2024-04-09

Early(est) work in progress on FediTest and the Fediverse test suite

https://feditest.org/blog/2024-04-09-earliest-access/

Warning

Development has moved on since this blog post. Go to Quickstart for current information.

If you are interested in running basically the same thing that was shown in the recent FediTest show and tell, here is how you do that.

There are many disclaimers, as this is early work.

It doesn’t really test much. The focus of this early(est) release is to let you play with the approach we are taking, so we can get feedback as early as possible and build something that might actually be useful :-)
For now, you have to run it exactly in the configuration documented below.
Reach out with problems or feedback in our Matrix group at #fediverse-testing:matrix.org, in the fediverse at @feditest@mastodon.social or file isses against the FediTest framework or issues against the tests themselves.

So here is what you do. It probably sounds fairly complicated, but it isn’t as bad as it sounds.

For this early access, you need to run FediTest in a Linux container that runs UBOS.
The easiest way to do this is to run a UBOS development virtual machine, because the container setup is automated there. Which virtual machine to run depends on which operating system and CPU architecture you are on (e.g. VirtualBox or not).
Go to the UBOS Developer setup, pick one of the options, and follow the instructions.
Come back here once you have your development virtual machine running, and the Linux container in it.
Now, in the non-root shell you started in your container with machinectl shell ..., create a suitable working directory and check out both the FediTest framework code and what wants to become the test suite:
```
% git clone https://github.com/fediverse-devnet/feditest.git
% git clone https://github.com/fediverse-devnet/feditest-tests-fediverse.git
```
Build and install the FediTest framework in a virtual Python environment:
```
% cd feditest
% python -mvenv venv
% venv/bin/pip install .
```
Now change directories into the repo that contain the test and run feditest from there:
```
% cd ../feditest-tests-fediverse
% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest
```
(You may want to create an alias to make the invocation simpler, e.g. alias feditest=../feditest/venv/bin/feditest and then simply say feditest instead of the full path.)

And now you can try it out:

See the sub-commands and flags defined so far:
```
% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest --help
```
List the tests that have been defined so far:
```
% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest list-tests
```

Find out more information about a particular test:

% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest info --test sandbox.test_1

Tests are grouped into test sets, so they are more easily manageable. To find out what test sets there are:
```
% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest list-testsets
```
FediTest interacts with applications-under-test by means of an abstraction called a NodeDriver. We’ll probably end up with various NodeDrivers for applications that are installed/provisioned in various ways. To see what NodeDrivers are currently available:
```
% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest list-nodedrivers
```

and finally, the thing you have been waiting for:

To run the default test plan at feditest-default.json with verbose mode turned on:
```
% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest -v run
```
During the test run with this test plan, both Mastodon and WordPress with the ActivityPub plugin arespun up and torn down after the test by way of ubos-admin deploy and ubos-admin undeploy (see https://ubos.net/docs/gears/ubos-admin/#ubos-admin-deploy … the Site JSON file referenced there is in directory ubos-sites in case you are curious).

To run a non-default test plan:

% ../feditest/venv/bin/feditest -v run --testplan example-testplans/feditest-sandbox.json