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Commit c3ed6cd7 authored by Natalie Weizenbaum's avatar Natalie Weizenbaum
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Flesh out the README.

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A library for testing subprocesses.
This exposes a [`TestProcess`][TestProcess] class that wraps `dart:io`'s
[`Process`][Process] class and makes it easy to read standard output
line-by-line. `TestProcess` works the same as `Process` in many ways, but there
are a few major differences.
[TestProcess]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess-class.html
[Process]: https://api.dartlang.org/stable/latest/dart-io/Process-class.html
## Standard Output
`Process.stdout` and `Process.stderr` are binary streams, which is the most
general API but isn't the most helpful when working with a program that produces
plain text. Instead, [`TestProcess.stdout`][stdout] and
[`TestProcess.stderr`][stderr] emit a string for each line of output the process
produces. What's more, they're [`StreamQueue`][StreamQueue]s, which means
they provide a *pull-based API*. For example:
[stdout]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/stdout.html
[stderr]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/stderr.html
[StreamQueue]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/async/latest/async/StreamQueue-class.html
```dart
import 'package:test/test.dart';
import 'package:test_process/test_process.dart';
void main() {
test("pub get gets dependencies", () async {
// TestProcess.start() works just like Process.start() from dart:io.
var process = await TestProcess.start("pub", ["get"]);
// StreamQueue.next returns the next line emitted on standard out.
var firstLine = await process.stdout.next;
expect(firstLine, equals("Resolving dependencies..."));
// Each call to StreamQueue.next moves one line further.
String next;
do {
next = await process.stdout.next;
} while (next != "Got dependencies!");
// Assert that the process exits with code 0.
await process.shouldExit(0);
});
}
```
The `test` package's [stream matchers][] have built-in support for
`StreamQueues`, which makes them perfect for making assertions about a process's
output. We can use this to clean up the previous example:
[stream matchers]: https://github.com/dart-lang/test#stream-matchers
```dart
import 'package:test/test.dart';
import 'package:test_process/test_process.dart';
void main() {
test("pub get gets dependencies", () async {
var process = await TestProcess.start("pub", ["get"]);
// Each stream matcher will consume as many lines as it matches from a
// StreamQueue, and no more, so it's safe to use them in sequence.
await expectLater(process.stdout, emits("Resolving dependencies..."));
// The emitsThrough matcher matches and consumes any number of lines, as
// long as they end with one matching the argument.
await expectLater(process.stdout, emitsThrough("Got dependencies!"));
await process.shouldExit(0);
});
}
```
If you want to access the standard output streams without consuming any values
from the queues, you can use the [`stdoutStream()`][stdoutStream] and
[`stderrStream()`][stderrStream] methods. Each time you call one of these, it
produces an entirely new stream that replays the corresponding output stream
from the beginning, regardless of what's already been produced by `stdout`,
`stderr`, or other calls to the stream method.
[stdoutStream]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/stdoutStream.html
[stderrStream]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/stderrStream.html
## Signals and Termination
The way signaling works is different from `dart:io` as well. `TestProcess` still
has a [`kill()`][kill] method, but it defaults to `SIGKILL` on Mac OS and Linux
to ensure (as best as possible) that processes die without leaving behind
zombies. If you want to send a particular signal (which is unsupported on
Windows), you can do so by explicitly calling [`signal()`][signal].
[kill]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/kill.html
[signal]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/signal.html
In addition to [`exitCode`][exitCode], which works the same as in `dart:io`,
`TestProcess` also adds a new method named [`shouldExit()`][shouldExit]. This is
lets tests wait for a process to exit, and (if desired) assert what particular
exit code it produced.
[exitCode]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/exitCode.html
[shouldExit]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/shouldExit.html
## Debugging Output
When a test using `TestProcess` fails, it will print all the output produced by
that process. This makes it much easier to figure out what went wrong and why.
The debugging output uses a header based on the process's invocation by
default, but you can pass in custom `description` parameters to
[`TestProcess.start()`][start] to control the headers.
[start]: https://www.dartdocs.org/documentation/test_process/latest/test_process/TestProcess/start.html
`TestProcess` will also produce debugging output as the test runs if you pass
`forwardStdio: true` to `TestProcess.start()`. This can be particularly useful
when you're using an interactive debugger and you want to figure out what a
process is doing before the test finishes and the normal debugging output is
printed.
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