[Avocado-devel] Port autotest client tests to avocado: next steps?

[Amador Pahim]

On 01/11/2016 04:07 PM, Cleber Rosa wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Amador Pahim" <apahim at redhat.com>
>> To: avocado-devel at redhat.com
>> Sent: Monday, January 11, 2016 3:12:00 PM
>> Subject: [Avocado-devel] Port autotest client tests to avocado: next steps?
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> In a first interaction trying to port autotest client tests to avocado,
>> I could verify the port was quite simple for the tests I worked on
>> (stress, compilebench, aiostress and bonnie). These 4 tests are already
>> present in examples/tests/ directory.
>>
> Very good indeed!
>
>> There are currently 105 tests in avocado-client-tests and we should now
>> discuss if/when(priority?) are we going to port them all and, if yes,
>> some extra points should be discussed:
>>
> I believe this is actually a task in itself: discard the tests that are
> not useful in any way shape or form. Then, the remaining tests will be
> part of a list of test that we *want* to have ported. Not necessarily
> one person will do all that, and this is indeed a perfect example of first
> time contributions to Avocado. Trello cards with "low hanging fruit" for
> those could attract those first time contributors.

Ok, agreed.

>
>> - Many tests are just a matter of extract/configure/make a tarball and
>> run the binary with proper arguments. Instead of writing one test per
>> tarball, we could create a base test and vary only the yaml file
>> containing the url to on-demand download the tarball and the arguments
>> to be used with the resulting binary.
>>
> I see the following tasks here:
>
> 1) Prototype a "TarballBuildAndRunTest" base class
> 2) Port a few tests that adhere to this initial base class implementation
>
> The tests that were already ported are probably good candidates to be
> "ported" yet again to this base class.
>
>> - Either downloading the tarball during the test or keeping the tarball
>> in the repository, should we create a separate repository to keep all
>> those tests/tarballs?
> 3) Create a separate "avocado-tests" repo.

Good, let's do that.

> 4) Implement the concept of "lazy download of resource files". A tarball
> should be considered just that, a binary resource. If a resource URL is local,
> assume it's in the test data dir. If the URL is remote (say http) then
> check if it's already downloaded (checking a hash), if not downloaded download
> it during test.

Sounds like an utils module, that could be handled in its own card.

> 5) Define a naming convention for a YAML tree/keys that describe resource
> files which may be used during tests.

Agreed. It might be part of the card I mentioned in 4).

> 6) Write a script (contrib or official) that goes over the YAML files and
> checks/downloads the resource files.
>
> Note that #3 doesn't depend on anything, but it only makes sense if we
> decide to expand the set of ported tests (which I think we should).
> Also, if Tasks 4, 5 and 6 are implemented, the idea of a separate repo
> (#3) may loose a bit of its value, since the ported tests should be a
> pretty small amount of Python code.

Giving this more thoughts, I don't  think we should create a new 
structure for those tests. The code for them is quite straight-forward 
given the amazing structure avocado provides right now :)
We should just port them, taking advantage of what we already have in 
avocado. A download util is welcome (if generic enough to be used 
anywhere) as well as the naming convention to describe the resource files.

My proposal right now is:
- Create a separate repo 'avocado-tests' or something.
- Create a low hanging fruit card with a checklist containing the tests 
that should be ported.
- Create a low prio card to the resource fetcher util.

How does it sound?


>
>> The hope is we can discuss/define the next steps regarding this matter.
>> Could you share your thoughts?
>>
>> Best,
>> --
>> apahim
>>
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