cosmos-sdk/cmd/gaia/cli_test

Gaia CLI Integration tests

The gaia cli integration tests live in this folder. You can run the full suite by running:

$ go test -mod=readonly -p 4 `go list ./cmd/gaia/cli_test/...` -tags=cli_test
# OR!
$ make test_cli

NOTE: While the full suite runs in parallel, some of the tests can take up to a minute to complete

Test Structure

This integration suite uses a thin wrapper over the os/exec package. This allows the integration test to run against built binaries (both gaiad and gaiacli are used) while being written in golang. This allows tests to take advantage of the various golang code we have for operations like marshal/unmarshal, crypto, etc...

NOTE: The tests will use whatever gaiad or gaiacli binaries are available in your $PATH. You can check which binary will be run by the suite by running which gaiad or which gaiacli. If you have your $GOPATH properly setup they should be in $GOPATH/bin/gaia*. This will ensure that your test uses the latest binary you have built

Tests generally follow this structure:

func TestMyNewCommand(t *testing.T) {
  t.Parallel()
	f := InitFixtures(t)

	// start gaiad server
	proc := f.GDStart()
	defer proc.Stop(false)

  // Your test code goes here...

	f.Cleanup()
}

This boilerplate above:

• Ensures the tests run in parallel. Because the tests are calling out to os/exec for many operations these tests can take a long time to run.
• Creates .gaiad and .gaiacli folders in a new temp folder.
• Uses gaiacli to create 2 accounts for use in testing: foo and bar
• Creates a genesis file with coins (1000footoken,1000feetoken,150stake) controlled by the foo key
• Generates an initial bonding transaction (gentx) to make the foo key a validator at genesis
• Starts gaiad and stops it once the test exits
• Cleans up test state on a successful run

Notes when adding/running tests

• Because the tests run against a built binary, you should make sure you build every time the code changes and you want to test again, otherwise you will be testing against an older version. If you are adding new tests this can easily lead to confusing test results.
• The test_helpers.go file is organized according to the format of gaiacli and gaiad commands. There are comments with section headers describing the different areas. Helper functions to call CLI functionality are generally named after the command (e.g. gaiacli query staking validator would be QueryStakingValidator). Try to keep functions grouped by their position in the command tree.
• Test state that is needed by tx and query commands (home, chain_id, etc...) is stored on the Fixtures object. This makes constructing your new tests almost trivial.
• Sometimes if you exit a test early there can be still running gaiad and gaiacli processes that will interrupt subsequent runs. Still running gaiacli processes will block access to the keybase while still running gaiad processes will block ports and prevent new tests from spinning up. You can ensure new tests spin up clean by running pkill -9 gaiad && pkill -9 gaiacli before each test run.
• Most query and tx commands take a variadic flags argument. This pattern allows for the creation of a general function which is easily modified by adding flags. See the TxSend function and its use for a good example.
• Tx* functions follow a general pattern and return (success bool, stdout string, stderr string). This allows for easy testing of multiple different flag configurations. See TestGaiaCLICreateValidator or TestGaiaCLISubmitProposal for a good example of the pattern.