Run tests with statements and method calls removed to help identify broken tests
Necessist currently supports Anchor (TS), Foundry, Go, Hardhat (TS), and Rust.
Contents
Install pkg-config and sqlite3 development files on your system, e.g., on Ubuntu:
sh
sudo apt install pkg-config libsqlite3-dev
sh
cargo install necessist
sh
cargo install --git https://github.com/trailofbits/necessist --branch release
Necessist iteratively removes statements and method calls from tests and then runs them. If a test passes with a statement or method call removed, it could indicate a problem in the test. Or worse, it could indicate a problem in the code being tested.
This example is from [rust-openssl]. The verify_untrusted_callback_override_ok test checks that a failed certificate validation can be overridden by a callback. But if the callback were never called (e.g., because of a failed connection), the test would still pass. Necessist reveals this fact by showing that the test passes without the call to set_verify_callback:
```rust
fn verifyuntrustedcallbackoverrideok() { let server = Server::builder().build();
let mut client = server.client();
client
.ctx()
.set_verify_callback(SslVerifyMode::PEER, |_, x509| { //
assert!(x509.current_cert().is_some()); // Test passes without this call
true // to `set_verify_callback`.
}); //
client.connect();
} ```
Following this discovery, a flag was [added to the test] to record whether the callback is called. The flag must be set for the test to succeed:
```rust
fn verifyuntrustedcallbackoverrideok() { static CALLED_BACK: AtomicBool = AtomicBool::new(false); // Added
let server = Server::builder().build();
let mut client = server.client();
client
.ctx()
.set_verify_callback(SslVerifyMode::PEER, |_, x509| {
CALLED_BACK.store(true, Ordering::SeqCst); // Added
assert!(x509.current_cert().is_some());
true
});
client.connect();
assert!(CALLED_BACK.load(Ordering::SeqCst)); // Added
} ```
Click to expand
Conventional mutation testing tries to identify gaps in test coverage, whereas Necessist tries to identify bugs in existing tests.
Conventional mutation testing tools (such a [universalmutator]) randomly inject faults into source code, and see whether the code's tests still pass. If they do, it could mean the code's tests are inadequate.
Notably, conventional mutation testing is about finding deficiencies in the set of tests as a whole, not in individual tests. That is, for any given test, randomly injecting faults into the code is not especially likely to reveal bugs in that test. This is unfortunate since some tests are more important than others, e.g., because ensuring the correctness of some parts of the code is more important than others.
By comparison, Necessist's approach of iteratively removing statements and method calls does target individual tests, and thus can reveal bugs in individual tests.
Of course, there is overlap is the sets of problems the two approaches can uncover, e.g., a failure to find an injected fault could indicate a bug in a test. Nonetheless, for the reasons just given, we see the two approaches as complementary, not competing.
Click to expand
The following criterion (*) comes close to describing the statements that Necessist aims to remove:
*) Statement S's [weakest precondition] P has the same context (e.g., variables in scope) as S's postcondition Q, and P does not imply Q.The notion that (*) tries to capture is: a statement that affects a subsequently asserted condition. In this section, we explain and motivate this choice, and briefly discuss alternatives. For concision, we focus on statements, but the remarks in this section apply to method calls as well.
Consider a test through the lens of [predicate transformer semantics]. A test is a function with no inputs or outputs. Thus, an alternative procedure for determining whether a test passes is the following. Starting with True, iteratively work backwards through the test's statements, computing the weakest precondition of each. If the precondition arrived at for the test's first statement is True, then the test passes. If the precondition is False, the test fails.
Now, imagine we were to apply this procedure, and consider a statement S that violates (*). We argue that it might not make sense to remove S:
If S adds or removes variables from the scope (e.g., S is a declaration), or S changes a variable's type, then removing S would likely result in a compilation failure. (On top of that, since S's precondition and postcondition have different contexts, it's not clear how to compare them.)
If S's precondition is stronger than its postcondition (e.g., S an assert), then S imposes constraints on the environments in which it executes. Put another way, S tests something. Thus, removing S would likely detract from the overarching test's purpose.
Conversely, consider a statement S that satisfies (*). Here is why it might make sense to remove S. Think of S as shifting the set of valid environments, rather than constraining them. More precisely, if S's weakest precondition P does not imply Q, and if Q is satisfiable, the there is an assignment to P and Q's free variables that satisfies both P and Q. If such an assignment results from each environment in which S is actually executed, then the necessity of S is called into question.
