System Stubs

⚠ WARNING: JDK Compatibility. From JDK16 onwards, there are deeper restrictions on the ability to use reflection. Previous versions of this library, and others in the space, encounter an Illegal Reflective Access warning, or even a runtime error such as java.lang.reflect.InaccessibleObjectException when trying to manipulate the Map behind the system's environment variables.

Consequently, this library now uses bytebuddy to enable the interception of calls for reading environment variables. This might interact with your chosen version of Mockito or other libraries.

⚠ WARNING: JDK Support. This project has now moved to a JDK11 minimum version

The v2.x branch is the LTS version. However, there is best effort support to keep the Java 8 compatible v1.x branch.

Overview

System Stubs is used to test code which depends on methods in java.lang.System.

The core is test framework agnostic, but there's explicit support for JUnit 4, JUnit 5 and TestNG in specialist sub-modules.

It is published under the MIT license and requires at least Java 11. There is a walkthrough of its main features over on Baeldung.com.

System Stubs originated as a fork of System Lambda, and is a partial rewrite and refactor of it. It has diverged in implementation from the original, but largely retains compatibility.

It is divided into:

• system-stubs-core - can be used stand-alone with any test framework to stub system resources around test code
  • Using the SystemStubs facade to build and execute stubs around test code
  • Using the subclasses of TestResource, like EnvironmentVariables or SystemIn to create stubs and then execute test code via execute
• system-stubs-junit4 - a set of JUnit4 rules that activate the stubs around test code
• system-stubs-jupiter - a JUnit 5 extension that automatically injects System Stubs into JUnit 5 tests.
• system-stubs-testng - a plugin/listener for the TestNG framework, which automatically injects System Stubs into TestNG tests.

QuickStart (JUnit 5)

@ExtendWith(SystemStubsExtension.class)
class WithEnvironmentVariables {

    @SystemStub
    private EnvironmentVariables variables =
        new EnvironmentVariables("input", "foo");

    @Test
    void hasAccessToEnvironmentVariables() {
        assertThat(System.getenv("input"))
            .isEqualTo("foo");
    }

    @Test
    void changeEnvironmentVariablesDuringTest() {
        variables.set("input", "bar");

        assertThat(System.getenv("input"))
            .isEqualTo("bar");
    }
}

Installation

Core

<dependency>
  <groupId>uk.org.webcompere</groupId>
  <artifactId>system-stubs-core</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.7</version>
</dependency>

JUnit 4 Plugin

<dependency>
  <groupId>uk.org.webcompere</groupId>
  <artifactId>system-stubs-junit4</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.7</version>
</dependency>

JUnit 5 Extension

<dependency>
  <groupId>uk.org.webcompere</groupId>
  <artifactId>system-stubs-jupiter</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.7</version>
</dependency>

TestNG Plugin

<dependency>
  <groupId>uk.org.webcompere</groupId>
  <artifactId>system-stubs-testng</artifactId>
  <version>2.1.7</version>
</dependency>

See the full guide to JUnit 5, or use it with JUnit 4.

Catalogue of SystemStubs Objects

• EnvironmentVariables - for overriding the environment variables
• SystemProperties - for temporarily overwriting system properties and then restoring them afterwards
• SystemOut - for tapping the output to System.out
• SystemErr - for tapping the output to System.err
• SystemErrAndOut - for tapping the output to both System.err and System.out
• SystemIn - for providing input to System.in
• SystemExit - prevents system exit from occurring, recording the exit code

Using System Stubs Individually

The plugins for JUnit etc will allow the stub objects to be used during a test, where they will be set up and torn down around the test method. However, they can also be used without the framework.

You can declare a system stub object:

EnvironmentVariables environmentVariables = new EnvironmentVariables("a", "b");

Then you can configure it and execute your test code inside it:

environmentVariables.set("c", "d")
    .execute(() -> { ... some test code that gets the environment variables ... });

Where necessary, each of the System Stub objects can be manually activated with setup and turned off again with teardown. Where possible, these objects also support reconfiguration while they're active, allowing you to set environment variables within a test, for example:

EnvironmentVariables env = new EnvironmentVariables("HOST", "localhost");

// start controlling the environment
env.setup();

// the HOST variable is currently set

env.set("a", "b");
// this has set "a" as "b" in the environment

// tidy up
env.teardown();

It should not be necessary to use setup and teardown as the execute method handles this more cleanly, avoiding accidentally leaving the stubbing active:

new EnvironmentVariables("HOST", "localhost")
  .execute(() -> {
     // in here the environment is temporarily set
  });

// out here everything has been tidied away

Note: there are two versions of the execute method in Executable allowing the test code to return values, or not.

