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Writing nem packages
Testing packages

Testing packages

A test step is a shell command that must exit 0 against an installed version. nem catalog test installs the version into a throwaway directory, runs the steps, and reports.

Test steps

A test step is a shell command that must exit 0. It runs with the package's bins on PATH, its link dependencies on the loader path, its env exports applied, and NEM_VERSION, NEM_OS, NEM_ARCH, and NEM_PREFIX set:

test:
  - run: jq --version | grep -q "$NEM_VERSION"           # the right version is on PATH
  - run: printf '{"a":[1,2,3]}' | jq -e '.a | length == 3' >/dev/null   # and it works

Two steps cover most packages: one that checks the version string, one that exercises the binary. A step can carry platforms to run on a subset; lint rejects a step whose platforms overlap none of the package's.

Running them 

nem catalog test                               # every package, latest version
nem catalog test . --package jq                # one package
nem catalog test . --package jq@1.8.2          # one version
nem catalog test . --package jq --package yq   # several

nem catalog test installs the version into a throwaway directory under NEM_HOME/packages, runs the steps for the platform it is on, and removes the install afterwards. Every install must leave at least one file under one of its bins or libs directories; a package with no test steps is install-verified only. It continues past failures, prints a summary, and exits 1 if any package failed.

Built packages are tested twice: nem catalog build runs the steps against the fresh output before staging the archive, and nem catalog test runs them against the installed archive like any other package.

Other platforms

Tests run on the platform they are invoked on, like builds. To cover all four, run nem catalog test on one runner per platform; the official catalog's workflow uses the ghcr.io/vi-dev/nem image for Linux and a macOS runner for macOS.

Related

Frozen recipesAuthoring workflow