avocado-framework/avocado

================
59.0 The Lobster
================

The Avocado team is proud to present another release: Avocado version
59.0, AKA "The Lobster", is now available!

Release documentation: `Avocado 59.0
<http://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/59.0/>`_

The major changes introduced on this version are listed below,
roughly categorized into major topics and intended audience:

Users/Test Writers
==================

* A `new plugin glib-plugin` enables users to list and execute
  tests based on the `GLib test framework
  <https://developer.gnome.org/glib/stable/glib-Testing.html>`_.  This
  plugin allows individual tests inside a single binary to be listed
  and executed.

* Users of the YAML test loader have now access to a few special keys
  that can tweak test attributes, including adding prefixes to test
  names.  This allows users to easily differentiate among execution of
  the same test, but executed different configurations.  For more
  information, look for "special keys" in the `YAML Loader plugin
  documentation yaml_loader`.

* Users can now dump variants to a (JSON) file, and also reuse a
  previously created file in their future jobs execution.  This allows
  users to avoid recomputing the variants on every job, which might
  bring significant speed ups in job execution or simply better
  control of the variants used during a job.  Also notice that even
  when users do not manually dump a variants file to a specific
  location, Avocado will automatically save a suitable file at
  ``jobdata/variants.json`` as part of a Job results directory
  structure.

* SIMPLE tests were limited to returning PASS, FAIL and WARN statuses.
  Now SIMPLE tests can now also return SKIP status.  At the same time,
  SIMPLE tests were previously limited in how they would flag a WARN
  or SKIP from the underlying executable.  This is now configurable by
  means of regular expressions.

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.process` has seen a number of changes
  related to how it handles data from the executed processes.  In a
  nutshell, process output (on both ``stdout`` and ``stderr``) is now
  considered binary data.  Users that need to deal with text instead,
  should use the newly added
  :attr:`avocado.utils.process.CmdResult.stdout_text` and
  :attr:`avocado.utils.process.CmdResult.stderr_text`, which are
  convenience properties that will attempt to decode the ``stdout`` or
  ``stderr`` data into a string-like type using the encoding set, and
  if none is set, falling back to the system default encoding.  This
  change of behavior was needed to accommodate Python's 2 and Python's
  3 differences in bytes and string-like types and handling.

* The TAP result format plugin received improvements, including
  support for reporting Avocado tests with CANCEL status as SKIP
  (which is the closest status available in the TAP specification),
  and providing more visible warning information in case Avocado tests
  finish with WARN status (while maintaining the test as a PASS, since
  TAP doesn't define a WARN status).

* Removal of a number of already deprecated features related to the
  36.0 LTS series, which reached End-Of-Life during this sprint.

* Redundant (and deprecated) fields in the test sections of the JSON
  result output were removed.  Now, instead of ``url``, ``test`` and
  ``id`` carrying the same information, only ``id`` remains.

* Python 3 (beta) support.  After too many changes to mention
  individually, Avocado can now run satisfactorily on Python 3.  The
  Avocado team is aware of a small number of issues, which maps to a
  couple of functional tests, and is conscientious of the fact that
  many other issues may come up as users deploy and run it on
  Python 3.  Please notice that all code on Avocado already goes
  through the Python 3 versions of ``inspekt lint``, ``inspekt style``
  and runs all unittests.  Because of the few issues mentioned
  earlier, functional tests do yet run on Avocado's own CI, but are
  expected to be enable shortly after this release.  For this release,
  expect packages to be available on PyPI (and consequently
  installable via ``pip``).  RPM packages should be available in the
  next release.

Bug Fixes
=========

* Avocado won't crash when attempting, and not succeeding, to create a
  user-level configuration file ``~/.config/avocado.conf``.  This is
  useful in restricted environments such as in containers, where the
  user may not have its own home directory.  Avocado also won't crash,
  but will report failure and exit, when it's not able to create the
  job results directory.

* Avocado will now properly respect the configuration files shipped in
  the Python module location, then the system wide (usually in
  ``/etc``) configuration file, and finally the user level
  configuration files.

* The YAML test loader will now correctly log messages intended to go
  the log files, instead of printing them in the UI.

* Linux distributions detection code has been fixed for SuSE systems.

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.kernel` library now supports fetching all
  major versions of the Linux kernel, and not only kernels from the
  3.x series.

Internal Changes
================

* Tests that perform checks on core Avocado features should not rely
  on upper level Avocado code.  The ``functional/test_statuses.py``
  selftest was changed in such a way, and doesn't require the
  ``varianter_yaml_to_mux`` plugin anymore.

* The Avocado assets and repository server now supports HTTPS
  connections.  The documentation and code that refers to these
  services have been updated to use secure connections.

For more information, please check out the complete
`Avocado changelog
<https://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado/compare/58.0...59.0>`_.

Release Meeting
===============

The Avocado release meetings are now open to the community via
Hangouts on Air.  The meetings are recorded and made available on the
`Avocado Test Framework YouTube channel
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-RVZ_HFTbEztDM7wNY4NfA>`_.

For this release, you can watch the meeting on `this link
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL8ZW_WopDM>`_.

----

| Sprint theme: https://trello.com/c/OTRQpSs7/1228-sprint-theme-the-lobster