Using multiple stubs

While you can set up stubs inside the execute method of a parent stub:

new EnvironmentVariables("a", "b")
    .execute(() -> {
        new SystemProperties("j", "k")
            .execute(() -> { ... has env and properties ... });
    });

There is a more convenient way to use multiple stubs together:

EnvironmentVariables env = new EnvironmentVariables("a", "b");
SystemProperties props = new SystemProperties("f", "g");
Resources.execute(() -> { .. some test code .. },
    env, props);

The convenience method Resource.with may make this read more cleanly:

with(new EnvironmentVariables("HTTP_PROXY", ""),
    new SystemProperties("http.connections", "123"))
    .execute(() -> executeTestCode());

Note: the JUnit4 and JUnit5 plugins make it easier to use multiple test stubs, as they set all the stubs up before the test method and then tidy them up at the end.

Exception Handling

As the execute methods can be used with code that throws exceptions, they declare throws Exception so your tests need to declare throws Exception, even if the code under the test doesn't use checked exceptions.

This is a good argument for using the JUnit4 or JUnit5 plugins, where you do not need to specifically turn the stubbing on via the execute method.

How to Use Each of the Stubs

System.exit

Command-line applications terminate by calling System.exit with some status code. If you test such an application then the JVM that executes the test exits when the application under test calls System.exit.

With SystemStubs

The method catchSystemExit returns the status code of the System.exit call rather than ending the JVM

@Test
void application_exits_with_status_42() throws Exception {
  int statusCode = catchSystemExit(() -> {
    System.exit(42);
  });
  assertEquals(42, statusCode);
}

The method catchSystemExit throws an AssertionError if the code under test does not call System.exit. Therefore your test fails with the failure message "System.exit has not been called."

SystemExit Class

The SystemExit class can be used just to ignore a System exit:

new SystemExit()
    .execute(() -> {
        System.exit(0);
    });

// execution continues without error

Or an instance can be used to capture the return code, or whether there was an exit at all.

SystemExit exit = new SystemExit();
exit.execute(() -> {
        System.exit(0);
    });

assertThat(exit.getExitCode()).isEqualTo(0);

// the exit code will be `null` if no System.exit was called

Environment Variables

With SystemStubs

The method withEnvironmentVariable allows you to set environment variables within your test code that are removed after your code under test is executed.

@Test
void execute_code_with_environment_variables() throws Exception {
  List<String> values = withEnvironmentVariable("first", "first value")
    .and("second", "second value")
    .execute(() -> asList(
      System.getenv("first"),
      System.getenv("second")
    ));
  assertEquals(asList("first value", "second value"), values);
}

With EnvironmentVariables

Create an object of EnvironmentVariables and use execute:

List<String> values = new EnvironmentVariables("first", "first value")
    .set("second", "second value")
    .execute(() -> asList(
         System.getenv("first"),
         System.getenv("second")
       ));
     assertEquals(asList("first value", "second value"), values);

Note: the SystemStubs facade creates an identical object and set is a mutable version of the and method used in the first example.

Note: calling set on EnvironmentVariables from inside execute will affect the runtime environment. Calling it outside of execution will store the value for writing into the environment within execute.

You can remove an environment variable with remove:

// assuming that there's an environment variable "STAGE" set here
new EnvironmentVariables()
    .remove("STAGE")
    .execute(() -> {
        // the variable has been removed
        assertThat(System.getenv("STAGE")).isNull();
    });

The remove method deletes environment variables requested in the EnvironmentVariables object previously and also takes those environment variables out of the system environment while the EnvironmentVariables object is active.

System Properties

With SystemStubs

The method restoreSystemProperties guarantees that after executing the test code each System property has the same value as before. Therefore you can modify System properties inside of the test code without having an impact on other tests.

@Test
void execute_code_that_manipulates_system_properties() throws Exception {
  restoreSystemProperties(() -> {
    System.setProperty("some.property", "some value");
    //code under test that reads properties (e.g. "some.property") or
    //modifies them.
  });

  //Here the value of "some.property" is the same like before.
  //E.g. it is not set.
}

This also supports removing properties from the system properties:

// will be restored
restoreSystemProperties(() ->{
  System.getProperties().remove("someProp");
});

With SystemProperties

A SystemProperties object allows you to set the system properties that will be provided within execute. It provides a set method which writes to the System while the object is active, though any other set operations that are performed with System.setProperty are also reset on clean up:

SystemProperties someProperties = new SystemProperties(
    "foo", "bar",
    "foz", "boz");
someProperties.execute(() -> {
    // here we expect the properties to have been set

