test/README.pytest

Apache httpd pytest suite
=========================
Using pytest (<https://docs.pytest.org/en/6.2.x/>) and a Python >= 3.8
for a more flexible testing of Apache httpd.

Install
-------
If not already installed, you will need to install 'pytest' and 'OpenSSL' for
python:
> apt install python3-pip
> pip install -U pytest
> pip install -U pyopenssl

And for 'h2load':
> apt install nghttp2-client


Usage
-----
In your httpd source checkout, do:

> make install
> pytest

and all tests defined run on the installed executable and modules.
> pytest test/modules/core
runs all the core tests. You can run tests also by name selection:
> pytest -k test_core
runs all test cases starting with 'test_core'. Similar:
> pytest -k test_core_001_04
runs the test cases starting with that.

Test output gets more verbose, by adding one or several '-v'. This
also raises the error log level of the tested modules.
> pytest -vvv -k test_h2_004_01
run the specific test with mod_http2 at log level TRACE2.

By default, test cases will configure httpd with mpm_event. You
can change that with the invocation:
> MPM=worker pytest test/modules/http2

Some tests rely on additional tools installed in your environment
and will 'skip' if those are not present. In a non-verbose run,
these will appear as 's' in the output. If you run pytest more
verbose, the skipped test cases will mention a reason for why
they are disabled.

For example, most tests in test/modules/md require an installation
of 'pebble', an ACME test server, and look for it in $PATH.


Workings
--------
All tests start httpd on their own and try hard to shut it down
afterwards. You can abort tests with ^C and they clean up.

httpd is started/stopped repeatedly in testing as configurations
for individual test cases are changed. This is a main difference to
the Perl test framework which starts the server with all possible
combinations configured that are needed by tests.

In test/gen/apache a server root is created with config, logs and htdocs
directories. test/gen/apache/logs/error_log will be the log.
Configs start in test/gen/apache/conf/httpd.conf. modules.conf is
dynamically created for the list of modules that a test suite needs.

Test cases write their specific setup in test.conf and reload/restart
the httpd process. This makes for a small configuration in a test case.


Development
-----------

Adding a test in an existing file is done by adding a method. Its name
must start with 'test_' and the common practise is to have the name
of the test suite there as well. All http2 tests start with 'test_h2_'.

Following this can be any characters. If you make test cases of a
certain feature with a common prefix, it is easier to invoke just
them using the '-k' selector on the command line.

You can also add just a new file to a test suite, if you do a new
range of test cases that do not fit anywhere else. A very simple
one is found in test/modules/http2/test_001_httpd_alive.py.

There is a python class defined with 2 methods. One is the test
method itself and the other one ' is

    @pytest.fixture(autouse=True, scope='class')
    def _class_scope(self, env):
        code

is marked as a pytest 'fixture'. This is some pytest magic.
'autouse=True' means that this fixture is run, even though
no test case uses it directly. scope='class' means that it
is run once for all test cases in this class.

As you see, this fixture gets a parameter named 'env' and
that is the name of another pytest fixture, defined in the
file 'conftest.py' in the same directory.

    @pytest.fixture(scope="package")
    def env(pytestconfig) -> H2TestEnv:
        code

This one runs one time per 'package', meaning for all test
cases in this directory. And it gets the 'pytestconfig'
as parameter which is a standard pytest fixture.

So, when you run 'pytest -k test_h2_004', pytest will look
at _all_ test cases defined and collect those with that
prefix. For each directory with test cases found, it will
process the 'conftest.py', boot-strapping the 'env' fixture,
and the process the files with active test cases.

As a result, if you invoke just a single test case, only
the fixtures needed for that test case are created. This
gives good turn around times when debugging a test case.

If you want to add a new test suite, create a new directory.
Add the files '__init__.py', 'conftest.py' and a first
'test_suitename_something.py'. test/modules/core is the
simplest example. 'test/modules/http2' shows how you load
other modules. 'test/modules/md' checks and starts external
processes (an ACME test server).


Infrastructure
--------------
The test cases rely on the classes provided in 'test/pyhttpd'
for common code in managing a httpd test instance and do
provide some base setups:
- a small set of virtual hosts with some files
- access to paths and definitions (env fixture)
- start/stop httpd and inspect the error log
- run clients like curl and nghttp
- create certificates for your hosts and make curl use
  the root certs (so no --insecure calls by curl).