Re: [Tails-dev] automated tests

On Sat, Jun 30, 2012 at 09:49:29PM +0000, Ague Mill wrote:
> > I began to think about how to filter the network traffic depending on
> > being inside or outside of Tor's network. I see 3 ways to get a list of
> > Tor's network ips to test against:
> >
> > - Simple and dumb: collect every node ip from the dir authorities
> > - Run a Tor on the testing system, and parse its cached consensus file.
> > - Have an access to the system under test Tor instance to get the
> > entry_guards informations.
> > [...]
> > Do any of you see another way?
>
> One thing about tests that is *crucial* to get right: they need to be
> fast. If it is slow, it is unlikely to be run often. And every single
> second adds delay to the feedback loop, which means that developers are
> likely to loose focus when they try to fix things.

Sure.

> So I think what would be best would actually to use, for most of the
> tests, our own Tor network (see TestingTorNetwork option), started
> beforehands. We could give an option at Tails boot which would make it
> use our given set of authorities. This should give us faster and more
> reliable tests.

Yay, that's a good idea I haven't tought about.

> (I'd also think it is worth having a look at qemu snapshot capabilities.
> It is probably possible to run most tests at a saved state that would be
> after the greeter.)

That's a problem I haven't tought much yet, given I was only trying to get
one basic scenario to become green, but it sounds very much like a good idea
too.

Collective problem solving is so much more efficient! :)

bert.