docs/source/releases/79_0.rst
====================
79.0 La vita è bella
====================
The Avocado team is proud to present another release: Avocado 79.0,
AKA "La vita è bella", is now available!
This releases contains mainly internal changes in preparation for the
N(ext)Runner architecture to replace the current one. It's expected
that an LTS release will be done within the next two or three releases,
before the switch the current runner architecture is deprecated and
removed.
Release documentation: `Avocado 79.0
<http://avocado-framework.readthedocs.io/en/79.0/>`_
Users/Test Writers
==================
* The Remote, VM and Docker runner plugins have been deprecated. The
current implementation would require a major rewrite to be
compatible with the new Fabric API (currently uses the Fabric3 API).
Also, the N(ext)Runner architecture requires that individual tests
be executed in isolated environments (be them local or remote) and
the current implementation actually runs a complete Avocado Job
so it's not suitable to be reused in the N(ext)Runner.
* The Avocado docstring directives (the ones that go into docstrings
and are prefixed with ``:avocado:``) now support ``requirement``
entries. Those will be used as part of the "Requirements Resolver"
features, as per :doc:`/blueprints/BP002`.
* The ``--ignore-missing-references`` option, which used to take a
``on`` or ``off`` parameter, now takes no parameter. Now, the
feature it controls is not enabled unless you supply the command
line option (but no ``on`` or ``off`` is required).
Bug Fixes
=========
* When using the Job API (with the conventional runner or the
N(ext)Runner) the ``job.log`` ended up being empty empty, but now it
produces just like when using the Avocado command line tool. This
fix is part of the stabilization effort to declare the Job API as
supported soon.
* Fixed an issue with the :mod:`avocado.core.safeloader` that would
return duplicate tests when both a parent and child class
implemented methods with the same name.
* Fixed an issue in the :func:`avocado.core.utils.cpu.cpu_has_flags`
that could cause a crash because of a mixed used of bytes coming
from reading ``/proc/cpuinfo`` and a string based regex.
Utility APIs
============
* The :class:`avocado.utils.gdb.GDBRemote` implementation of the GDB
Remote Protocol now deals with bytes (instead of possibly multibyte
strings), more in line with the original protocol specification.
* Users of the :func:`avocado.utils.partition.mount` can now skip
checking if the devices/mountpoints are mounted, which is useful
for bind mounts.
* The :func:`avocado.utils.cpu.online` and
:func:`avocado.utils.cpu.offline` will now check the status of the
CPU before attempting to apply a possibly (unnecessary) action.
* The :class:`avocado.utils.software_manager.DnfBackend` now properly
implements a ``build_dep`` functionality, which differs from its
parent :class:`avocado.utils.software_manager.YUMBackend`.
Internal Changes
================
* Optional plugins (shipped by Avocado) will now require a matching
Avocado version. This should prevent users from having installation
and usage problems with versions mismatch.
* A number of selftests were ported from :class:`unittest.TestCase` to
:class:`avocado.Test`, making use of Avocado's features and following
a "eat your own dog food" approach.
* A new code style lint check is now enforced, W601, which drops the
use of ``has_key()`` in favor for the ``key in`` idiom.
* The N(ext)Runner main module, :class:`avocado.core.nrunner`, now has
two explicit registries for the two different types of supported
runners. The first one,
:data:`avocado.core.nrunner.RUNNERS_REGISTRY_STANDALONE_EXECUTABLE`
is populated at run time with standalone executable runners
available on the system (those named ``avocado-runner-$kind``). The
second one,
:data:`avocado.core.nrunner.RUNNERS_REGISTRY_PYTHON_CLASS` contains
Python based runner implementations, which are currently set
manually following a class implementation definition (but may be
converted to dynamic lookups, such as setuptools' entrypoints in
the future).
* The N(ext)Runner example job is one way of checking the progress
of its integration into the overall Avocado framework. It's been
broken, but it's now back to operation status and being used by the
release process in the ``jobs/timesensitive.py`` job, which has
replaced the ``make check-full`` rule.
* The N(ext)Runner standard runner implementations, say,
``avocado-runner-exec-text``, will now create an "output directory"
on behalf of the test, and communicate its location via the
``AVOCADO_TEST_OUTPUT_DIR`` environment variable. Further work will
implement the retrieval and storage of individual tests' output into
an organized Avocado Job result structure.
* The ``nrun`` command, a temporary entrypoint into the N(ext)Runner,
will now show a list of tasks that failed with ``fail`` or ``error``
results, which can be helpful while debugging Avocado's own selftests
failures (or for those brave enough to be running nrun already).
* A number of optional plugins, including ``resultsdb``,
``results_upload``, ``varianter_cit`` and ``varianter_pict`` have
been migrated to the "future" settings API, which delivers a
consistent configuration between command line, configuration files
and Job API usage.
* Documentation improvements on the :ref:`Fetching asset files`
section, and on the explanation of the current and :ref:`nrunner`
architecture.
* Because the minimum supported Python version was lifted from 3.4 to
3.5 back in Avocado version 74.0, it was possible, but not done
before, to upgrade the :mod:`asyncio` syntax from the
:func:`asyncio.coroutine` and ``yield from`` to the more modern
``async def`` and ``await`` syntax.
* Python 3.8 is now formally supported, being enabled in the Python
package manifest, and being actively tested on our CI.
For more information, please check out the complete
`Avocado changelog
<https://github.com/avocado-framework/avocado/compare/78.0...79.0>`_.