Separate Process Will crash if backtrace contains unserialisable object.

[jonathanDaigle]

When a test fail or an error occurs in "separate process", A PHPUnit_Framework_TestFailure object will be serialised to be returned to the parent process.

PHPUnit_Framework_TestFailure, contains an exception, that contains a backtrace witch contains a bunch of input data.

If that data is not serialisable or unserialisable a problem will ocur.

For example, if unserializing some of that data causes a fatal error. PHPUnit will crash without any output (because the unserialise is silenced by a @).

[jonathanDaigle]

I Do have a simple & easy patch for this. Unfortunately there is a downside with it. any custom listeners wont have access to the real original backtrace, so they may report a wrong backtrace.

However i believe that all built-in "listeners" wont suffer from that issue since they rely on PHPUnit_Framework_TestFailure to render the output of the backtrace. Witch is patched to pre-render it in the child process.

If you can live with that here is a patch that will help (Apply On the File : PHPUnit/Framework/TestFailure.php) ...

Index: TestFailure.php
===================================================================
--- TestFailure.php     (revision 170887)
+++ TestFailure.php     (revision 170886)
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
  * @link       http://www.phpunit.de/
  * @since      Class available since Release 2.0.0
  */
-class PHPUnit_Framework_TestFailure implements Serializable
+class PHPUnit_Framework_TestFailure
 {
     /**
      * @var    PHPUnit_Framework_Test
@@ -114,10 +114,6 @@
      */
     public static function exceptionToString(Exception $e)
     {
-        if (true === isset($e->exceptionToString)) {
-            return $e->exceptionToString;
-        }
-
         if ($e instanceof PHPUnit_Framework_SelfDescribing) {
             if ($e instanceof PHPUnit_Framework_ExpectationFailedException) {
                 $comparisonFailure = $e->getComparisonFailure();
@@ -186,7 +182,6 @@
             $buffer = get_class($e) . ': ' . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
         }

-        $e->exceptionToString = $buffer;
         return $buffer;
     }

@@ -230,62 +225,4 @@
     {
         return ($this->thrownException() instanceof PHPUnit_Framework_AssertionFailedError);
     }
-
-    /**
-     * Return data to be keep before serialisation
-     *
-     * GammaE Patch : When running in separate process.
-     * $this class will be serialised In "child process" and unserialised In
-     * Parent process.
-     * Unfortunately $this object contains an exception, that contains a bactrace
-     * Tha contain input values that may not be serialisable / unserialisable.
-     * To a avoid this roblem when create a new exception on deserialisation.
-     * The dowside effect is that the real backtrace is lost.
-     *
-     * @return string
-     */
-    public function serialize()
-    {
-        self::exceptionToString($this->thrownException);
-
-        $data = array($this->failedTest,
-                      $this->thrownException->exceptionToString,
-                      get_class($this->thrownException),
-                      $this->thrownException->getMessage(),
-                      $this->thrownException->getCode(),
-                      $this->thrownException->getFile(),
-                      $this->thrownException->getLine());
-
-        return serialize($data);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Unserialisation method
-     *
-     * GammaE Patch : When running in separate process.
-     * $this class will be serialised In "child process" and unserialised In
-     * Parent process.
-     * Unfortunately $this object contains an exception, that contains a bactrace
-     * Tha contain input values that may not be serialisable / unserialisable.
-     * To a avoid this roblem when create a new exception on deserialisation.
-     * The dowside effect is that the real backtrace is lost.
-     *
-     * @param  string $serialised Serialised properties
-     * @return void
-     */
-    public function unserialize($serialised)
-    {
-        $data = unserialize($serialised);
-
-        $exceptionClass = $data[2];
-        if (false === class_exists($exceptionClass, true)) {
-            $exceptionClass = 'Exception';
-        }
-
-        $this->failedTest = $data[0];
-
-        $this->thrownException                    = new $exceptionClass($data[3], $data[4]);
-        $this->thrownException->exceptionToString = $data[1];
-        $this->thrownException->isUnserialised    = true;
-    }
 }

[hpbuniat]

I had some similar problems with a this case (Zend-Frameworks Zend_Locale_Data can have SimpleXMLElement as $_ldml property which is not serializable).

The most occurrences should be solvable by implementing __sleep/__wakeup to handle not-serializeable data correctly - e.g. converting SimpleXML to string. This should give you also more convenience with storing your data, e.g. in a session.

