2. As a result, TB2 has to work, it has to work everywhere Perl does and it has to be able to test every conceivable thing.
Any assumption TB2 made about its environment, how testing is or is not done, or what is being tested, could eliminate a whole category of Perl programmers from easily being able to test their code, knocking the entire modern suite of Perl testing tools from their hands. In order to be universally useful, TB2 cannot make such assumptions.
While TB2 has to be universal, extensions do not. TB2 will reject many features because they are not universally applicable, but extensions and test libraries built on top of it can add those features.
Portable
TB2 has to work in every environment where Perl does. If it doesn't, TB2 de facto eliminates Perl from serious use in that environment. TB2 can make no assumptions about its environment that are not universal. There's no "it'll work on most systems" compromises.
As far as Perl goes, TB2 supports back to 5.8.1. 5.8.0's threading is too unstable. 5.6 is missing too many features (the biggest is scalar reference filehandles, critical for debugging) and is all but extinct in the wild. Even Debian oldstable ships 5.8.8.
Reliable
TB2 has to be completely reliable, allowing for total confidence in the test libraries. Users need to know that a test failure indicates a failed test, and not a bug in TB2. There are no "this works 99% of the time" implementations.
Extensible
Users must be able to write test libraries on top of TB2 that do pretty much anything.
There are three primary ways of doing this. The most common will be writing a test module using TB2::Module. Users will write logic to test their statement, and then hand the result off to a TB2 object for processing.
The second is by adding roles to TB2. For those not familiar with roles, they're kind of like object plugins... sort of.
The third is by hooking into events, like when an assert starts or finishes.
See "Extending TB2" for more details.
Multiple Formats
TB1 outputs only TAP. TB2 will output TAP by default, but can be extended to output any format you like. As such, its internal structures have to be free of assumptions. For example, TAP is one of the few testing systems that requires a test count. TB1 is riddled with that assumption. TB2 cannot be.
See TB2::Format for details.
Multiple Streams
TB1 has limited support for outputting to anywhere other than STDOUT and STDERR. TB2 should have full control over where and how output occurs.
See TB2::Streamer for details.
Minimal Assumptions
TB1 and Test::More avoid making assumptions about how and what you're testing, sticking to functions that provide unambiguous functionality and are universally applicable. That is, you're not going to find code that tests XML.
TB2 pushes this further, in ways already mentioned, and by stripping itself down at the core to just storing, formatting and streaming results. It does not provide anything but the equivalent of ok(). Additional functionality will be available in various roles that ship with TB2. Most library authors will use those roles by default, but radical extensions may use the stripped down TB2.
Two drivers for this are Fennec and the need for Test::Builder itself to use TB2. The less TB2 does, the weirder test library authors can get.
No Dependencies
TB2 can have no external dependencies (except Perl itself). External dependencies may create circular dependencies, and worse, could introduce unreliabilies to TB2.
Easy
It has to be very easy to write a basic testing module using TB2. The underlying complexity must be hidden from the casual test module author.
Extending TB2
See examples/TB2 in the source directory for examples of TB2 extensions.
Writing Test Libraries
The simplest way to extend TB2 is to write a test library. TB2::Module provides the conveniences to the test author. Test::Simple is a simple example of a Test::Builder2 module.
Writing TB2 Roles
For internal use, roles can be applied to the TB2 default to expand its functionality while leaving the TB2 class slim. TB2 will include a TB2::Assert::More role that provides most of the Test::More functionality currently available in TB1.
TB2 Events
The primary way test libraries using TB2 will alter the behavior of tests is by writing a test event handler. Everything of interest in a test, from setting the plan to diagnostic output to asserts, triggers an event. A handler can take action based on an event, or even alter an event as it happens. Event handlers will allow TB2 to halt on test failure, to enforce test names, and to provide the functionality of Test::NoWarnings.
Formatters are also event handlers. See TB2::EventHandler, TB2::EventCoordinator and TB2::Events for details.
Use Cases
Diagnostics contain the file and line number where the user called the assert
When an assert fails, it should report its file and line number so the user can easily find the failing assert. This is one of the trickiest aspects of TB1 and TB2. It has its own section, "File and Line Information".
Test::NoWarnings
To capture warnings, TB2 must be able to add code at the start of a test suite, and to add an assertion at the end. It also must be able to add an assertion to a user-set plan.
See examples/TB2/lib/TB2/NoWarnings.pm for an example.
Test::Warn
This is the case where an assert called inside another assert is not part of the same stack.
See "File and Line Information" for details.
Testing a test
You should be able to easily write tests for test modules without having to hard code formatted results.
Test::Builder
Test::Builder and all derived modules should continue to work and be compatible with TB2.
Fennec
Fennec should be able to use TB2 for all its functionality.
