Expand description
unimock is a library for defining mock implementations of traits.
Mocking, in a broad sense, is a way to control API behaviour during test execution.
The uni in unimock indicates one-ness: All mockable traits are implemented by a single type, Unimock. This design allows for a great flexibility in coding style, as will be demonstrated further down.
The first code example is the smallest possible use of unimock:
use unimock::*;
#[unimock]
trait Foo {}
fn takes_foo(foo: impl Foo) {}
takes_foo(mock(None));trait Foois declared with the#[unimock]attribute which makes its behaviour mockable.fn takes_fooaccepts some type that implements the trait. This function adheres to zero-cost Inversion of Control/Dependency Inversion.- A mock instantiation by calling
mock(None), which returns aUnimockvalue which is passed intotakes_foo.
The mock function takes an argument, in this case the value None.
The argument is what behaviour are we mocking, in this case None at all!
Foo contains no methods, so there is no behaviour to mock.
Methods and behaviour mocking
In order to be somewhat useful, the traits we abstract over should contain some methods. In a unit test for some function, we’d like to mock the behaviour of that function’s dependencies (expressed as trait bounds).
mock(clauses) accepts a collection of Clauses. Clauses carry the full recipe on how Unimock will behave once instantiated.
Given some trait,
#[unimock]
trait Foo {
fn foo(&self) -> i32;
}we would like to tell unimock what Foo::foo’s behaviour will be, i.e. what it will return.
In order to do that, we first need to refer to the method.
In Rust, trait methods aren’t reified entities, they are not types nor values, so they cannot be referred to in code.
Therefore, the unimock macro creates a surrogate type to represent it. By default, this type will be called
Foo__foo.
This type will implement MockFn, which is the entrypoint for creating clauses:
#[unimock]
trait Foo {
fn foo(&self) -> i32;
}
fn test_me(foo: impl Foo) -> i32 {
foo.foo()
}
let clause = Foo__foo.each_call(matching!()).returns(1337).in_any_order();
assert_eq!(1337, test_me(mock(Some(clause))));Clause construction is a type-state machine that in this example goes through 3 steps:
Foo__foo.each_call(matching!()): Define a call pattern. Each call toFoo::foothat matches the empty argument list (i.e. always matching, since the method is parameter-less)..returs(1337): Each matching call will return the value1337..in_any_order(): this directive describes how the resulting Clause behaves in relation to other clauses in the behaviour description, and returns it. In this example there is only one clause.
Call patterns (matching inputs)
It is common to want to control how a function will respond in relation to what input is given to it!
Inputs are matched by a function that receives the inputs as a tuple, and returns whether it matched as a bool.
A specific MockFn together with an input matcher is referred to as a call pattern from now on.
The matching! macro provides syntax sugar for argument matching.
It has a syntax inspired by the std::matches macro.
Inputs being matched is a condition that needs to be fulfilled in order for the rest of the call pattern to be evaluated.
Specifying outputs
Specifying outputs can be done in several ways. The simplest one is returns(something).
Different ways of specifying outputs are found in build::Match.
Combining clauses
mock() accepts as argument anything that can be converted to a clause iterator, so that you can specify more than one kind of behaviour!
An iterator has a specific order of items, and sometimes the order of clauses matters too. It will depend on the type of clause.
Other mocking libraries often have distinctions between several kinds of “test doubles”. Terminology varies. Unimock uses this terminology:
- Mock: A test double where every valid interaction must be declared up front.
- Spy: A test double which behaves as release code, unless behaviour is overridden.
- Stub: Defined behaviour for a single function, where the order of calls does not matter.
Now that terminology is in place for unimock, let’s look at various ways to combine clauses.
#[unimock]
trait Foo {
fn foo(&self, arg: i32) -> i32;
}
#[unimock]
trait Bar {
fn bar(&self, arg: i32) -> i32;
}
fn test_me(deps: &(impl Foo + Bar), arg: i32) -> i32 {
deps.bar(deps.foo(arg))
}
assert_eq!(
42,
test_me(
&mock([
Foo__foo
.each_call(matching!(_))
.answers(|arg| arg * 3)
.in_any_order(),
Bar__bar
.each_call(matching! {(arg) if *arg > 20})
.answers(|arg| arg * 2)
.in_any_order(),
]),
7
)
);
// alternatively, define _stubs_ for each method.
// This is a nice way to group methods by introducing a closure scope:
assert_eq!(
42,
test_me(
&mock([
Foo__foo.stub(|each| {
each.call(matching!(1337)).returns(1024);
each.call(matching!(_)).answers(|arg| arg * 3);
}),
Bar__bar.stub(|each| {
each.call(matching! {(arg) if *arg > 20}).answers(|arg| arg * 2);
}),
]),
7
)
);In both these examples, the order in which the clauses are specified do not matter, except for input matching. In order for unimock to find the correct response, call patterns will be matched in the sequence they were defined.
Interaction verifications
Unimock has one built-in verification that is always enabled:
Every MockFn that is introduced in some clause, must be called at least once.
If this requirement is not met, Unimock will panic inside its Drop implementation. The reason is to help avoiding “bit rot” accumulating over time inside test code. When refactoring release code, tests should always follow along and not be overly generic.
Every unimock verification happens automatically in drop.
