Build and Test Packages
If you followed Write a Move Package, you have a basic module that you need to build. If you didn't, then either start with that topic or use your package, substituting that information where appropriate.
Building your package
Make sure your terminal or console is in the directory that contains your package (my_first_package if you're following along). Use the following command to build your package:
sui move build
A successful build returns a response similar to the following:
UPDATING GIT DEPENDENCY https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui.git
INCLUDING DEPENDENCY Sui
INCLUDING DEPENDENCY MoveStdlib
BUILDING my_first_package
If the build fails, you can use the verbose error messaging in output to troubleshoot and resolve root issues.
Now that you have designed your asset and its accessor functions, it's time to test the package code before publishing.
Testing a package
Sui includes support for the Move testing framework that enables you to write unit tests that analyze Move code much like test frameworks for other languages (for example, the built-in Rust testing framework or the JUnit framework for Java).
An individual Move unit test is encapsulated in a public function that has no parameters, no return values, and has the #[test] annotation. The testing framework executes such functions when you call the sui move test command from the package root (my_move_package directory as per the current running example):
sui move test
If you execute this command for the package created in Write a Package, you see the following output. Unsurprisingly, the test result has an OK status because there are no tests written yet to fail.
BUILDING Sui
BUILDING MoveStdlib
BUILDING my_first_package
Running Move unit tests
Test result: OK. Total tests: 0; passed: 0; failed: 0
To actually test your code, you need to add test functions. Start with adding a basic test function to the my_module.move file, inside the module definition:
#[test]
public fun test_sword_create() {
// Create a dummy TxContext for testing
let ctx = tx_context::dummy();
// Create a sword
let sword = Sword {
id: object::new(&mut ctx),
magic: 42,
strength: 7,
};
// Check if accessor functions return correct values
assert!(magic(&sword) == 42 && strength(&sword) == 7, 1);
}
As the code shows, the unit test function (test_sword_create()) creates a dummy instance of the TxContext struct and assigns it to ctx. The function then creates a sword object using ctx to create a unique identifier and assigns 42 to the magic parameter and 7 to strength. Finally, the test calls the magic and strength accessor functions to verify that they return correct values.
The function passes the dummy context, ctx, to the object::new function as a mutable reference argument (&mut), but passes sword to its accessor functions as a read-only reference argument, &sword.
Now that you have a test function, run the test command again:
sui move test
After running the test command, however, you get a compilation error instead of a test result:
error[E06001]: unused value without 'drop'
┌─ ./sources/my_module.move:60:65
│
4 │ struct Sword has key, store {
│ ----- To satisfy the constraint, the 'drop' ability would need to be added here
·
27 │ let sword = Sword {
│ ----- The local variable 'sword' still contains a value. The value does not have the 'drop' ability and must be consumed before the function returns
│ ╭─────────────────────'
28 │ │ id: object::new(&mut ctx),
29 │ │ magic: 42,
30 │ │ strength: 7,
31 │ │ };
│ ╰─────────' The type 'MyFirstPackage::my_module::Sword' does not have the ability 'drop'
· │
34 │ assert!(magic(&sword) == 42 && strength(&sword) == 7, 1);
│ ^ Invalid return
The error message contains all the necessary information to debug the code. The faulty code is meant to highlight one of the Move language's safety features.
The Sword struct represents a game asset that digitally mimics a real-world item. Obviously, a real sword cannot simply disappear (though it can be explicitly destroyed), but there is no such restriction on a digital one. In fact, this is exactly what's happening in the test function - you create an instance of a Sword struct that simply disappears at the end of the function call. If you saw something disappear before your eyes, you'd be dumbfounded, too.
One of the solutions (as suggested in the error message), is to add the drop ability to the definition of the Sword struct, which would allow instances of this struct to disappear (be dropped). The ability to drop a valuable asset is not a desirable asset property in this case, so another solution is needed. Another way to solve this problem is to transfer ownership of the sword.
To get the test to work, add the following line to the beginning of the testing function to import the Transfer module:
use sui::transfer;
With the Transfer module imported, add the following lines to the end of the test function (after the !assert call) to transfer ownership of the sword to a freshly created dummy address:
// Create a dummy address and transfer the sword
let dummy_address = @0xCAFE;
transfer::transfer(sword, dummy_address);
Run the test command again. Now the output shows a single successful test has run:
BUILDING MoveStdlib
BUILDING Sui
BUILDING my_first_package
Running Move unit tests
[ PASS ] 0x0::my_module::test_sword_create
Test result: OK. Total tests: 1; passed: 1; failed: 0
Use a filter string to run only a matching subset of the unit tests. With a filter string provided, the sui move test checks the fully qualified (<address>::<module_name>::<fn_name>) name for a match.
Example:
sui move test sword
The previous command runs all tests whose name contains sword.
You can discover more testing options through:
sui move test -h
Sui-specific testing
The previous testing example is largely pure Move and isn't specific to Sui beyond using some Sui packages, such as sui::tx_context and sui::transfer. While this style of testing is already useful for writing Move code for Sui, you might also want to test additional Sui-specific features. In particular, a Move call in Sui is encapsulated in a Sui transaction, and you might want to test interactions between different transactions within a single test (for example, one transaction creating an object and the other one transferring it).