Die on fail
It should be possible to have an extension which causes the test suite to halt upon the first failed assert and still receive all the diagnostics of that assert.
See examples/TB2/lib/TB2/DieOnFail.pm for an example.
Debug on fail
It should be possible to have an extension which starts the debugger when an assert fails.
See examples/TB2/lib/TB2/DebugOnFail.pm for an example.
Action on failed (or passed) test stream
It should be possible to perform an action when a test stream completes in certain states. For example, beep on completion or send an email on failure.
Stacked Asserts
TB2 lets asserts build on other asserts by just calling them. For example, here is a simple implementation of is().
install_test is => sub {
my($have, $want, $name) = @_;
my $result = ok( $have eq $want, $name );
$result->diag([
have => $have,
want => $want
]);
return $result;
};is() uses ok() to do most of the work. Then it adds its diagnostics to the result (an overloaded object in TB2) and passes it along.
To accomplish this, TB2 records the stack of asserts being called and who called them. This turns out to be one of the more involved parts of TB2, but it's necessary for some critical features.
File and Line Information
One of the friendliest and trickiest features of TB1 is correctly reporting the file and line where an assert failed. This is because asserts call asserts which call asserts which ultimately call ok which does the actual passing or failing. It needs to know where the user originally called the assert, the "top" of the assert stack.
This is similar in functionality to Carp, but it has to be far more robust. It cannot guess based on crossing package boundaries, it has to know. TB1 accomplished this by keeping track of how far down the stack you are at any moment with $Level. This results in complicated accounting that's often not quite right, and it bubbles up to the user's level, where the user must remember to localize and increment $Level.
You must be able to trivially wrap an assert in another assert and still have the file and line number come out at the outermost assert which is presumably the one the user wrote. This will allow users to quickly and trivially compose new domain specific asserts without having to know about TB2.
For example, here is how is() would ideally be implemented by a user (ignoring diagnostics for the moment):
sub is {
my($have, $want, $name) = @_;
return ok $have eq $want, $name;
}When is() fails, you want the diagnostics to contain the file and line number of the call to is(), not the call to ok() inside is().
Assert end actions
This goes beyond just file and line numbers. It also allows actions to happen when an assert fully completes, such as "die-on-fail". To expand on the is() example above:
sub is {
my($have, $want, $name) = @_;
my $ok = ok $have, $want, $name;
$ok->diag([
have => $have,
want => $want,
]);
return $ok;
}is() takes the result from ok() (now an object) and adds its own diagnostics. If ok() were to fail, and die-on-fail is active, TB2 must know to wait until is() has had a chance to add its diagnostics and print the result before failing. Otherwise you don't get full diagnostics about the failure. TB2 must know that is() was called by the user and ok() was not.
Result output
Finally, TB2 must wait until the entire assert stack has had an opportunity to add diagnostics to the result before it can print the result. Why? TB1, only doing TAP, is fortunate in that it's a stream. It can print a result as soon as it gets it, and then append diagnostics onto the end. But this isn't true of other output formats. XML, for example, requires an opening and closing tag.
Declaring Asserts
We cannot assume that asserts are exported functions. Or that every function in a Test:: library is an assert. TB2 takes the approach of having a test library declare that a function is an assert. This is done with the least fanfare possible:
package My::Test::Module;
use TB2::Module;
install_test is => sub {
my($have, $want, $name) = @_;
return ok $have, $want, $name;
};install_test is exported by TB2::Module. It wraps the user's function in a little shim that triggers assert_start and assert_end events. It also records this fact in an assert stack, assert_start pushes onto the stack and assert_end pops it. The assert stack tracks where each assert was called. If an assert fails anywhere in the stack it can get the file and line number information from the top of the stack.
Multiple Stacks
Currently there is only one stack, see top_stack in TB2. This must be developed into multiple stacks to handle some use cases, the most important are Test::Warn and Test::Exception.
For example:
#line 1
warnings_is {
is( $foo, $bar);
} "something";If the is called inside warnings_is() fails, it should report diagnostics from line 2, not line 1 where warnings_is() is called. In addition, is() failing should not result in warnings_is() failing.
There is no way for TB2 to infer this special case, it must be declared by the author of warnings_is. warnings_is must tell TB2 that it should save its current assert stack and start a new one.
use TB2::Module;
install_test warnings_is => sub (&$) {
my($code, $warning) = @_;
...set up capturing warnings however...
# Declare a new assert stack
Builder->start_assert_stack;
# Run the code with that new stack
$code->();
# End the assert stack and go back to the old one
Builder->end_assert_stack;
# Run an assert to check the warnings using the original stack
return is( $captured_warnings, $warning );
};In effect, there is a stack of stacks maintained inside TB2. Builder is provided by TB2::Module as a shortcut for $class->builder.
