avocado-framework/avocado

================================
70.0 The Man with the Golden Gun
================================

The Avocado team is proud to present another release: Avocado 70.0,
AKA "The Man with the Golden Gun", is now available!

Release documentation: `Avocado 70.0
<http://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/70.0/>`_

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

* A completely new implementation of the CIT Varianter plugin
  implementation, now with support for constraints.  Refer to
  :ref:`cit-varianter-plugin` for more information.

* Python 2 support has been removed.  Support Python versions include
  3.4, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7.  An effort to support Python 3.8 is also
  underway.  If you require Python 2 support, the 69.0 LTS series
  (currently at version 69.1) should be used.  For more information on
  what a LTS release means, please read :ref:`rfc-long-term-stability`.

* Improved safeloader support for Python unittests, including support
  for finding test classes that use multiple inheritance.  As an
  example, Avocado's safeloader is now able to properly find all of
  its own tests (around 700 of them).

* Removal of old and redundant command line options, such as
  ``--silent`` and ``--show-job-log`` in favor of ``--show=none`` and
  ``--show=test``, respectively.

* Job result categorization support, by means of the
  ``--job-category`` option to the ``run`` command, allows a user to
  create an easy to find directory, within the job results directory,
  for a given type of executed jobs.

Bug Fixes
=========

* Log files could have been saved as "hidden" files files (``.INFO``,
  ``.DEBUG``, ``.WARN``, ``.ERROR``) because the root logger's name is
  an empty string.  Now, those are saved with a ``log`` prefix if one
  is not given.

* The second time Avocado crashes, a "crash" directory is created
  to hold the backtrace.  On a subsequent crash, if the directory
  already exists, an exception would be raised for the failed
  attempted to create an existing directory, confusing users on
  the nature of the crash.  Now a proper handling for the possibly
  existing directory is in place.

* The CIT Varianter plugin was returning variants in an invalid form
  to the runner.  This caused the plugin to fail when actually used to
  run tests.  A functional test has also been added to avoid a
  regression here.

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.distro` module now properly detects RHEL 8
  systems.

* The safeloader would fail to identify Python module names when a
  relative import was used.  This means that the experience with ``$
  avocado list`` and ``$ avocado run`` would suffer when trying to
  list and run tests that either directly or indirectly imported
  modules containing a relative import such as ``from . import foo``.

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.vmimage` can now find Fedora images for
  s390x.

* The :mod:`avocado.utils.vmimage` now properly makes use of the
  build option.

* ``avocado list`` will now show the contents of the "key:val" tags.

* The Avocado test loader will correctly apply filters with multiple
  "key:val" tags.

Utility APIs
============

* Two simple utility APIs, :func:`avocado.utils.genio.append_file`
  and :func:`avocado.utils.genio.append_one_line` have been added
  to the benefit of some `avocado-mist-tests
  <https://github.com/avocado-framework-tests/avocado-misc-tests>`.

* The new :mod:`avocado.utils.datadrainer` provide an easy way to read
  from and write to various input/output sources without blocking a
  test (by spawning a thread for that).

* The new :mod:`avocado.utils.diff_validator` can help test writers
  to make sure that given changes have been applied to files.

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

* Removal of the ``six`` library dependency (previously used for
  simultaneous Python 2 and 3 support).

* Removal of the ``sphinx`` module and local "build doc" test,
  in favor of increased reliance on readthedocs.org.

* Removal of the ``pillow`` module used when running very simple
  example tests as a selftests, which in reality added very little
  value.

* All selftests are now either Python unittests or standalone
  executables scripts that can be run with Avocado itself natively.
  This was done (also) because of the N(ext) Runner proposal.

* Build improvements and fixes, supporting packaging for Fedora
  30 and beyond.

For more information, please check out the complete
`Avocado changelog
<https://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado/compare/69.0...70.0>`_.