docs/testing/layout_test_expectations.md - chromium/src - Git at Google

 # Layout Test Expectations and Baselines


 The primary function of the LayoutTests is as a regression test suite; this
 means that, while we care about whether a page is being rendered correctly, we
 care more about whether the page is being rendered the way we expect it to. In
 other words, we look more for changes in behavior than we do for correctness.

 [TOC]

 All layout tests have "expected results", or "baselines", which may be one of
 several forms. The test may produce one or more of:

 * A text file containing JavaScript log messages.
 * A text rendering of the Render Tree.
 * A screen capture of the rendered page as a PNG file.
 * WAV files of the audio output, for WebAudio tests.

 For any of these types of tests, there are files checked into the LayoutTests
 directory named `-expected.{txt,png,wav}`. Lastly, we also support the concept
 of "reference tests", which check that two pages are rendered identically
 (pixel-by-pixel). As long as the two tests' output match, the tests pass. For
 more on reference tests, see
 [Writing ref tests](https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/Writing%20Reftests).

 ## Failing tests

 When the output doesn't match, there are two potential reasons for it:

 * The port is performing "correctly", but the output simply won't match the
   generic version. The usual reason for this is for things like form controls,
   which are rendered differently on each platform.
 * The port is performing "incorrectly" (i.e., the test is failing).

 In both cases, the convention is to check in a new baseline (aka rebaseline),
 even though that file may be codifying errors. This helps us maintain test
 coverage for all the other things the test is testing while we resolve the bug.

 *** promo
 If a test can be rebaselined, it should always be rebaselined instead of adding
 lines to TestExpectations.
 ***

 Bugs at [crbug.com](https://crbug.com) should track fixing incorrect behavior,
 not lines in
 [TestExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/TestExpectations). If a
 test is never supposed to pass (e.g. it's testing Windows-specific behavior, so
 can't ever pass on Linux/Mac), move it to the
 [NeverFixTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/NeverFixTests) file. That
 gets it out of the way of the rest of the project.

 There are some cases where you can't rebaseline and, unfortunately, we don't
 have a better solution than either:

 1. Reverting the patch that caused the failure, or
 2. Adding a line to TestExpectations and fixing the bug later.

 In this case, **reverting the patch is strongly preferred**.

 These are the cases where you can't rebaseline:

 * The test is a reference test.
 * The test gives different output in release and debug; in this case, generate a
   baseline with the release build, and mark the debug build as expected to fail.
 * The test is flaky, crashes or times out.
 * The test is for a feature that hasn't yet shipped on some platforms yet, but
   will shortly.

 ## Handling flaky tests

 The
 [flakiness dashboard](https://test-results.appspot.com/dashboards/flakiness_dashboard.html)
 is a tool for understanding a test’s behavior over time.
 Originally designed for managing flaky tests, the dashboard shows a timeline
 view of the test’s behavior over time. The tool may be overwhelming at first,
 but
 [the documentation](https://dev.chromium.org/developers/testing/flakiness-dashboard)
 should help. Once you decide that a test is truly flaky, you can suppress it
 using the TestExpectations file, as described below.

 We do not generally expect Chromium sheriffs to spend time trying to address
 flakiness, though.

 ## How to rebaseline

 Since baselines themselves are often platform-specific, updating baselines in
 general requires fetching new test results after running the test on multiple
 platforms.

 ### Rebaselining using try jobs

 The recommended way to rebaseline for a currently-in-progress CL is to use
 results from try jobs, by using the command-tool
 `third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkit-patch rebaseline-cl`:

 1. First, upload a CL.
 2. Trigger try jobs by running `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl`. This should
    trigger jobs on
    [tryserver.blink](https://build.chromium.org/p/tryserver.blink/builders).
 3. Wait for all try jobs to finish.
 4. Run `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl` again to fetch new baselines.
    By default, this will download new baselines for any failing tests
    in the try jobs.
    (Run `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl --help` for more specific options.)
 5. Commit the new baselines and upload a new patch.

 This way, the new baselines can be reviewed along with the changes, which helps
 the reviewer verify that the new baselines are correct. It also means that there
 is no period of time when the layout test results are ignored.

 #### Options

 ### Rebaselining with try jobs

 The tests which `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl` tries to download new baselines for
 depends on its arguments.

 * By default, it tries to download all baselines for tests that failed in the
   try jobs.
 * If you pass `--only-changed-tests`, then only tests modified in the CL will be
   considered.
 * You can also explicitly pass a list of test names, and then just those tests
   will be rebaselined.
 * If some of the try jobs failed to run, and you wish to continue rebaselining
   assuming that there are no platform-specific results for those platforms,
   you can add the flag `--fill-missing`.

