[DERBY-5475] Formalize use of old Derby distributions in tests

• Type: Improvement
• Status: In Progress
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 10.9.1.0
• Component/s: Test
• Assignee: Kristian Waagan
• Reporter: Kristian Waagan
• Created: 24/Oct/11 12:57
• Updated: 24/Sep/12 18:08

Description

Some types of tests need old Derby distributions to perform the required actions. Currently this includes the upgrade test and the compatibility test.
Instead of each test dealing with this in their own way, there should be support for accessing old Derby distributions in the test framework.

I propose to add a Derby distribution repository in the test framework, with the following guidelines and changes:
o keep it as simple as possible, which suggests it is the users responsibility to keep the repository updated
o compatibility with the existing derbyTesting.oldReleasePath property
o make the tests requiring old distributions fail if there are no distributions available
o establish a default location where the test framework will look for old distributions if derbyTesting.oldReleasePath is unspecified
o the repository should not incur any costs when not used by the test(s) being run

In favor of simplicity the repository will not download releases itself. The user has to keep the repository contents up-to-date, which is as simple as running 'svn up' each time a new Derby release is published. It is unclear if, and what, the repository and/or relevant tests should do if the repository is outdated. It seems useful to allow the user to make available only a subset of the distributions, but maybe printing a warning is helpful to remind developers that their repository is stale.

Another related issue, which will only be relevant some time in the future, is whether a test framework of version X should make available distributions of version X+n. Currently I'm leaning towards not doing that, but haven't really looked into it.

See also thread on derby-dev: http://db.markmail.org/thread/44uyusa726cwjuk2

Issue Links

• is required by: DERBY-2076 Rewrite junitTests/derbyNet/CompatibilityTest to conform to current JUnit usage
• relates to: DERBY-5775 Upgrade tests should print full IOException stack trace when it fails to access old versions