Optional call count expectations in call patterns
To make a call count expectation for a specific call pattern,
look at QuantifyResponse, which has methods like
once(),
n_times(n) and
at_least_times(n).
With exact quantification in place, we can produce output sequences by chaining output definitions:
each.call(matching!(_)).returns(1).n_times(2).then().returns(2);The output sequence will be [1, 1, 2, 2, 2, ..].
A call pattern like this is expected to be called at least 3 times.
2 times because of the first exact output sequence, then at least one time because of the .then() combinator.
Verifying exact sequence of calls
Exact call sequences may be expressed using strictly ordered clauses.
Use next_call to define a call pattern, and in_order to make it into a clause.
mock([
Foo__foo.next_call(matching!(3)).returns(5).once().in_order(),
Bar__bar.next_call(matching!(8)).returns(7).n_times(2).in_order(),
]);Order-sensitive clauses and order-insensitive clauses (like stub) do not interfere with each other.
However, these kinds of clauses cannot be combined for the same MockFn in a single Unimock value.
Application architecture
Writing larger, testable applications with unimock requires some degree of architectural discipline.
We already know how to specify dependencies using trait bounds.
But would this scale in practice when several layers are involved?
One of the main features of unimock is that all traits are implemented by Unimock.
This means that trait bounds can be composed, and we can use one value that implements all our dependencies:
fn some_function(deps: &(impl A + B + C), arg: i32) {
// ..
}In a way, this function resembles a self-receiving function.
The deps argument is how the function abstracts over its dependencies.
Let’s keep this call convention and let it scale a bit by introducing two layers:
use std::any::Any;
trait A {
fn a(&self, arg: i32) -> i32;
}
trait B {
fn b(&self, arg: i32) -> i32;
}
fn a(deps: &impl B, arg: i32) -> i32 {
deps.b(arg) + 1
}
fn b(deps: &impl Any, arg: i32) -> i32 {
arg + 1
}The dependency from fn a to fn b is completely abstracted away, and in test mode the deps: &impl X gets substituted with deps: &Unimock.
But Unimock is only concerned with the testing side of the picture.
The previous code snippet is at the extreme end of the loosely-coupled scale: No coupling at all!
It shows that unimock is merely a piece in a larger picture.
To wire all of this together into a full-fledged runtime solution, without too much boilerplate, reach for the entrait pattern.
Combining release code and mocks: Spying
Unimock can be used to create arbitrarily deep integration tests, mocking away layers only indirectly used. For that to work, unimock needs to know how to call the “real” implementation of traits.
See the documentation of Unmock and spy to see how this works.
Although this can be implemented with unimock directly, it works best with a higher-level macro like entrait.
Misc
What kinds of things can be mocked with unimock?
- Traits with any number of methods
- Traits with generic parameters, although these cannot be lifetime constrained (i.e. need to satisfy
T: 'static). - Methods with any self receiver (
self,&self,&mut selfor arbitrary (e.g.self: Rc<Self>)). - Methods that take reference inputs.
- Methods returning references to self.
- Methods returning references to arguments.
- Methods returning a type containing lifetime parameters. For a mocked return they will have to be
'static. - Async methods when the trait is annotated with
#[async_trait]. - Methods that return a future that is an associated type. Requires nightly.
What kinds of traits or methods cannot be mocked?
- Traits with associated types. Unimock would have to select a type at random, which does not make a lot of sense.
- Static methods, i.e. no
selfreceiver. Static methods with a default body are accepted though, but not mockable.
Project goals
Use only safe Rust
Unimock respects the memory safety and soundness provided by Rust. Sometimes this fact can lead to less than optimal ergonomics.
For example, in order to use .returns(value), the value must be Clone, Send, Sync and 'static.
If it’s not all of those things, the slightly longer .answers(|_| value) can be used instead.
Keep the amount of generated code to a minimum
The unimock API is mainly built around generics and traits, instead of being macro-generated.
Any mocking library will likely always require some degree of introspective metaprogramming (like macros),
but doing too much of that is likely to become more confusing to users, as well as taking longer to compile.
The #[unimock] macro does the minimal things to fill out a few simple trait impls, and that’s it. There are no
complex functions or structs that need to be generated.
There is a downside to this approach, though. Rust generics aren’t infinitely flexible, so sometimes it’s possible to misconfigure a mock in a way that the type system is unable to catch up front, resulting in runtime (or rather, test-time) failures.
All things considered, this tradedoff seems sound, because this is only testing, after all.
Use nice, readable APIs
Unimock’s mocking API has been designed to read like natural english sentences.
This was a fun design challenge, but it arguably also has some real value. It is assumed that code is quicker (and perhaps more fun) to read and write when it resembles real language.
Modules
Types used for building and defining mock behaviour.
APIs used by macros, not intended to be used directly.
Traits and types used for describing the properties of various mock types.
Macros
Macro to ease call pattern matching for function arguments. This macro produces a closure expression suitable for passing to build::Each::call.
Structs
A clause from which unimock instances are created.
Unimock’s purpose is to be an implementor of downstream traits via mock objects. A single mock object provides the implementation of a single trait method.
Traits
The main trait used for unimock configuration.
Trait specifying inputs to a mocked function. Base trait of MockFn.