    // we can also call "set" on the "someProperties"
    // to set more system properties - these will be
    // remembered for reuse later with that object

    // any calls to System.setProperty will be undone when
    // "execute" is finished
});

// here the system properties are reverted

We can also specify properties to delete from the default system properties:

// when this object is active, some properties will be removed
// from system properties
SystemProperties someProperties = new SystemProperties()
    .remove("property1")
    .remove("property2");

Sources of Properties for EnvironmentVariables and SystemProperties

Once you have constructed an EnvironmentVariables or SystemProperties object, you can use the set method to apply properties. If these objects are presently active then the values are applied to the running environment immediately, otherwise they are kept until the object is activated either by execute or within the JUnit test lifecycle, as part of the JUnit 4 or JUnit 5 plugins.

There is a set function for name/value pairs, and also a set function that takes Map<Object, Object>, which is the base class of Properties. There are helper functions within PropertySource for loading Properties from file or resources.

So you can initialise one of these stubs from a resource:

// Note, we have statically imported `PropertySource.fromResource`
EnvironmentVariables env = new EnvironmentVariables()
    .set(fromResource("test.properties"))
    .execute(() -> {... test code });

Or from a file:

SystemProperties props = new SystemProperties();
props.execute(() -> {
    // do something

    // now set the system properties from a file
    props.set(fromFile("src/test/resources/test.properties"));
});

Or from a map:

// Map.of is available in later Java versions
// ImmutableMap.of from Guava is a similar alternative
EnvironmentVariables env = new EnvironmentVariables();
env.execute(() -> {
    // do something

    // now set some environment variables
    env.set(Map.of("VAL", "value1",
                  "VAL2", "value"));
});

The name/value pair constructors in both EnvironmentVariables and SystemProperties are probably easier than using set with a Map where it's possible to use them.

The EnvironmentVariables and SystemProperties objects both accept a Properties object via their constructor. It's a question of preference whether to use the constructor or set method:

new EnvironmentVariables()
   .set(fromFile("somefile"));

// vs

new EnvironmentVariables(fromFile("someFile"));

If you have the properties to set in memory already as a series of String objects in the name=value format used by properties files, you can use LinesAltStream to provide them to the property loader as an InputStream:

EnvironmentVariables env = new EnvironmentVariables()
   .set(fromInputStream(new LinesAltStream("PROXY_HOSTS=foo.bar.com")))
   .execute(() -> {
      // the PROXY_HOSTS environment variable is set here
   });

Stubbing System.out and System.err

With SystemStubs

Command-line applications usually write to the console. If you write such applications you need to test the output of these applications. The methods tapSystemErr, tapSystemErrNormalized, tapSystemOut and tapSystemOutNormalized and tapSystemErrAndOut allow you to tap the text that is written to System.err/System.out. The methods with the suffix Normalized normalize line breaks to \n so that you can run tests with the same assertions on different operating systems.

@Test
void application_writes_text_to_System_err() throws Exception {
  String text = tapSystemErr(() -> {
    System.err.print("some text");
  });
  assertEquals("some text", text);
}

@Test
void application_writes_mutliple_lines_to_System_err() throws Exception {
  String text = tapSystemErrNormalized(() -> {
    System.err.println("first line");
    System.err.println("second line");
  });
  assertEquals("first line\nsecond line\n", text);
}

@Test
void application_writes_text_to_System_out() throws Exception {
  String text = tapSystemOut(() -> {
    System.out.print("some text");
  });
  assertEquals("some text", text);
}

@Test
void application_writes_multiple_lines_to_System_out() throws Exception {
  String text = tapSystemOutNormalized(() -> {
    System.out.println("first line");
    System.out.println("second line");
  });
  assertEquals("first line\nsecond line\n", text);
}

System.err and System.out can be directed to a single stream:

@Test
void application_writes_text_to_System_err_and_out() throws Exception {
  String text = tapSystemErrAndOut(() -> {
    System.err.print("text from err");
    System.out.print("text from out");
  });
  assertEquals("text from errtext from out", text);
}

You can assert that nothing is written to System.err/System.out by wrapping code with the function assertNothingWrittenToSystemErr/assertNothingWrittenToSystemOut. E.g. the following tests fail:

@Test
void fails_because_something_is_written_to_System_err() throws Exception {
  assertNothingWrittenToSystemErr(() -> {
    System.err.println("some text");
  });
}

@Test
void fails_because_something_is_written_to_System_out() throws Exception {
  assertNothingWrittenToSystemOut(() -> {
    System.out.println("some text");
  });
}

If the code under test writes text to System.err/System.out then it is intermixed with the output of your build tool. Therefore you may want to avoid that the code under test writes to System.err/System.out. You can achieve this with the function muteSystemErr/muteSystemOut. E.g. the following tests don't write anything to System.err/System.out:

@Test
void nothing_is_written_to_System_err() throws Exception {
  muteSystemErr(() -> {
    System.err.println("some text");
  });
}

@Test
void nothing_is_written_to_System_out() throws Exception {
  muteSystemOut(() -> {
    System.out.println("some text");
  });
}

Using SystemErr, SystemOut and SystemErrAndOut

The methods on the facade provide some useful shortcuts, but there are also the classes SystemOut and SystemErr which can be used independently.