The main utility of (*) is in helping to select the statements that Necessist ignores. That is, if we imagine a predicate transformer semantics for one of Necessist's supported languages, and a statement S in that language, we can ask: would S satisfy (*)? If not, then then Necessist should likely ignore S.
But (*) has other nice consequences. For example, the rule that the last statement in a test should be ignored follows from (*). To see this, note the such a statement's postcondition Q is always True. Thus, if the statement doesn't change the context, then its weakest precondition necessarily implies Q.
Having said all this, (*) doesn't quite capture what Necessist actually does. Consider a statement like x -= 1. Necessist will remove such a statement unconditionally, but (*) says maybe Necessist shouldn't. Assuming [overflow checks] are enabled, computing this statement's weakest precondition would look something like the following:
{ Q[(x - 1)/x] ^ x >= 1 }
x -= 1;
{ Q }
Note that x -= 1 does not change the context, and that Q[(x - 1)/x] ^ x >= 1 could imply Q. For example, if Q does not contain x, then Q[(x - 1)/x] = Q and Q ^ x >= 1 implies Q.
A question one can then ask is: should Necessist remove this statement? Put another way, should Necessist's current behavior be adjusted, or should (*) be adjusted?
One way to look at this question is: which statements are worth removing, i.e., which statements are "interesting?" As implied above, (*) considers a statement "interesting" if it affects a subsequently asserted condition. Agreeing with this notion and that (*) adequately captures it are reasons to keep (*) and adjust Necessist's behavior.
But there are other possible, useful definitions of "interesting statement" upon which one could base an argument for adjusting (*). The following example is due to @2over12. Instead of weakest preconditions, one could consider [strongest postconditions]. For example, computing the strongest postcondition of x -= 1 would look something like the following:
{ P }
x -= 1;
{ (exists x')[P[x'/x] ^ x' >= 1 ^ x = x' - 1] }
One could then consider a statement "interesting" if its strongest postcondition contains "interesting clauses" as determined by heuristics. @2over12 notes that a common source of bugs in tests is unintended side effects (e.g., if x -= 1 were unintended). As already noted, (*) might not catch such bugs, but the just mentioned strongest postcondition scheme might.
Other possible, useful definitions of "interesting statement" could involve frameworks besides [Hoare logic] entirely.
To be clear, Necessist does not apply (*) formally, e.g., Necessist does not actually compute weakest preconditions. The current role of (*) is to help guide which statements Necessist should ignore, and (*) seems to do well in that role. As such, we leave revision of (*) to future work.
```
Usage: necessist [OPTIONS] [TEST_FILES]... [--
Arguments: [TEST_FILES]... Test files to mutilate (optional) [ARGS]... Additional arguments to pass to each test command
Options:
--allow --allow all silences all warnings
--default-config Create a default necessist.toml file in the project's root directory
--deny --deny all treats all warnings as errors
--dump Dump sqlite database contents to the console
--dump-candidates Dump removal candidates and exit (for debugging)
--framework passed
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
```
By default, Necessist outputs to the console only when tests pass. Passing --verbose causes Necessist to instead output all of the removal outcomes below.
| Outcome | Meaning (With the statement/method call removed...) | | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | passed | The test(s) built and passed. | | timed-out | The test(s) built but timed-out. | | failed | The test(s) built but failed. | | nonbuildable | The test(s) did not build. |
By default, Necessist outputs to both the console and to an sqlite database. For the latter, a tool like [sqlitebrowser] can be used to filter/sort the results.
Generally speaking, Necessist will not attempt to remove a statement if it is one the following:
for loop)let binding)break, continue, or returnSimilarly, Necessist will not attempt to remove a method call if:
x.foo();).Also, for some frameworks, certain statements and methods are ignored. Click on a framework to see its specifics.
Anchor TS
assertassert. (e.g., assert.equal)console. (e.g., console.log)expecttoNumbertoStringFoundry
In addition to the below, the Foundry framework ignores:
vm.prank or any form of vm.expect (e.g., vm.expectRevert)emit statementassert (e.g., assertEq)vm.expect (e.g., vm.expectCall)console.log (e.g., console.log, console.logInt)console2.log (e.g., console2.log, console2.logInt)vm.getLabelvm.labelGo
In addition to the below, the Go framework ignores:
assert. (e.g., assert.Equal)require. (e.g., require.Equal)defer statementsCloseErrorErrorfFailFailNowFatalFatalfLogLogfParallel* This list is based primarily on [testing.T]'s methods. However, some methods with commonplace names are omitted to avoid colliding with other types' methods.