This will also allow tests to work in cooperative multitasking situations such as POE. One stack of asserts may start running only to yield control to another stack. The details are beyond the scope of this design, only that it is made possible.
Multiple asserts inside an assert
There is a final case to consider, this:
install_test file_contents_ok => sub {
my($file, $want) = @_;
ok( open(my $fh, "<", $file), "open $file" );
my $content = join "", <$fh>;
ok( close $fh, "close $file" );
return is $content, $want, "contents of $file";
};This assert has multiple asserts inside it, but the final one is the important one. In this case, TB2 must display them all as if they came from the point where file_contents_ok() was called. Also make sure that the results of the two ok()s get output. And do it all in the right order. This is an open problem.
Mouse
TB2 uses Mouse, which is the Moose interface without dependencies and sluggishness. It takes a great risk in relying on a complicated module. The decision was made on the speculation that if TB2 used a real object system, that might allow the design to go in interesting directions not otherwise easily available.
Two user visible design features have come out of this. The first is that TB2's event system, rather than having explict event callbacks, is modelled by simply wrapping public TB2 methods using Mouse method wrappers. This greatly simplifies designing and implementing test events and provides a more flexible system since users can safely wrap any public method rather than waiting for TB2 to add a hook. Hook points fall naturally out of decomposing the steps of handling results.
The second is the ability to compose TB2 with roles. Rather than adding functionality by subclassing, it can be added with roles. Subclassing is untenable in the long run. Test::A will want to use their TB2 subclass while Test::B will want to use its own TB2 subclass. They can't both have the default. Rather than come up with increasingly complicated ways to reconcile this, users can add functionality to TB2 with roles applied to the TB2 default. Roles add, rather than modify, functionality. Collisions will only occur in method names and will be very clear, at about the same level of risk as exporting a function.
Roles also let TB2 shed much of TB1's functionality, leaving it to roles. For example, most of the helper assert methods in TB1 like is_eq and like are not present in core TB2 making it much simpler. They will be in something like TB2::More::Asserts which will probably be composed in by default.
Roles and wrapping methods allow TB2 to remain a default while being extensible by multiple authors without explicit coordination.
Mouse Risk Mitgation
TB2 can have no dependencies, so it ships with its own copy of Mouse.
Mouse is a large, complicated system and TB2 has already hit bugs. It has also had breakages from one version of Mouse to the next. In order to avoid this, TB2 will ONLY use its shipped copy of Mouse. That is, TB2 will ship with a copy of Mouse matched to that particular release.
Finally, to avoid stepping on the installed copy of Mouse, TB2 will ship its version of Mouse as TB2::Mouse with all internal packages similarly changed. This will avoid colliding with Mouse both on disk and in memory.
Mouse In The Core?
If TB2 ships with Mouse, and TB2 ships in the core of Perl... does that mean core Perl will ship Mouse? No, it is not required that Perl ship Mouse. TB2 will require that core Perl ships TB2::Mouse, but as such it is an internal module of TB2 and should not be used by the public. Making Mouse publicly available in the core is a separate issue and would, in fact, require a separate copy of Mouse anyway.
Overview
Test::Builder
Here's a diagram of the "flow" of assert results through Test::Builder version 1.
.-------.
| foo.t |
'-------'
|
|
.-------------. | .----------------.
| Test::More |<--------->| Test::Whatever |
'-------------' '----------------'
| |
| |
| |
| .---------------. |
'---->| Test::Builder |<----'
'---------------'
|
v
.-----.
| TAP |
'-----'
|
v
.---------------.
| Test::Harness |
'---------------'You write foo.t using Test::More and Test::Whatever. These both use the same Test::Builder object. It spits out TAP which Test::Harness converts into something human readable.
The big problem there is Test::Builder is monolithic. There's no further breakdown of responsibilities. It only spits out TAP, and only one version of TAP.
Test::Builder2
Here's what Test::Builder2 looks like:
.-------.
.----------------| foo.t |----------------.
| '-------' |
| | |
| | |
v v v
.------------. .----------------. .------------------.
| Test::More | | Test::Whatever | | Test::NotUpdated |
'------------' '----------------' '------------------'
| | |
| v v
| .----------------. .---------------.
