rust-testing-strategy

Rust Testing Strategy

Verification Commands

• When modifying Rust code, run clippy to detect issues:

  cargo clippy --all-features --all-targets --workspace --no-deps
  

• Use cargo doc --no-deps --all-features to check documentation

Test Execution

• Use cargo-nextest for running unit and integration tests
• Use the default test runner for documentation tests
• For comprehensive verification, run the complete test suite
• Database seeding can be performed using yarn commands in the project's package.json

Test Design Principles

• Test both happy paths and error conditions for each function
• For each error case in your code, write a corresponding test
• Test boundary conditions and edge cases explicitly
• Include tests for invalid or malformed inputs
• For streaming encoders/decoders, test partial data handling and buffer management
• Aim for high test coverage but prioritize test quality over quantity
• Structure tests following the Arrange-Act-Assert pattern

Assertion Standards

• Use descriptive assertion messages that explain the expected behavior

• All assertion messages (including expect(), unwrap() and assert*()) should follow the "should..." format:

  // Good examples:
  value.expect("should contain a valid configuration");
  assert_eq!(result, expected, "Result should match the expected value");
  

• Use expect() or expect_err() with clear messages instead of unwrap() or unwrap_err()

• Prefer assert_eq! with custom messages over bare assertions when comparing values

• When testing errors, assert on specific error types or message contents, not just that an error occurred

• Balance assertions to verify functionality without creating brittle tests

Test Organization

• Group related tests into appropriate modules
• Use helper functions to avoid code duplication in tests
• Consider using parameterized tests for testing similar functionality with different inputs

Test Naming

A test name is a short label with the shape <subject>_<case>[_<variant>]:

• <subject> is the operation, type or function under test. It does not repeat the name of the enclosing module, because the test path already carries that.
• <case> is what distinguishes this test from its siblings under the same subject: an operand shape, an input class or a code path.
• <variant> narrows the case further when two tests share one, and is otherwise absent.

The shape buys two things. Tests of one subject share a prefix, so a module's test list reads as a table of subject × case and cargo nextest run -E 'test(<subject>_)' selects the family. And the name says what the test covers while the doc comment says what it asserts and why, so neither repeats the other.

What a name never carries:

• A test_ prefix, an article, a narration verb (should, works, correctly) or a when/with/that clause. The story a sentence-name would tell belongs in the test's doc comment and its assertion messages.
• More than about six words. Three to five is the norm, and a longer name is a test doing too much, where the fix is one test per case.
• The rejection, for a negative case. The name is the input class (ice_invalid_subscript_type, rank_positions_short, rows_out_of_domain), with no err_ prefix or _err suffix. An outcome word is the final token only when the case alone is ambiguous (eq_same_type_accepted).

Where the shape meets a test framework:

• A property test, or an rstest case set, takes its name from the property it tests (lattice_laws, solve_anti_symmetry, condensation_is_dag).
• Renaming a snapshot test renames the snapshot files derived from its name in the same change.

// Before: a sentence, three cases in one test, the outcome in the name.
async fn rank_pair_tampers_name_their_own_variants() { /* … */ }
async fn short_node_identity_table_refuses() { /* … */ }

// After: one label per case, the outcome in the doc comment.
/// Open refuses a reverse rank permutation short of the code column, under `Columns`.
async fn rank_positions_short() { /* … */ }
/// Open refuses a reverse rank permutation that is no permutation, under `RankInverse`.
async fn rank_positions_constant() { /* … */ }
/// Open refuses a node identity table short of the code column, under `Identities`.
async fn node_identities_short() { /* … */ }

Test Code Quality

• Follow the same code quality standards in test code as in production code
• Add appropriate assertions for array/slice access to avoid clippy warnings
• Document test scenarios with clear comments explaining:
  • The setup (input and environment)
  • The action being tested
  • The expected outcome
  • Why the outcome is expected
• Consider adding custom test utilities to simplify common testing patterns
• Use the json! macro from serde_json instead of constructing JSON as raw strings

// Bad:
let json_str = "{\"name\":\"value\",\"nested\":{\"key\":42}}";

// Good:
use serde_json::json;
let json_value = json!({
    "name": "value",
    "nested": {
        "key": 42
    }
});