 ### Rebaselining manually

 1. If the tests is already listed in TestExpectations as flaky, mark the test
    `NeedsManualRebaseline` and comment out the flaky line so that your patch can
    land without turning the tree red. If the test is not in TestExpectations,
    you can add a `[ Rebaseline ]` line to TestExpectations.
 2. Run `third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkit-patch rebaseline-expectations`
 3. Post the patch created in step 2 for review.

 ## Kinds of expectations files

 * [TestExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/TestExpectations): The
   main test failure suppression file. In theory, this should be used for
   temporarily marking tests as flaky.
 * [ASANExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/ASANExpectations):
   Tests that fail under ASAN.
 * [LeakExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/LeakExpectations):
   Tests that have memory leaks under the leak checker.
 * [MSANExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/MSANExpectations):
   Tests that fail under MSAN.
 * [NeverFixTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/NeverFixTests): Tests
   that we never intend to fix (e.g. a test for Windows-specific behavior will
   never be fixed on Linux/Mac). Tests that will never pass on any platform
   should just be deleted, though.
 * [SlowTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/SlowTests): Tests that take
   longer than the usual timeout to run. Slow tests are given 5x the usual
   timeout.
 * [SmokeTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/SmokeTests): A small subset
   of tests that we run on the Android bot.
 * [StaleTestExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/StaleTestExpectations):
   Platform-specific lines that have been in TestExpectations for many months.
   They're moved here to get them out of the way of people doing rebaselines
   since they're clearly not getting fixed anytime soon.
 * [W3CImportExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/W3CImportExpectations):
   A record of which W3C tests should be imported or skipped.

 ### Flag-specific expectations files

 It is possible to handle tests that only fail when run with a particular flag
 being passed to `content_shell`. See
 [LayoutTests/FlagExpectations/README.txt](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/FlagExpectations/README.txt)
 for more.

 ## Updating the expectations files

 ### Ordering

 The file is not ordered. If you put new changes somewhere in the middle of the
 file, this will reduce the chance of merge conflicts when landing your patch.

 ### Syntax

 The syntax of the file is roughly one expectation per line. An expectation can
 apply to either a directory of tests, or a specific tests. Lines prefixed with
 `# ` are treated as comments, and blank lines are allowed as well.

 The syntax of a line is roughly:

 ```
 [ bugs ] [ "[" modifiers "]" ] test_name [ "[" expectations "]" ]
 ```

 * Tokens are separated by whitespace.
 * **The brackets delimiting the modifiers and expectations from the bugs and the
   test_name are not optional**; however the modifiers component is optional. In
   other words, if you want to specify modifiers or expectations, you must
   enclose them in brackets.
 * Lines are expected to have one or more bug identifiers, and the linter will
   complain about lines missing them. Bug identifiers are of the form
   `crbug.com/12345`, `code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=12345` or
   `Bug(username)`.
 * If no modifiers are specified, the test applies to all of the configurations
   applicable to that file.
 * Modifiers can be one or more of `Mac`, `Mac10.9`, `Mac10.10`, `Mac10.11`,
   `Retina`, `Win`, `Win7`, `Win10`, `Linux`, `Linux32`, `Precise`, `Trusty`,
   `Android`, `Release`, `Debug`.
 * Some modifiers are meta keywords, e.g. `Win` represents both `Win7` and
   `Win10`. See the `CONFIGURATION_SPECIFIER_MACROS` dictionary in
   [third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkitpy/layout_tests/port/base.py](../../third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkitpy/layout_tests/port/base.py)
   for the meta keywords and which modifiers they represent.
 * Expectations can be one or more of `Crash`, `Failure`, `Pass`, `Rebaseline`,
   `Slow`, `Skip`, `Timeout`, `WontFix`, `Missing`, `NeedsManualRebaseline`.
   If multiple expectations are listed, the test is considered "flaky" and any
   of those results will be considered as expected.

 For example:

 ```
 crbug.com/12345 [ Win Debug ] fast/html/keygen.html [ Crash ]
 ```

 which indicates that the "fast/html/keygen.html" test file is expected to crash
 when run in the Debug configuration on Windows, and the tracking bug for this
 crash is bug \#12345 in the [Chromium issue tracker](https://crbug.com). Note
 that the test will still be run, so that we can notice if it doesn't actually
 crash.

