How does `nmcli -f ALL dev show $DEV` look, if it references
a connection that is invisible to the user?
Note in the output:
CONNECTIONS.AVAILABLE-CONNECTIONS[1]: (null) | (null)
At several places, "test-networkmanager-service.py" uses generated numbers
with a defined seed. For example, generated connection's UUID is
generated in a predictable, but randomized way (if you forgive the
inprecise use of the word "random" in context of using a deterministic
seed).
Aside the connection's UUID, this becomes more interesting in the next commit
where the stub server generates a list of IP and DHCP settings in a predictable
randomized way.
For "clients/tests" we spawn the test service multiple times, but also
create similar environments by calling init_001(). This is done for
convenience, where out of lazyness all the tests share one setup. But it's
still a good idea that these tests generate slightly different setups,
wherever applicable. this increases the possible setups which get tested.
For example, the number of static IPv4 addresses (the following commit) is
interested to explicitly test for zero or a non-zero number of
addresses. If all tests happen to use the same seed, the tests are expected
to also generate the same number of addresses, and we miss an opportunity to
hit interesting test cases.
There is still no guarantee that all interesting cases are hit, the chances are just
better. The approach of generating the setup randomly, does not preclude that
the stub-server allows to explicitly configure the setup. However, due to the
sheer number of combinations that might be interesting to test, it's much simpler
to rely on some randomization and have the justifid hope we catch interesting cases.
Also in terms of runtime of the test, the cli unit tests should complete within
few seconds. Testing every combination would result in huge tests and long runtimes.
Also, the patch refactors generating random numbers in
"test-networkmanager-service.py". For example, it introduces
Util.RandomSeed(), which can be used to generate a sequence of different
random numbers. It works by having an internal state and a counter which is
combined to chain the seed and generate different numbers on each call.
Just to give it some variety. Also, note how the message from the
server cannot be translated. Which is the case with real NetworkManager
as well, and is a major usability issue.
The real NetworkManager service has a clear understanding how a valid
connection looks like. This is what nm_connection_verify() returns.
Let also our stub-service verify connections the same way.
Note that this is cumbersome, because the stub service uses python's
dbus module, while libnm only accepts creating NMConnection instances
from GVariant. Thus, we need to a cumbersome conversion first.
It would be better if test-networkmanager-service.py would also expose
normalized connections on D-Bus. But that requires the inverse converion
from GVariant to python dbus.
Most nmcli calls from clients/tests don't change the server's state.
Hence, they can easily run in parallel.
Run tests in parallel. No longer handle one nmcli invocation after the other.
Instead, spawn groups of processes in parallel, and track the pending jobs.
Only at certain synchronization points we call self.async_wait() to
wait for all previous jobs to complete.
This reduces the test time on my machine from 7 to 3 seconds. Arguably,
that matters less during a full `make check -j 8`, because the entire
set of tests anyway takes longer than 7 seconds. So when running the
entire test suite, the machine is kept busy anyway. It matters however
for manual invocations.
The developer can re-generate .expected files with
$ NM_TEST_REGENERATE=1 ./clients/tests/test-client.py
Note that these files are also dist-ed, so that the tests also work
from a source-tarball. For that, we need to add them to EXTRA_DIST.
Previously, this was done manually in the base Makefile.am file. This
was cumbersome, because when adding a new test, the developer would need
to manually add the files.
Now, let the test (with NM_TEST_REGENERATE=1) also generate a makefile
part.
call_nmcli_l() would test for 3 languages: 'C', 'de', and 'pl'. There
is no fundamental difference between 'de' and 'pl', so there is no need
to test for two languages.
Activate the same profile on two devices. Arguably, real NetworkManager
(currently) does not allow that. But the D-Bus API is fine with
having multiple ActiveConnections for one SettingsConnection.
So, also the client should do something sensible.
Also, later we will add wildcard support to NetworkManager, which means
that a profile can be active multiple times (simultaneously).
This is purely for (manual) printf debugging. Hence, it is unused in the commited code.
The point is, to add printf statements to nmcli or libnm, like
if (getenv ("MY_HACK1")) { ...
and trigger it from test-client.py via
self.call_nmcli(..., extra_env = { 'MY_HACK1': '1' } )
Add a test which runs nmcli against our stub NetworkManager
service and compares the output.
The output formats of nmcli are complicated and not easily understood.
For example how --mode tabular|multiline interacts with selecting
output-fields (--fields) and output modes ([default]|--terse|--pretty).
Also, there are things like `nmcli connection show --order $FIELD_SPEC`.
We need unit tests to ensure that we don't change the output
accidentally.
