Received: from sog-mx-3.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com ([172.29.43.193] helo=mx.sourceforge.net) by sfs-ml-4.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1UOAem-0007ct-Ep for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:42:32 +0000 Received-SPF: pass (sog-mx-3.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.217.177 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.217.177; envelope-from=gmaxwell@gmail.com; helo=mail-lb0-f177.google.com; Received: from mail-lb0-f177.google.com ([209.85.217.177]) by sog-mx-3.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) (Exim 4.76) id 1UOAej-0006GN-2E for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:42:32 +0000 Received: by mail-lb0-f177.google.com with SMTP id r10so3945700lbi.8 for ; Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:42:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.112.139.7 with SMTP id qu7mr6631746lbb.13.1365183742355; Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:42:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.112.134.164 with HTTP; Fri, 5 Apr 2013 10:42:22 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 10:42:22 -0700 Message-ID: From: Gregory Maxwell To: Adam Ritter Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Spam-Score: -1.6 (-) X-Spam-Report: Spam Filtering performed by mx.sourceforge.net. See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. -1.5 SPF_CHECK_PASS SPF reports sender host as permitted sender for sender-domain 0.0 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail provider (gmaxwell[at]gmail.com) -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from author's domain 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature X-Headers-End: 1UOAej-0006GN-2E Cc: Bitcoin Development Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Integration testing for BitCoin X-BeenThere: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:42:32 -0000 On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 10:24 AM, Adam Ritter wrote: > Hey guys, > > I just bought some BitCoins after being lazy to do it for the last few > years, but also looked at the client code and the messages that are > going on this mailing list. > I saw that there are quite some unit tests, but I didn't find > integration test for BitCoin, and I believe that it's quite important > for the future of BitCoin (making the current code more stable, > testing attack scenarios, refactoring and extending code). [...] > Tests that simulate multiple bitcoin users and can verify that the > whole network of bitcoin clients work together > to achieve the goals of Bitcoin. Also maybe [System > testing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_testing) > would be a better name for the tests, but I'm not sure. I prefer to call them system tests. We use a system called blocktester that Matt Corallo wrote, https://code.google.com/r/bluemattme-bitcoinj/source/browse/core/src/test/java/com/google/bitcoin/core/FullBlockTestGenerator.java?name=fullverif&r=874c5904b12d1fcec5b556429cf208f63cd4e1bc It's based on BitcoinJ and works by simulating a peer against a slightly instrumented copy of Bitcoin(d/-qt) (modified to avoid computationally expensive mining). The tests simulates many complicated network scenarios and tests the boundaries of many (hopefully all) the particular rules of the blockchain validation protocol. We can use these tests to compare different versions of the reference software to each other and to bitcoinj (or other full node implementations) as well as comparing them to our abstract understanding of what we believe the rules of the protocol to be. These tests are run as part of the automated tests on every proposed patch to the reference software. Via a robot called pulltester which comments on github requests and produces logs like this: http://jenkins.bluematt.me/pull-tester/92a129980fb9b506da6c7f876aa8adb405c88e17/. Pulltester also performs automatic code coverage measurements. Additionally, we run a public secondary test bitcoin network called 'testnet', which can be accessed by anyone by starting the reference software with testnet=1. Testnet operates the same as the production network except it allows mining low difficulty blocks to prevent it going for long times without blocks, and some of the protective relaying rules against "non standard" transaction types are disabled. Most of this testing work has been centered around validating the blockchain behavior because thats what has serious systemic risk. Measuring the json rpc behavior is strictly less interesting, though interesting too.