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[PATCH 2/3] test-lib: add --verbose-log option

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
Oct 21, 2016, 10:48 UTC
Message-ID
<20161021104759.hx6q7u66r3ll7l44@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<20161021104107.vh3bjx6x6pd6izat@sigill.intra.peff.net>

The "--verbose" option redirects output from arbitrary test commands to stdout. This is useful for examining the output manually, like:

  ./t5547-push-quarantine.sh -v | less

But it also means that the output is intermingled with the TAP directives, which can confuse a TAP parser like "prove". This has always been a potential problem, but became an issue recently when one test happened to output the word "ok" on a line by itself, which prove interprets as a test success:

  $ prove t5547-push-quarantine.sh :: -v
  t5547-push-quarantine.sh .. 1/? To dest.git
   * [new branch]      HEAD -> master
  To dest.git
   ! [remote rejected] reject -> reject (pre-receive hook declined)
  error: failed to push some refs to 'dest.git'
  fatal: git cat-file d08c8eba97f4e683ece08654c7c8d2ba0c03b129: bad file
  t5547-push-quarantine.sh .. Failed -1/4 subtests
  Test Summary Report
  -------------------
  t5547-push-quarantine.sh (Wstat: 0 Tests: 5 Failed: 0)
    Parse errors: Tests out of sequence.  Found (2) but expected (3)
                  Tests out of sequence.  Found (3) but expected (4)
                  Tests out of sequence.  Found (4) but expected (5)
                  Bad plan.  You planned 4 tests but ran 5.
  Files=1, Tests=5,  0 wallclock secs ( 0.01 usr +  0.01 sys =  0.02 CPU)
  Result: FAIL

One answer is "if it hurts, don't do it", but that's not quite the whole story. The Travis tests use "--verbose --tee" so that they can get the benefit of prove's parallel options, along with a verbose log in case there is a failure. We just need the verbose output to go to the log, but keep stdout clean.

Getting this right turns out to be surprisingly difficult. Here's the progression of alternatives I considered:

 1. Add an option to write verbose output to stderr. This is
    hard to capture, though, because we want each test to
    have its own log (because they're all run in parallel
    and the jumbled output would be useless).
 2. Add an option to write verbose output to a file in
    test-results. This works, but the log is missing all of
    the non-verbose output, which gives context.
 3. Like (2), but teach say_color() to additionally output
    to the log. This mostly works, but misses any output
    that happens outside of the say() functions (which isn't
    a lot, but is a potential maintenance headache).
 4. Like (2), but make the log file the same as the "--tee"
    file. That almost works, but now we have two processes
    opening the same file. That gives us two separate
    descriptors, each with their own idea of the current
    position. They'll each start writing at offset 0, and
    overwrite each other's data.
 5. Like (4), but in each case open the file for appending.
    That atomically positions each write at the end of the
    file.
    It's possible we may still get sheared writes between
    the two processes, but this is already the case when
    writing to stdout. It's not a problem in practice
    because the test harness generally waits for snippets to
    finish before writing the TAP output.
    We can ignore buffering issues with tee, because POSIX
    mandates that it does not buffer. Likewise, POSIX
    specifies "tee -a", so it should be available
    everywhere.

This patch implements option (5), which seems to work well in practice.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
Arguably we don't need a new option for this, and could just do it
automatically. I wasn't sure when, though:
  - if "--tee --verbose" triggers it, then somebody running that outside
    of "prove" who _wants_ the verbose output on stdout (because they're
    looking at it, but also want to save a copy to the log) would be
    regressed
  - possibly "--tee" could just always write verbose output to the
    logfile (but not stdout). That's kind of weirdly magical, and we'd
    have to update the travis invocation anyway.

So I went with a new option which implies the other ones. No chance of regression, and it's easy to explain.

 t/README      |  6 ++++++
 t/test-lib.sh | 22 +++++++++++++++++++---
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/t/README b/t/README
index 0f764c0aef..4982d1c521 100644
--- a/t/README
+++ b/t/README
@@ -153,6 +153,12 @@ appropriately before running "make".
 	As the names depend on the tests' file names, it is safe to
 	run the tests with this option in parallel.
 
