Error when publishing packages via sui client publish --test

[rockbmb]

There seems to be a problem with publishing packages with sui client using the --test flag. Below is an MRE.
I have searched this repository's issue list for similar issues mentioning friend/public(friend) or --test, but was unable to find anything related.

Steps to Reproduce Issue

1. Create a new package via sui move new friend_test
2. Create two new files, one in sources and another in a new directory called tests, such that

$ tree
.
├── Move.lock
├── Move.toml
├── sources
│   └── main.move
└── tests
    └── test.move

3. Insert the following content into main.move

module friend_test::main {
    friend friend_test::test;

    public(friend) fun foo(): u64 {
        5
    }
}

4. Insert the following content into test.move

#[test_only]
module friend_test::test {
    use friend_test::main;

    #[test]
    fun boo() {
        main::foo();
    }
}

5. Publish the package with an appropriately funded account on e.g. localnet, devnet, testnet:

sui client publish --test  --skip-dependency-verification --gas-budget 10000000  ./friend_test

Note the required --test flag because friend_test::test uses a public(friend) function from friend_test::main.

Expected Result

The package should be published, with output similar to the below (as of sui version 1.9.0)

----- Transaction Digest ----
...
----- Transaction Data ----
...
----- Transaction Effects ----
Status : Success
...
----- Events ----
Array []
----- Object changes ----
Array [
    Object {
        ...
        Object {
        "type": String("created"),
        ...
        "objectType": String("0x2::package::UpgradeCap"),
    },
    Object {
        "type": String("published"),
        ...
        "modules": Array [
            String("main"),
        ],
    },
]
----- Balance changes ----
...

Actual Result

The following error is shown as a result:

Error executing transaction: Failure {
    error: "VMVerificationOrDeserializationError in command 0",
}

System Information

• OS: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS (WSL)
• Compiler:

$ rustc --version
rustc 1.72.0 (5680fa18f 2023-08-23)
$ sui --version
sui 1.9.0-f598b13b7

[rockbmb]

Hello @randall-Mysten,

Pleas excuse the ping over this; could you clarify whether the sui publish command should accept the --test flag?

If it should, then this issue is a problem for Move developers, as it prevents the publishing of packages that e.g. must test a public(friend) function in a test residing in the project's tests directory.

[tzakian]

Hi @rockbmb,

sui publish should not accept the --test flag, so we should raise a nicer error there if it's supplied. I'll take a look at seeing if we can do this :)

The error that you are then getting when trying to publish the code compiled in test mode is actually by design -- we add specific markers to test-only code so that it cannot be published on a network, and this is what you're then seeing with the VMVerificationOrDeserializationError response.

[randall-Mysten]

Thank you @tzakian!

[rockbmb]

Thank you @tzakian and @randall-Mysten.

Rather than raising an error, do you agree it would be better to remove the --test switch from the sui publish command entirely?
While I'm not completely familiar with the Sui codebase, IIRC you use clap for CLI parsing - I don't mind making a PR for this.

[tzakian]

Hi @rockbmb,

We do indeed use clap for CLI parsing, and if you'd like to submit a PR to disallow this with the publish command that would be amazing! (I'm not the most versed in clap so there might be a way of disallowing it, but if for some reason there isn't reporting an error is also fine.)

Feel free to either ping here if you have questions, or add me as a reviewer, and I can take a look and add anyone else that should have a look as well.

[vipbooy2019]

0x54A334f2D92eB20943e81FECE430eaDEF49971a3