 Assuming you're running a debug build on Mac 10.9, the following lines are all
 equivalent (in terms of whether the test is performed and its expected outcome):

 ```
 fast/html/keygen.html [ Skip ]
 fast/html/keygen.html [ WontFix ]
 Bug(darin) [ Mac10.9 Debug ] fast/html/keygen.html [ Skip ]
 ```

 ### Semantics

 * `WontFix` implies `Skip` and also indicates that we don't have any plans to
   make the test pass.
 * `WontFix` lines always go in the
   [NeverFixTests file](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/NeverFixTests) as
   we never intend to fix them. These are just for tests that only apply to some
   subset of the platforms we support.
 * `WontFix` and `Skip` must be used by themselves and cannot be specified
   alongside `Crash` or another expectation keyword.
 * `Slow` causes the test runner to give the test 5x the usual time limit to run.
   `Slow` lines go in the
   [SlowTests file ](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/SlowTests). A given
   line cannot have both Slow and Timeout.

 Also, when parsing the file, we use two rules to figure out if an expectation
 line applies to the current run:

 1. If the configuration parameters don't match the configuration of the current
    run, the expectation is ignored.
 2. Expectations that match more of a test name are used before expectations that
    match less of a test name.

 For example, if you had the following lines in your file, and you were running a
 debug build on `Mac10.10`:

 ```
 crbug.com/12345 [ Mac10.10 ] fast/html [ Failure ]
 crbug.com/12345 [ Mac10.10 ] fast/html/keygen.html [ Pass ]
 crbug.com/12345 [ Win7 ] fast/forms/submit.html [ Failure ]
 crbug.com/12345 fast/html/section-element.html [ Failure Crash ]
 ```

 You would expect:

 * `fast/html/article-element.html` to fail with a text diff (since it is in the
   fast/html directory).
 * `fast/html/keygen.html` to pass (since the exact match on the test name).
 * `fast/html/submit.html` to pass (since the configuration parameters don't
   match).
 * `fast/html/section-element.html` to either crash or produce a text (or image
   and text) failure, but not time out or pass.

 *** promo
 Duplicate expectations are not allowed within the file and will generate
 warnings.
 ***

 You can verify that any changes you've made to an expectations file are correct
 by running:

 ```bash
 third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/lint-test-expectations
 ```

 which will cycle through all of the possible combinations of configurations
 looking for problems.
	# Layout Test Expectations and Baselines


	The primary function of the LayoutTests is as a regression test suite; this
	means that, while we care about whether a page is being rendered correctly, we
	care more about whether the page is being rendered the way we expect it to. In
	other words, we look more for changes in behavior than we do for correctness.

	[TOC]

	All layout tests have "expected results", or "baselines", which may be one of
	several forms. The test may produce one or more of:

	* A text file containing JavaScript log messages.
	* A text rendering of the Render Tree.
	* A screen capture of the rendered page as a PNG file.
	* WAV files of the audio output, for WebAudio tests.

	For any of these types of tests, there are files checked into the LayoutTests
	directory named `-expected.{txt,png,wav}`. Lastly, we also support the concept
	of "reference tests", which check that two pages are rendered identically
	(pixel-by-pixel). As long as the two tests' output match, the tests pass. For
	more on reference tests, see
	[Writing ref tests](https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/Writing%20Reftests).

	## Failing tests

	When the output doesn't match, there are two potential reasons for it:

	* The port is performing "correctly", but the output simply won't match the
	generic version. The usual reason for this is for things like form controls,
	which are rendered differently on each platform.
	* The port is performing "incorrectly" (i.e., the test is failing).

	In both cases, the convention is to check in a new baseline (aka rebaseline),
	even though that file may be codifying errors. This helps us maintain test
	coverage for all the other things the test is testing while we resolve the bug.

	*** promo
	If a test can be rebaselined, it should always be rebaselined instead of adding
	lines to TestExpectations.
	***

	Bugs at [crbug.com](https://crbug.com) should track fixing incorrect behavior,
	not lines in
	[TestExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/TestExpectations). If a
	test is never supposed to pass (e.g. it's testing Windows-specific behavior, so
	can't ever pass on Linux/Mac), move it to the
	[NeverFixTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/NeverFixTests) file. That
	gets it out of the way of the rest of the project.

	There are some cases where you can't rebaseline and, unfortunately, we don't
	have a better solution than either:

	1. Reverting the patch that caused the failure, or
	2. Adding a line to TestExpectations and fixing the bug later.

	In this case, reverting the patch is strongly preferred.

