[Bro-Dev] Testing and Docs for Packages

Siwek, Jon jsiwek at illinois.edu
Mon Jan 16 20:01:19 PST 2017


>> 1) Add `bro-pkg test <package>` command.
> 
> Might it also make sense to just run the test on installation, before the
> package is actually installed, to see if it works on the environment of
> the user?

Yes, I like that idea.  (I’d also want a flag or config option to opt-out of that behavior).

> I actually think it would be neat to do this isolated, especially given
> that this enables testing before installing.

Not sure I follow.  Can you explain further?

>From a typical user perspective, I think they would care more that the package’s tests pass in the final, installed state and it plays nice with any other site-specific stuff they have going on.  Aborting an installation on test failure is also still possible — instead of bro-pkg cleaning up an isolated sandbox, it does the standard ‘remove’ operation to delete installed files.

> It also makes it easier to
> create something like "smokers" (Bro installations that just tro tu run
> all testsuites of all available packages with a newer version to see if
> something went wrong).

Can you also go into more detail on what you’re thinking there?

If there's concerns about accidentally corrupting an existing/production bro installation, the alternative I’d suggest would be to set up a separate bro-pkg config file for the smoke tests that would have bro-pkg install stuff in an isolated location.  This allows users to explicitly define the testing sandbox for themselves.

- Jon



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