+--verbose-log::
+	Write verbose output to the same logfile as `--tee`, but do
+	_not_ write it to stdout. Unlike `--tee --verbose`, this option
+	is safe to use when stdout is being consumed by a TAP parser
+	like `prove`. Implies `--tee` and `--verbose`.
+
 --with-dashes::
 	By default tests are run without dashed forms of
 	commands (like git-commit) in the PATH (it only uses
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index 33cbbb7806..85946ec40d 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -54,11 +54,21 @@ case "$GIT_TEST_TEE_STARTED, $* " in
 done,*)
 	# do not redirect again
 	;;
-*' --tee '*|*' --va'*)
+*' --tee '*|*' --va'*|*' --verbose-log '*)
 	mkdir -p "$TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY/test-results"
 	BASE="$TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY/test-results/$(basename "$0" .sh)"
+
+	# Make this filename available to the sub-process in case it is using
+	# --verbose-log.
+	GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE=$BASE.out
+	export GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE
+
+	# Truncate before calling "tee -a" to get rid of the results
+	# from any previous runs.
+	>"$GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE"
+
 	(GIT_TEST_TEE_STARTED=done ${SHELL_PATH} "$0" "$@" 2>&1;
-	 echo $? >"$BASE.exit") | tee "$BASE.out"
+	 echo $? >"$BASE.exit") | tee -a "$GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE"
 	test "$(cat "$BASE.exit")" = 0
 	exit
 	;;
@@ -246,6 +256,9 @@ do
 		trace=t
 		verbose=t
 		shift ;;
+	--verbose-log)
+		verbose_log=t
+		shift ;;
 	*)
 		echo "error: unknown test option '$1'" >&2; exit 1 ;;
 	esac
@@ -319,7 +332,10 @@ fi
 
 exec 5>&1
 exec 6<&0
-if test "$verbose" = "t"
+if test "$verbose_log" = "t"
+then
+	exec 3>>"$GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE" 4>&3
+elif test "$verbose" = "t"
 then
 	exec 4>&2 3>&1
 else
-- 
2.10.1.776.ge0e381e
Previous: Jeff KingNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 7 of 47 in “Prove "Tests out of sequence" Error”
  1. Lars SchneiderOct 21, 2016
  2. Stefan BellerOct 21, 2016
  3. Jeff KingOct 21, 2016
  4. Jeff KingOct 21, 2016
  5. 0/3 fix travis TAP/--verbose conflictJeff King, Oct 21, 2016
  6. 1/3 test-lib: handle TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY with spacesJeff King, Oct 21, 2016
  7. 2/3 test-lib: add --verbose-log optionJeff King, Oct 21, 2016
  8. Junio C HamanoOct 21, 2016
  9. Jeff KingOct 21, 2016
  10. test-lib: make --verbose work under proveÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Feb 28, 2021
  11. Jeff KingMar 1, 2021
  12. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 1, 2021
  13. 0/6 test-lib: make --verbose output valid TAPÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  14. SZEDER GáborMar 9, 2021
  15. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 9, 2021
  16. SZEDER GáborMar 9, 2021
  17. 3/7 test-lib: color "ok" TAP directives green under --verbose (or -x)Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  18. 4/7 test-lib: add tee with TAP support to test-toolÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  19. 2/7 test-lib: add say_color_tap helper to emit TAP formatÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  20. Junio C HamanoMar 10, 2021
  21. 1/7 test-lib: remove test_externalÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  22. Junio C HamanoMar 10, 2021
  23. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 10, 2021
  24. 5/7 test-lib: indent and format GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE codeÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  25. 7/7 test-lib: generate JUnit output via TAPÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  26. Johannes SchindelinMar 19, 2021
  27. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 21, 2021
  28. Johannes SchindelinMar 22, 2021
  29. 6/7 test-lib: make --verbose output valid TAPÆvar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, Mar 9, 2021
  30. SZEDER GáborMar 9, 2021
  31. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 9, 2021
  32. SZEDER GáborMar 9, 2021
  33. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 10, 2021
  34. Ævar Arnfjörð BjarmasonMar 16, 2021
  35. SZEDER GáborMar 9, 2021
  36. Junio C HamanoMar 10, 2021
  37. Chris TorekMar 10, 2021
  38. 3/3 travis: use --verbose-log test optionJeff King, Oct 21, 2016
  39. Stefan BellerOct 21, 2016
  40. Lars SchneiderOct 24, 2016
  41. Jacob KellerOct 21, 2016
  42. Jeff KingOct 21, 2016
  43. Jacob KellerOct 21, 2016
  44. Jeff KingOct 21, 2016
  45. Jacob KellerOct 21, 2016
  46. 4/3 test-lib: bail out when "-v" used under "prove"Jeff King, Oct 22, 2016
  47. Jacob KellerOct 22, 2016

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