How should I unit test threaded code?

Question

I have thus far avoided the nightmare that is testing multi-threaded code since it just seems like too much of a minefield. I\'d like to ask how people have gone about test

Answer 1

I've done a lot of this, and yes it sucks.

Some tips:

• GroboUtils for running multiple test threads
• alphaWorks ConTest to instrument classes to cause interleavings to vary between iterations
• Create a throwable field and check it in tearDown (see Listing 1). If you catch a bad exception in another thread, just assign it to throwable.
• I created the utils class in Listing 2 and have found it invaluable, especially waitForVerify and waitForCondition, which will greatly increase the performance of your tests.
• Make good use of AtomicBoolean in your tests. It is thread safe, and you'll often need a final reference type to store values from callback classes and suchlike. See example in Listing 3.
• Make sure to always give your test a timeout (e.g., @Test(timeout=60*1000)), as concurrency tests can sometimes hang forever when they're broken.

Listing 1:

@After
public void tearDown() {
    if ( throwable != null )
        throw throwable;
}

Listing 2:

import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
import java.io.File;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationHandler;
import java.lang.reflect.Proxy;
import java.util.Random;
import org.apache.commons.collections.Closure;
import org.apache.commons.collections.Predicate;
import org.apache.commons.lang.time.StopWatch;
import org.easymock.EasyMock;
import org.easymock.classextension.internal.ClassExtensionHelper;
import static org.easymock.classextension.EasyMock.*;

import ca.digitalrapids.io.DRFileUtils;

/**
 * Various utilities for testing
 */
public abstract class DRTestUtils
{
    static private Random random = new Random();

/** Calls {@link #waitForCondition(Integer, Integer, Predicate, String)} with
 * default max wait and check period values.
 */
static public void waitForCondition(Predicate predicate, String errorMessage) 
    throws Throwable
{
    waitForCondition(null, null, predicate, errorMessage);
}

/** Blocks until a condition is true, throwing an {@link AssertionError} if
 * it does not become true during a given max time.
 * @param maxWait_ms max time to wait for true condition. Optional; defaults
 * to 30 * 1000 ms (30 seconds).
 * @param checkPeriod_ms period at which to try the condition. Optional; defaults
 * to 100 ms.
 * @param predicate the condition
 * @param errorMessage message use in the {@link AssertionError}
 * @throws Throwable on {@link AssertionError} or any other exception/error
 */
static public void waitForCondition(Integer maxWait_ms, Integer checkPeriod_ms, 
    Predicate predicate, String errorMessage) throws Throwable 
{
    waitForCondition(maxWait_ms, checkPeriod_ms, predicate, new Closure() {
        public void execute(Object errorMessage)
        {
            fail((String)errorMessage);
        }
    }, errorMessage);
}

/** Blocks until a condition is true, running a closure if
 * it does not become true during a given max time.
 * @param maxWait_ms max time to wait for true condition. Optional; defaults
 * to 30 * 1000 ms (30 seconds).
 * @param checkPeriod_ms period at which to try the condition. Optional; defaults
 * to 100 ms.
 * @param predicate the condition
 * @param closure closure to run
 * @param argument argument for closure
 * @throws Throwable on {@link AssertionError} or any other exception/error
 */
static public void waitForCondition(Integer maxWait_ms, Integer checkPeriod_ms, 
    Predicate predicate, Closure closure, Object argument) throws Throwable 
{
    if ( maxWait_ms == null )
        maxWait_ms = 30 * 1000;
    if ( checkPeriod_ms == null )
        checkPeriod_ms = 100;
    StopWatch stopWatch = new StopWatch();
    stopWatch.start();
    while ( !predicate.evaluate(null) ) {
        Thread.sleep(checkPeriod_ms);
        if ( stopWatch.getTime() > maxWait_ms ) {
            closure.execute(argument);
        }
    }
}

/** Calls {@link #waitForVerify(Integer, Object)} with null
 * for {@code maxWait_ms}
 */
static public void waitForVerify(Object easyMockProxy)
    throws Throwable
{
    waitForVerify(null, easyMockProxy);
}

/** Repeatedly calls {@link EasyMock#verify(Object[])} until it succeeds, or a
 * max wait time has elapsed.
 * @param maxWait_ms Max wait time. null defaults to 30s.
 * @param easyMockProxy Proxy to call verify on
 * @throws Throwable
 */
static public void waitForVerify(Integer maxWait_ms, Object easyMockProxy)
    throws Throwable
{
    if ( maxWait_ms == null )
        maxWait_ms = 30 * 1000;
    StopWatch stopWatch = new StopWatch();
    stopWatch.start();
    for(;;) {
        try
        {
            verify(easyMockProxy);
            break;
        }
        catch (AssertionError e)
        {
            if ( stopWatch.getTime() > maxWait_ms )
                throw e;
            Thread.sleep(100);
        }
    }
}

/** Returns a path to a directory in the temp dir with the name of the given
 * class. This is useful for temporary test files.
 * @param aClass test class for which to create dir
 * @return the path
 */
static public String getTestDirPathForTestClass(Object object) 
{

    String filename = object instanceof Class ? 
        ((Class)object).getName() :
        object.getClass().getName();
    return DRFileUtils.getTempDir() + File.separator + 
        filename;
}

static public byte[] createRandomByteArray(int bytesLength)
{
    byte[] sourceBytes = new byte[bytesLength];
    random.nextBytes(sourceBytes);
    return sourceBytes;
}

/** Returns true if the given object is an EasyMock mock object 
 */
static public boolean isEasyMockMock(Object object) {
    try {
        InvocationHandler invocationHandler = Proxy
                .getInvocationHandler(object);
        return invocationHandler.getClass().getName().contains("easymock");
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
        return false;
    }
}
}

Listing 3:

@Test
public void testSomething() {
    final AtomicBoolean called = new AtomicBoolean(false);
    subject.setCallback(new SomeCallback() {
        public void callback(Object arg) {
            // check arg here
            called.set(true);
        }
    });
    subject.run();
    assertTrue(called.get());
}