ros2 / ros2/launch

Add helpers to launch_pytest for checking stdout and stderr of launched processes

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backlog enhancement
Dominant language
Python
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2d 14h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Feature request

Feature description

launch_testing provides several utilities for checking and waiting on process output, e.g.

https://github.com/ros2/launch/blob/9e517a3abd016367244fff9fa96ac8eae371a00b/launch_testing/launch_testing/asserts/assert_output.py

https://github.com/ros2/launch/blob/9e517a3abd016367244fff9fa96ac8eae371a00b/launch_testing/launch_testing/event_handlers/stdout_ready_listener.py

It would be nice if we had similar facilities with launch_pytest.

We do have an example of checking the output of a process:

https://github.com/ros2/launch/blob/9e517a3abd016367244fff9fa96ac8eae371a00b/launch_pytest/test/launch_pytest/examples/pytest_hello_world.py#L48-L54

but it requires that the test has a reference to the action under test and that they can set the cached_output=True argument:

https://github.com/ros2/launch/blob/9e517a3abd016367244fff9fa96ac8eae371a00b/launch_pytest/test/launch_pytest/examples/pytest_hello_world.py#L25-L31


As a concrete example, I recently wanted to confirm that launching Gazebo Classic from a nested launch description would produce some expected output and no errors, however we don't have access to the process actions. Here's the existing test where are including the Gazebo launch description to test:

https://github.com/ros-simulation/gazebo_ros_pkgs/blob/0440b0ec23c8b4254d17b83f87e7e9dc0eb7b602/gazebo_ros/test/test_launch.py#L27-L31

I did not find a simple way to check the output in this case, but maybe I've overlooked something.

Ultimately, I was able to write the test I wanted by registering a launch event handler on process IO and storing that in a list that can be checked in the test. Here's a test fixture I wrote that can be used by tests to check output on stderr:

@pytest.fixture()
def launch_capture_io():

    class LaunchCaptureIO:

        def __init__(self):
            self._event = Event()
            self.stderr = []
            self.action = RegisterEventHandler(OnProcessIO(on_stderr=self._on_stderr))

        def _on_stderr(self, io):
            self.stderr.append(io.text.decode('utf-8'))
            self._event.set()

        def wait_for_stderr(self, *, timeout) -> bool:
            result = self._event.wait(timeout)
            self._event.clear()
            return result

    return LaunchCaptureIO()
Implementation considerations

Some options that might be worth investigating (I haven't thought too much about them yet):

  1. It would be nice if we could leverage any existing pytest features for io handling. I tried to use the built-in capsys feature, but I wasn't able to get it to work (I suspect this is due to launch creating child processes).
  2. Add a fixture like the one I presented above for the Gazebo test case (ie. use launch events to record process io).
  3. Instrument launch to be more amenable to testing process io. If we could easily identify processes of interest (e.g we have process matchers for events already) and configure them to cache their output from the test (e.g. maybe a launch configuration), then we could add helpers to query process io.

If anyone has other ideas or thoughts, happy to hear them!

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by comparing launch_pytest/test/launch_pytest/examples/pytest_hello_world.py with launch_testing/asserts/assert_output.py and launch_testing/event_handlers/stdout_ready_listener.py. Investigate how launch_pytest can observe process stdout and stderr when tests do not hold the process actions, including the Gazebo nested launch case. Done should provide documented helpers or fixtures with tests covering expected output and errors.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
testing
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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