'------>| Test::Builder2 | | Test::Builder |
'----------------' '---------------'
| |
v |
.-------------. |
| TB2::Result |<----------'
'-------------'
|
v
.--------------. .-----------------------.
| TB2::History |<---| TB2::EventCoordinator |
'--------------' '-----------------------'
|
.--------------------------. | .---------------------.
| TB2::Formatter::TAP::v13 |<-----'------>| TB2::Formatter::GUI |
'--------------------------' '---------------------'
| |
v |
.-------------------------------. |
| TB2::Formatter::Streamer::TAP | |
'-------------------------------' |
| |
v |
.-----. |
| TAP | |
'-----' |
| |
v v
.---------------. .-----------------.
| Test::Harness | | Pretty Pictures |
'---------------' '-----------------'It starts out the same, foo.t uses a bunch of test modules including Test::More and Test::Whatever using the same Test::Builder2 object, but it also uses Test::NotUpdated which is still using Test::Builder. That's ok because Test::Builder has been rewritten in terms of Test::Builder2 (more on that below).
Test::Builder2, rather than being a monolith, produces a TB2::Result object for each assert run. This gets handed to the EventCoordinator which hands the Result off to the History, Formatter and any other handlers. Test::Builder and Test::Builder2 share the same EventCoordinator and thus the same Formatter and History.
History records events and results for possible later use. The Formatter turns events and results into formatted output, by default TAP.
Because Test::Builder2 is not monolithic, you can swap out parts. For example, instead of outputting TAP it could instead hand results to a formatter that produced a simple GUI representation, maybe a green bar, or something that hooks into a larger GUI. Or maybe one that produces JUnit XML.
How Test::Builder and Test::Builder2 Relate
.-----. .-----.
| TB2 | | TB1 |
'-----' '-----'
| |
| |
v v
.-------------. .-----------------------. .-------------.
| TB2::Result |--->| TB2::EventCoordinator |<----| TB2::Result |
'-------------' '-----------------------' '-------------'
|
v
.----------------.
| TB2::Formatter |
'----------------'
|
v
.--------.
| Output |
'--------'Test::Builder and Test::Builder2 coordinate their actions by sharing the same EventCoordinator which carries around History and Formatter objects. If you call TB1->ok() it produces a Result object which it hands to the EventCoordinator which hands it to its History and Formatter objects. If you call TB2->ok() it produces a Result object which it hands to the same EventCoordinator.
This allows most of the Test::Builder code to remain the same while still coordinating with Test::Builder2. It also allows radically different builders to be made without Test::Builder2 dictating how they're to work.
If you want to add behaviors to the tests, rather than extending or altering the Builder you add an EventHandler to the EventCoordinator. This will be informed when thing happen in the test, can take action and even alter the events and results.
Glossary
TB1
Refers to Test::Builder.
TB2
For brevity's sake, Test::Builder2 will be referred to as TB2.
builder
Refers to the TB1 or TB2 object central to Perl's testing system. It serves to abstract the details of writing a test library. A builder defines how asserts are written, contains the event coordinator and is responsible for making sure its asserts pass along events to the coordinator.
assert
An assertion is a single statement which is tested. It corresponds to a traditional ok function call.
event
Anything which happens over the course of the test will generate an event. Examples include starting the test, changing the test plan, the result of an assert, and so on. Events fully describe the test suite and they are the only information used by formatters.
result
The information from a single assert. Includes things like if it passed or failed, if it had any directives, its file and line number, and any additional user specified diagnostics.
A result is a special type of event.
event coordinator
This object gathers events from all the builders that wish to work together in the same test suite and passes them along to its event handlers.
event handler
An event handler is a thing which does things with events (yes, it's supposed to be vague). Examples include formatters and history. Custom event handlers can also be used to alter the behavior of tests (for example, die on assert failure) and even the event itself.
Event handlers get their events through an event coordinator.
directive
A flag which modifies the result in some way. For example, skip says that the test was skipped. todo means the test was expected to fail.
diagnostics
Additional structured information about a test result. For example, what file and line number it occurred on. Users can add their own diagnostics to a test result.
Test::Builder's "diagnostics" (output by diag()) are actually comments which were used to provide diagnostics. These were unparsable.
comment
A piece of information in the stream that may be parsed but is ignored and has no effect on the result of the stream.
note
A comment which is not normally shown to the user, put there for debugging and informational purposes.
stream
The output from a single test unit. In a traditional Perl system this is the output from a single .t file.
suite
The complete set of tests run by a project. In a traditional Perl system this is all the .t files.
formatter
Takes the abstract result and turns it into parsable output. For example, TB2::Formatter::TAP turns test results into the familiar TAP.
See TB2::Formatter for details.
streamer
Takes the formatted stream and outputs it, usually to STDOUT and STDERR but it may instead capture it for debugging purposes, or send it as an email, or write it to a file, or do all of these things.
A formatter contains a streamer.
See TB2::Streamer for details.
TAP
Test Anything Protocol, the name for the usual ok 1 output you see from most Perl tests.
test
An ambiguous term often used to mean an assert, a stream or a suite. We'll avoid using it without qualification.