Sui-specific testing is supported through the test_scenario module that provides Sui-related testing functionality otherwise unavailable in pure Move and its testing framework.
The test_scenario module provides a scenario that emulates a series of Sui transactions, each with a potentially different user executing them. A test using this module typically starts the first transaction using the test_scenario::begin function. This function takes an address of the user executing the transaction as its argument and returns an instance of the Scenario struct representing a scenario.
An instance of the Scenario struct contains a per-address object pool emulating Sui object storage, with helper functions provided to manipulate objects in the pool. After the first transaction finishes, subsequent test transactions start with the test_scenario::next_tx function. This function takes an instance of the Scenario struct representing the current scenario and an address of a user as arguments.
Update your my_module.move file to include entry functions callable from Sui that implement sword creation and transfer. With these in place, you can then add a multi-transaction test that uses the test_scenario module to test these new capabilities. Put these functions after the accessors (Part 5 in comments).
public entry fun sword_create(magic: u64, strength: u64, recipient: address, ctx: &mut TxContext) {
use sui::transfer;
// create a sword
let sword = Sword {
id: object::new(ctx),
magic: magic,
strength: strength,
};
// transfer the sword
transfer::transfer(sword, recipient);
}
public entry fun sword_transfer(sword: Sword, recipient: address, _ctx: &mut TxContext) {
use sui::transfer;
// transfer the sword
transfer::transfer(sword, recipient);
}
The code of the new functions uses struct creation and Sui-internal modules (TxContext and Transfer) in a way similar to what you have seen in the previous sections. The important part is for the entry functions to have correct signatures.
With the new entry functions included, add another test function to make sure they behave as expected.
#[test]
fun test_sword_transactions() {
use sui::test_scenario;
// create test addresses representing users
let admin = @0xBABE;
let initial_owner = @0xCAFE;
let final_owner = @0xFACE;
// first transaction to emulate module initialization
let scenario_val = test_scenario::begin(admin);
let scenario = &mut scenario_val;
{
init(test_scenario::ctx(scenario));
};
// second transaction executed by admin to create the sword
test_scenario::next_tx(scenario, admin);
{
// create the sword and transfer it to the initial owner
sword_create(42, 7, initial_owner, test_scenario::ctx(scenario));
};
// third transaction executed by the initial sword owner
test_scenario::next_tx(scenario, initial_owner);
{
// extract the sword owned by the initial owner
let sword = test_scenario::take_from_sender<Sword>(scenario);
// transfer the sword to the final owner
sword_transfer(sword, final_owner, test_scenario::ctx(scenario))
};
// fourth transaction executed by the final sword owner
test_scenario::next_tx(scenario, final_owner);
{
// extract the sword owned by the final owner
let sword = test_scenario::take_from_sender<Sword>(scenario);
// verify that the sword has expected properties
assert!(magic(&sword) == 42 && strength(&sword) == 7, 1);
// return the sword to the object pool (it cannot be simply "dropped")
test_scenario::return_to_sender(scenario, sword)
};
test_scenario::end(scenario_val);
}
There are some details of the new testing function to pay attention to. The first thing the code does is create some addresses that represent users participating in the testing scenario. The assumption is that there is one game administrator user and two regular users representing players. The test then creates a scenario by starting the first transaction on behalf of the administrator address.
The administrator executes the second transaction. The transaction creates a sword where the initial_owner is the receiver.
The initial owner then executes the third transaction (passed as an argument to the test_scenario::next_tx function), who then transfers the sword they now own to the final owner. In pure Move there is no notion of Sui storage; consequently, there is no easy way for the emulated Sui transaction to retrieve it from storage. This is where the test_scenario module helps - its take_from_sender function allows an address-owned object of a given type (Sword) executing the current transaction to be available for Move code manipulation. For now, assume that there is only one such object. In this case, the test transfers the object it retrieves from storage to another address.
Transaction effects, such as object creation and transfer become visible only after a given transaction completes. For example, if the second transaction in the running example created a sword and transferred it to the administrator's address, it would only become available for retrieval from the administrator's address (via test_scenario, take_from_sender, or take_from_address functions) in the third transaction.
The final owner executes the fourth and final transaction that retrieves the sword object from storage and checks if it has the expected properties. Remember, as described in Testing a package, in the pure Move testing scenario, after an object is available in Move code (after creation or retrieval from emulated storage), it cannot simply disappear.
In the pure Move testing function, the function transfers the sword object to the fake address to handle the disappearing problem. The test_scenario package provides a more elegant solution, however, which is closer to what happens when Move code actually executes in the context of Sui - the package simply returns the sword to the object pool using the test_scenario::return_to_sender function.
Run the test command again to see two successful tests for our module:
BUILDING Sui
BUILDING MoveStdlib
BUILDING my_first_package
Running Move unit tests
[ PASS ] 0x0::my_module::test_sword_create
[ PASS ] 0x0::my_module::test_sword_transactions
Test result: OK. Total tests: 2; passed: 2; failed: 0
Now that you have built a tested package, the next topic walks you through publishing your package to a Sui network.