Build and Test Process

The buildtest build command is responsible for building and running tests on your system given one or more buildspecs.

Every buildspec goes through a pipeline that includes the following stages:

The buildspec must go through each stage of the pipeline, if it fails in one of the stage, the buildspec will be ignored.

_images/GeneralPipeline.png

Discover Buildspecs

buildtest will discover buildspecs based on command line arguments since you can build by file, directory, executor, or tags.

The buildspec search resolution is described as follows:

  • If file or directory specified by --buildspec option doesn’t exist we exit immediately.

  • If buildspec path is a directory, traverse directory recursively to find all .yml extensions

  • If buildspec path is a file, check if file extension is not .yml, exit immediately

  • If user specifies --tags or --executor we search in buildspec cache to discover buildspecs.

Shown below is a diagram on how buildtest discovers buildspecs. The user can build buildspecs by --buildspec, –tags, or –executor which will discover the buildspecs. You can exclude buildspecs using --exclude option which is processed after discovering buildspecs. The excluded buildspecs are removed from list if found and final list of buildspecs is processed.

_images/DiscoverBuildspecs.jpg

For every discovered buildspec, buildtest will validate the content in the parse stage to ensure buildspec complies to the JSON schema.

Parse Buildspecs

buildtest will validate each buildspec via JSON schema using jsonschema.validate library. The parser will validate every buildspec with the Global Schema using schema file global.schema.json.

A buildspec is composed of one or more test sections specified via buildspec field. Each test is validated by a sub-schema specified by type field. In this diagram below, we have a test hello_world that uses type: script which informs buildtest to validate this test with schema script.schema.json.

buildtest will ignore any buildspecs that fail validation process for instance you may have an invalid buildspec. buildtest will send valid buildspecs to the build stage which is responsible for building a shell-script.

_images/ParserDiagram.png

Building Buildspecs

In this stage, buildtest is responsible for building a shell-script by parsing the content of buildspec and writing test to disk. Buildtest will create a Builder object that is an instance of BuilderBase class which embodies the test that will be run. Every Builder object has a unique hash that is used to identify the test. The hash is used to create unique directory on disk where buildtest will write contents of test and corresponding files. Assuming a test was run successfully, you can use buildtest path to retrieve directory path. In example below we show root directory of a test and content of the directory. For each test (always_fail), buildtest will write .out and .err files which correspond to output and error file. The generated script is always_fail.sh and a wrapper script always_fail_build.sh is the script ran by buildtest which will invoke the generated script.

  buildtest path always_fail/b758eb5a-854e-4ef4-909c-b4376d970117
/Users/siddiq90/Documents/github/buildtest/var/tests/generic.local.sh/explicit_state/always_fail/b758eb5a

 ls -l $(buildtest path always_fail/b758eb5a-854e-4ef4-909c-b4376d970117)
total 24
-rw-r--r--   1 siddiq90  92503     0 Jan 23 13:29 always_fail.err
-rw-r--r--   1 siddiq90  92503     0 Jan 23 13:29 always_fail.out
-rwxr-xr-x   1 siddiq90  92503    42 Jan 23 13:29 always_fail.sh
-rwxr-xr-x   1 siddiq90  92503   771 Jan 23 13:29 always_fail_build.sh
-rw-r--r--   1 siddiq90  92503  3220 Jan 23 13:29 build-env.txt
drwxr-xr-x  15 siddiq90  92503   480 Jan 23 13:29 stage

In the event of failure, buildtest will raise an exception and buildspec will be ignored.

Running Buildspecs

In this stage, we run the test based on executors defined in configuration file. buildtest will select the executor defined by executor property in buildspec which is responsible for running the test. There is a BaseExecutor that is a base-class for all executors. buildtest will run tests in parallel and wait for completion. buildtest can submit jobs to batch scheduler depending on content of test, in this event buildtest will dispatch job, retrieve jobID and poll job until completion.

Once test is complete, buildtest will write output and error to disk.

Sanity Check

Once test is complete, buildtest will run a series of sanity check to determine state of test which can be PASS or FAIL. The default behavior is returncode, if its 0 test is PASS otherwise its a FAIL. buildtest supports several status checks in addition to performance checks.

Update Report

Buildtest will write all tests and corresponding metadata for each test to report file. The report file is a JSON file that is updated upon every buildtest build command which allows buildtest to keep track of previous builds. The report file can be queried via buildtest report or buildtest inspect.

buildtest will write report to default report file unless buildtest build -r /path/to/report.json is specified.