	These are the cases where you can't rebaseline:

	* The test is a reference test.
	* The test gives different output in release and debug; in this case, generate a
	baseline with the release build, and mark the debug build as expected to fail.
	* The test is flaky, crashes or times out.
	* The test is for a feature that hasn't yet shipped on some platforms yet, but
	will shortly.

	## Handling flaky tests

	The
	[flakiness dashboard](https://test-results.appspot.com/dashboards/flakiness_dashboard.html)
	is a tool for understanding a test’s behavior over time.
	Originally designed for managing flaky tests, the dashboard shows a timeline
	view of the test’s behavior over time. The tool may be overwhelming at first,
	but
	[the documentation](https://dev.chromium.org/developers/testing/flakiness-dashboard)
	should help. Once you decide that a test is truly flaky, you can suppress it
	using the TestExpectations file, as described below.

	We do not generally expect Chromium sheriffs to spend time trying to address
	flakiness, though.

	## How to rebaseline

	Since baselines themselves are often platform-specific, updating baselines in
	general requires fetching new test results after running the test on multiple
	platforms.

	### Rebaselining using try jobs

	The recommended way to rebaseline for a currently-in-progress CL is to use
	results from try jobs, by using the command-tool
	`third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkit-patch rebaseline-cl`:

	1. First, upload a CL.
	2. Trigger try jobs by running `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl`. This should
	trigger jobs on
	[tryserver.blink](https://build.chromium.org/p/tryserver.blink/builders).
	3. Wait for all try jobs to finish.
	4. Run `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl` again to fetch new baselines.
	By default, this will download new baselines for any failing tests
	in the try jobs.
	(Run `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl --help` for more specific options.)
	5. Commit the new baselines and upload a new patch.

	This way, the new baselines can be reviewed along with the changes, which helps
	the reviewer verify that the new baselines are correct. It also means that there
	is no period of time when the layout test results are ignored.

	#### Options

	### Rebaselining with try jobs

	The tests which `webkit-patch rebaseline-cl` tries to download new baselines for
	depends on its arguments.

	* By default, it tries to download all baselines for tests that failed in the
	try jobs.
	* If you pass `--only-changed-tests`, then only tests modified in the CL will be
	considered.
	* You can also explicitly pass a list of test names, and then just those tests
	will be rebaselined.
	* If some of the try jobs failed to run, and you wish to continue rebaselining
	assuming that there are no platform-specific results for those platforms,
	you can add the flag `--fill-missing`.

	### Rebaselining manually

	1. If the tests is already listed in TestExpectations as flaky, mark the test
	`NeedsManualRebaseline` and comment out the flaky line so that your patch can
	land without turning the tree red. If the test is not in TestExpectations,
	you can add a `[ Rebaseline ]` line to TestExpectations.
	2. Run `third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkit-patch rebaseline-expectations`
	3. Post the patch created in step 2 for review.

	## Kinds of expectations files

	* [TestExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/TestExpectations): The
	main test failure suppression file. In theory, this should be used for
	temporarily marking tests as flaky.
	* [ASANExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/ASANExpectations):
	Tests that fail under ASAN.
	* [LeakExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/LeakExpectations):
	Tests that have memory leaks under the leak checker.
	* [MSANExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/MSANExpectations):
	Tests that fail under MSAN.
	* [NeverFixTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/NeverFixTests): Tests
	that we never intend to fix (e.g. a test for Windows-specific behavior will
	never be fixed on Linux/Mac). Tests that will never pass on any platform
	should just be deleted, though.
	* [SlowTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/SlowTests): Tests that take
	longer than the usual timeout to run. Slow tests are given 5x the usual
	timeout.
	* [SmokeTests](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/SmokeTests): A small subset
	of tests that we run on the Android bot.
	* [StaleTestExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/StaleTestExpectations):
	Platform-specific lines that have been in TestExpectations for many months.
	They're moved here to get them out of the way of people doing rebaselines
	since they're clearly not getting fixed anytime soon.
	* [W3CImportExpectations](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/W3CImportExpectations):
	A record of which W3C tests should be imported or skipped.

	### Flag-specific expectations files

	It is possible to handle tests that only fail when run with a particular flag
	being passed to `content_shell`. See
	[LayoutTests/FlagExpectations/README.txt](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/FlagExpectations/README.txt)
	for more.

	## Updating the expectations files

	### Ordering

	The file is not ordered. If you put new changes somewhere in the middle of the
	file, this will reduce the chance of merge conflicts when landing your patch.

	### Syntax

	The syntax of the file is roughly one expectation per line. An expectation can
	apply to either a directory of tests, or a specific tests. Lines prefixed with
	`# ` are treated as comments, and blank lines are allowed as well.