Hardhat TS
The ignored functions and methods are the same as for Anchor TS above.
Rust
assertassert_eqassert_matchesassert_neeprinteprintlnpanicprintprintlnunimplementedunreachableas_bytesas_mutas_mut_os_stras_mut_os_stringas_mut_sliceas_mut_stras_os_stras_os_str_bytesas_pathas_refas_sliceas_strborrowborrow_mutcloneclonedcopiedderefderef_mutexpectexpect_errinto_boxed_bytesinto_boxed_os_strinto_boxed_pathinto_boxed_sliceinto_boxed_strinto_bytesinto_os_stringinto_ownedinto_path_bufinto_stringinto_veciteriter_mutsuccessto_os_stringto_ownedto_path_bufto_stringto_vecunwrapunwrap_err* This list is essentially the watched trait and inherent methods of Dylint's [unnecessary_conversion_for_trait] lint, with the following additions:
clone (e.g. [std::clone::Clone::clone])cloned (e.g. [std::iter::Iterator::cloned])copied (e.g. [std::iter::Iterator::copied])expect (e.g. [std::option::Option::expect])expect_err (e.g. [std::result::Result::expect_err])into_owned (e.g. [std::borrow::Cow::into_owned])success (e.g. [assert_cmd::assert::Assert::success])unwrap (e.g. [std::option::Option::unwrap])unwrap_err (e.g. [std::result::Result::unwrap_err])A configuration file allows one to tailor Necessist's behavior with respect to a project. The file must be named necessist.toml, appear in the project's root directory, and be [toml] encoded. The file may contain one more of the options listed below.
ignored_functions, ignored_methods, ignored_macros: A list of strings interpreted as [patterns]. A function, method, or macro (respectively) whose [path] matches a pattern in the list is ignored. Note that ignored_macros is used only by the Rust framework currently.
ignored_path_disambiguation: One of the strings Either, Function, or Method. For a [path] that could refer to a function or method (see below), this option influences whether the function or method is ignored.
Either (default): Ignore if the path matches either an ignored_functions or ignored_macros pattern.
Function: Ignore only if the path matches an ignored_functions pattern.
Method: Ignore only if the path matches an ignored_methods pattern.
A pattern is a string composed of letters, numbers, ., _, or *. Each character, other than *, is treated literally and matches itself only. A * matches any string, including the empty string.
The following are examples of patterns:
assert: matches itself onlyassert_eq: matches itself onlyassertEqual: matches itself onlyassert.Equal: matches itself onlyassert.*: matches assert.Equal, but not assert, assert_eq, or assertEqualassert*: matches assert, assert_eq, assertEqual, and assert.Equal*.Equal: matches assert.Equal, but not EqualNotes:
. is treated literally like in a [glob] pattern, not like in regular expression.A path is a sequence of identifiers separated by .. Consider this example (from [Chainlink]):
sol
operator.connect(roles.oracleNode).signer.sendTransaction({
to: operator.address,
data,
}),
In the above, operator.connect and signer.sendTransaction are paths.
Note, however, that paths like operator.connect are ambiguous:
operator refers to package or module, then operator.connect refers to a function.operator refers to an object, then operator.connect refers to a method.By default, Necessist ignores such a path if it matches either an ignored_functions or ignored_macros pattern. Setting the ignored_path_disambiguation option above to Function or Method causes Necessist ignore the path only if it matches an ignored_functions or ignored_macros pattern (respectively).
Slow. Modifying tests requires them to be rebuilt. Running Necessist on even moderately sized codebases can take several hours.
Triage requires intimate knowledge of the source code. Generally speaking, Necessist does not produce "obvious" bugs. In our experience, deciding whether a statement/method call should be necessary requires intimate knowledge of the code under test. Necessist is best run on codebases for which one has (or intends to have) such knowledge.
We reserve the right to change what syntax Necessist ignores by default, and to consider such changes non-breaking.
cding into the project's directory and typing necessist (with no arguments) should produce meaningful output.Necessist is licensed and distributed under the AGPLv3 license. Contact us if you're looking for an exception to the terms.