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1am

A minimal testing framework for Common Lisp.

Synopsis

The entire API consists of: test, is, signals, run, and *tests*.

(defpackage :example (:use :cl :1am))
(in-package :example)

(test foo-test
  (is (= 1 1))
  (is (zerop 0)))

(test bar-test
  (signals simple-error
    (error "bar!")))

Running:

CL-USER> (in-package :example)
#<PACKAGE "EXAMPLE">

EXAMPLE> (run) ; run all tests
BAR-TEST.
FOO-TEST..
Success: 2 tests, 3 checks.

EXAMPLE> (foo-test) ; tests are just functions
FOO-TEST..
Success: 1 test, 2 checks.

EXAMPLE> (run '(bar-test)) ; run particular tests
BAR-TEST.
Success: 1 test, 1 check.

EXAMPLE> (setf *tests* '(foo-test)) ; set the default tests to run
(FOO-TEST)
EXAMPLE> (run)
FOO-TEST..
Success: 1 test, 2 checks.

Overview

1am is tiny (~60 lines of code), has no dependencies, and will be stable for the foreseeable future. It was originally written for large multi-threaded test suites where the complexity of popular testing frameworks caused problems. The philosophy of 1am is that simple is better. 1am is especially tailored for fixing bugs that are difficult to reproduce.

  • A test failure always results in a breakpoint with backtrace (otherwise a rare opportunity may be missed).

  • The order of tests is shuffled on each run so that bugs concealed by unintentional dependencies between tests may be exposed.

  • If a test run fails to complete then subsequent runs will use the same random state that led to the failure, until a successful run.

  • Checks may occur inside threads.

  • 1am's negligible overhead is unlikely to bury timing bugs and race conditions in the code being tested.

  • Tests are runnable as ordinary functions of the same name.

  • Tests are compiled up front (some testing frameworks, such as 5am, defer compilation by default).

  • The generated code is small; compiling tests is ~8x faster than 5am configured with :compile-at :definition-time. Compiling large-ish tests with 5am can cause the default heap size to be exceeded on some platforms (32-bit SBCL, Allegro Express).

  • Type inferencing (if present) works inside the is macro.

  • Since 1am is small and stable, copying it into the project being tested is a viable option (be sure to use a different package name).

Workflow

Instead of a hierarchy of test suites, 1am has a flat list of tests in *tests*. When a test is compiled, it is added to *tests*. A typical workflow might be:

  1. Run all tests to verify they pass.

  2. Set *tests* to nil, then compile specific tests that are relevant to some feature, perhaps writing new tests in the process. Now *tests* contains only those tests.

  3. When changes for that feature are complete, recompile all tests to confirm those changes, which will add them back to *tests*.

  4. Run all tests again to check that nothing is messed up.

API

  • [special variable] *tests* -- A list of tests; the default argument to run.

  • [macro] test name &body body -- Define a test function and add it to *tests*.

  • [macro] is form -- Assert that form evaluates to non-nil.

  • [macro] signals condition &body body -- Assert that body signals a condition of type condition.

  • [function] run &optional tests -- Run each test in the sequence tests. Default is *tests*.