Testing Guide

Testing Guide

How telectl is tested — locally and in CI — and how to add tests that stick.

Test layers

Layer	Where	Command
Unit	internal/...	make test-unit (go test -short ./internal/...)
Full suite	everything	make test (go test -race -coverprofile=coverage.out ./...)
Integration (opt-in)	tagged //go:build integration	make test-integration (go test -tags=integration ./...)
Lint	whole repo	make lint (golangci-lint), make vet, make staticcheck
Coverage	report	make coverage → coverage.html

What the tests pin (read these before editing)

These test files encode non-obvious behavior — change them deliberately:

• internal/handlers/base_flags_test.go
  • TestParseFlags — every flag spelling (-n x, -n=x, --namespace x, --namespace=x), -A clearing a namespace, dangling flags, unknown flags falling through, "last flag wins".
  • TestParseExecArgs — the pod/container/command boundary: -- separates the command, the command's own flags pass through untouched, -n is stripped before the command (a former bug), joined forms, dangling container flags.
• internal/tg/richdoc_test.go — rich-text escaping, bold markers surviving table cells, Markdown control characters in cluster-supplied text.
• internal/menus/ — callback-data encode/decode round-trips, unknown callbacks parse without panicking, token resolution across restarts.
• internal/types/clusterscope_test.go — every resource alias classifies consistently with its GVR (cluster-scoped vs namespaced).

CI pipeline

The CI workflow (ci.yml) runs on every push/PR:

1. Go Mod Tidy — go mod tidy must be a no-op; checksums verified.
2. Test — formatting check (gofmt), go vet, full test suite with race detector, coverage upload.
3. Lint — golangci-lint.
4. Build — compile + smoke test the binary.
5. Build Release Binaries — all platforms (amd64/arm64 × linux/darwin/windows), used on tags.

Writing a good test here

• Prefer table-driven tests (the repo's existing style).
• Test the behavior users depend on, not just the happy path: dangling flags, unknown resources, missing metrics-server, Forbidden responses, impersonated-client routing.
• The k8s client is built against an interface (kubernetes.Interface), so you can inject a fake and exercise verbs (cordon, drain, scale) without a cluster.
• For rich-text/menu tests, golden assertions on the rendered output.

Running one focused test

go test ./internal/handlers/ -run TestParseExecArgs -v
go test ./internal/tg/ -v

Before you push

make fmt && make vet && make lint && make test

A green local run plus green CI is the bar for merge.