	The syntax of a line is roughly:

	```
	[ bugs ] [ "[" modifiers "]" ] test_name [ "[" expectations "]" ]
	```

	* Tokens are separated by whitespace.
	* **The brackets delimiting the modifiers and expectations from the bugs and the
	test_name are not optional**; however the modifiers component is optional. In
	other words, if you want to specify modifiers or expectations, you must
	enclose them in brackets.
	* Lines are expected to have one or more bug identifiers, and the linter will
	complain about lines missing them. Bug identifiers are of the form
	`crbug.com/12345`, `code.google.com/p/v8/issues/detail?id=12345` or
	`Bug(username)`.
	* If no modifiers are specified, the test applies to all of the configurations
	applicable to that file.
	* Modifiers can be one or more of `Mac`, `Mac10.9`, `Mac10.10`, `Mac10.11`,
	`Retina`, `Win`, `Win7`, `Win10`, `Linux`, `Linux32`, `Precise`, `Trusty`,
	`Android`, `Release`, `Debug`.
	* Some modifiers are meta keywords, e.g. `Win` represents both `Win7` and
	`Win10`. See the `CONFIGURATION_SPECIFIER_MACROS` dictionary in
	[third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkitpy/layout_tests/port/base.py](../../third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/webkitpy/layout_tests/port/base.py)
	for the meta keywords and which modifiers they represent.
	* Expectations can be one or more of `Crash`, `Failure`, `Pass`, `Rebaseline`,
	`Slow`, `Skip`, `Timeout`, `WontFix`, `Missing`, `NeedsManualRebaseline`.
	If multiple expectations are listed, the test is considered "flaky" and any
	of those results will be considered as expected.

	For example:

	```
	crbug.com/12345 [ Win Debug ] fast/html/keygen.html [ Crash ]
	```

	which indicates that the "fast/html/keygen.html" test file is expected to crash
	when run in the Debug configuration on Windows, and the tracking bug for this
	crash is bug \#12345 in the [Chromium issue tracker](https://crbug.com). Note
	that the test will still be run, so that we can notice if it doesn't actually
	crash.

	Assuming you're running a debug build on Mac 10.9, the following lines are all
	equivalent (in terms of whether the test is performed and its expected outcome):

	```
	fast/html/keygen.html [ Skip ]
	fast/html/keygen.html [ WontFix ]
	Bug(darin) [ Mac10.9 Debug ] fast/html/keygen.html [ Skip ]
	```

	### Semantics

	* `WontFix` implies `Skip` and also indicates that we don't have any plans to
	make the test pass.
	* `WontFix` lines always go in the
	[NeverFixTests file](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/NeverFixTests) as
	we never intend to fix them. These are just for tests that only apply to some
	subset of the platforms we support.
	* `WontFix` and `Skip` must be used by themselves and cannot be specified
	alongside `Crash` or another expectation keyword.
	* `Slow` causes the test runner to give the test 5x the usual time limit to run.
	`Slow` lines go in the
	[SlowTests file ](../../third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/SlowTests). A given
	line cannot have both Slow and Timeout.

	Also, when parsing the file, we use two rules to figure out if an expectation
	line applies to the current run:

	1. If the configuration parameters don't match the configuration of the current
	run, the expectation is ignored.
	2. Expectations that match more of a test name are used before expectations that
	match less of a test name.

	For example, if you had the following lines in your file, and you were running a
	debug build on `Mac10.10`:

	```
	crbug.com/12345 [ Mac10.10 ] fast/html [ Failure ]
	crbug.com/12345 [ Mac10.10 ] fast/html/keygen.html [ Pass ]
	crbug.com/12345 [ Win7 ] fast/forms/submit.html [ Failure ]
	crbug.com/12345 fast/html/section-element.html [ Failure Crash ]
	```

	You would expect:

	* `fast/html/article-element.html` to fail with a text diff (since it is in the
	fast/html directory).
	* `fast/html/keygen.html` to pass (since the exact match on the test name).
	* `fast/html/submit.html` to pass (since the configuration parameters don't
	match).
	* `fast/html/section-element.html` to either crash or produce a text (or image
	and text) failure, but not time out or pass.

	*** promo
	Duplicate expectations are not allowed within the file and will generate
	warnings.
	***

	You can verify that any changes you've made to an expectations file are correct
	by running:

	```bash
	third_party/WebKit/Tools/Scripts/lint-test-expectations
	```

	which will cycle through all of the possible combinations of configurations
	looking for problems.