I would say, phpunit should not take care of this.

[jonathanDaigle]

Here is am bugfixed version of the path. It now preserve the original File & Line number of the exception.

Also this patch fixes an other issu : php errors running in separate procees now have a full trace to help debuging.
(They use to only have a message, no file & no line numbers.)

Index: TestFailure.php
===================================================================
--- TestFailure.php     (revision 172738)
+++ TestFailure.php     (revision 170886)
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
  * @link       http://www.phpunit.de/
  * @since      Class available since Release 2.0.0
  */
-class PHPUnit_Framework_TestFailure implements Serializable
+class PHPUnit_Framework_TestFailure
 {
     /**
      * @var    PHPUnit_Framework_Test
@@ -114,10 +114,6 @@
      */
     public static function exceptionToString(Exception $e)
     {
-        if (true === isset($e->exceptionToString)) {
-            return $e->exceptionToString;
-        }
-
         if ($e instanceof PHPUnit_Framework_SelfDescribing) {
             if ($e instanceof PHPUnit_Framework_ExpectationFailedException) {
                 $comparisonFailure = $e->getComparisonFailure();
@@ -179,14 +175,13 @@
         }

         else if ($e instanceof PHPUnit_Framework_Error) {
-            $buffer = $e->__toString() . "\n";
+            $buffer = $e->getMessage() . "\n";
         }

         else {
-            $buffer = get_class($e) . ': ' . $e->__toString() . "\n";
+            $buffer = get_class($e) . ': ' . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
         }

-        $e->exceptionToString = $buffer;
         return $buffer;
     }

@@ -230,71 +225,4 @@
     {
         return ($this->thrownException() instanceof PHPUnit_Framework_AssertionFailedError);
     }
-
-    /**
-     * Return data to be keep before serialisation
-     *
-     * GammaE Patch : When running in separate process.
-     * $this class will be serialised In "child process" and unserialised In
-     * Parent process.
-     * Unfortunately $this object contains an exception, that contains a bactrace
-     * Tha contain input values that may not be serialisable / unserialisable.
-     * To a avoid this roblem when create a new exception on deserialisation.
-     * The dowside effect is that the real backtrace is lost.
-     *
-     * @return string
-     */
-    public function serialize()
-    {
-        self::exceptionToString($this->thrownException);
-
-        $data = array($this->failedTest,
-                      $this->thrownException->exceptionToString,
-                      get_class($this->thrownException),
-                      $this->thrownException->getMessage(),
-                      $this->thrownException->getCode(),
-                      $this->thrownException->getFile(),
-                      $this->thrownException->getLine());
-
-        return serialize($data);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * Unserialisation method
-     *
-     * GammaE Patch : When running in separate process.
-     * $this class will be serialised In "child process" and unserialised In
-     * Parent process.
-     * Unfortunately $this object contains an exception, that contains a bactrace
-     * Tha contain input values that may not be serialisable / unserialisable.
-     * To a avoid this roblem when create a new exception on deserialisation.
-     * The dowside effect is that the real backtrace is lost.
-     *
-     * @param  string $serialised Serialised properties
-     * @return void
-     */
-    public function unserialize($serialised)
-    {
-        $data = unserialize($serialised);
-
-        $exceptionClass = $data[2];
-        if (false === class_exists($exceptionClass, true)) {
-            $exceptionClass = 'Exception';
-        }
-        $this->failedTest = $data[0];
-
-        $e                    = new $exceptionClass($data[3], $data[4]);
-        $e->exceptionToString = $data[1];
-        $e->isUnserialised    = true;
-        $reflectionObj = new ReflectionObject($e);
-        $refFile       = $reflectionObj->getProperty('file');
-        $refLine       = $reflectionObj->getProperty('line');
-        $refFile->setAccessible(true);
-        $refLine->setAccessible(true);
-        $refFile->setValue($e, $data[5]);
-        $refLine->setValue($e, $data[6]);
-
-        $this->thrownException = $e;
-    }
 }

[jonathanDaigle]

hpbuniat : i am sorry but i don't agree.

It is not your code responsibility to make shure its backtrace is serialisable.

Any way that would simply be impossible, some stuff just cant be. Resources (like a PDO connection) are impossible to serialises.

[edorian]

Closing as duplicate/closely related of #254. I'm not sure that patch is the correct way of going about things but we consider it