Providing a Single Output Target

When creating a SystemOut object, its constructor can be passed the relevant Output types of NoopStream, DisallowWriteStream or TapStream. The default is TapStream.

Once output has been captured, all of the objects provide functions for getting the text that arrived at the stream, sliced into lines or whole.

You can plug in an alternative output by implementing your own Output subclass.

Note: The DisallowWriteStream cannot capture text as any writes stop the text with an error. The NoopStream does not capture text, so it useful for saving memory/log files during a test.

Example:

SystemOut systemOut = new SystemOut();
systemOut.execute(() -> System.out.print("hello world"));
assertThat(systemOut.getText()).isEqualTo("hello world");

The objects can be reused and have a clear function to clear captured text between usages.

Note: As the SystemOut, SystemErr and SystemErrAndOut classes are also derived from Output, they have friendlier methods on them for reading the text that was sent to the output. E.g. getLines which returns a stream of lines, separated from the text captured by the system line separator.

Note: The withSystemErrAndOut method on the facade constructs a SystemErrAndOut object for use with the execute method and for assertion via getLines or getText:

// finer control over assertion can be made using the SystemErrAndOut object
@Test
void construct_system_err_and_out_tap() throws Exception {
    SystemErrAndOut stream = withSystemErrAndOut(new TapStream());
    stream.execute(() -> {
        System.err.println("text from err");
        System.out.println("text from out");
    });
    assertThat(stream.getLines())
        .containsExactly("text from err","text from out");
}

Multiple Outputs - Tapping System.out in Combinations

One of the advantages of tapping the System.out and System.err streams is that the tests can assert what was output. However, seeing the output of the application during the test can also be helpful for debugging.

There is an alternative way to provide the Output object for the SystemOut, SystemErr and SystemErrAndOut objects to use. If you pass an OutputFactory then this can be used to construct the final Output object using the original OutputStream that was being used before the stubbing started. This allows the output to reuse the original console PrintStream alongside any other streams.

There is also a MultiplexOutput class which is able to direct the output to more than one Output object. Note: the first Output will be the default used for getText and related operations. Though if you created and stored references to all of the Output objects in the multiplex, you can interact with them directly.

Though the lower level classes may be useful for building custom configurations, the most common options are within the OutputFactories class.

For example, you can both capture System.out and allow it to continue writing to the console like this:

SystemOut systemOut = new SystemOut(tapAndOutput());
systemOut.execute(() -> System.out.println("I write to the console and the tap"));
assertThat(systemOut.getLines()).containsExactly("I write to the console and the tap");

The tapAndOutput function produces a multiplex of both TapStream and writing to the original stream.

When using the execute method (as above), rather than any of the JUnit plugins, it's also possible to capture the output to a file using writeToFile as the OutputFactory:

File target = new File(tempDir, "file");
new SystemOut(ofMultiplePlusOriginal(writeToFile(target)))
  .execute(() -> {
    System.out.println("This is going into a file");
  });

assertThat(target).hasContent("This is going into a file" + System.lineSeparator());

While the file output does not depend itself on the original stream, it hooks its creation and closure of the OutputStream into the lifecycle of the execute method.

Technically this could also be used with the JUnit plugins, but the written file could not be accessed within the test that it logged.

The OutputFactories class provides various methods for adding together multiple Output objects. The Output.fromStream and Output.fromCloseableStream methods provide Output wrappers of your own OutputStream objects.

Note: you can compose multiple Output objects or multiple OutputFactory objects. If you have a mixture, then convert the Output objects into OutputFactory objects using Output.factoryOfSelf.

There are some worked examples in the tests of OutputFactories.

Asserting Log Output

The SystemOut stub allows logging output to be captured in situations where the logging framework is configured to write to the console.

Let's say the code under test contained this line:

LOGGER.info("Saving to database");

We could imagine testing that with a SystemOut object:

SystemOut systemOut = new SystemOut();

// then either in the execute method, or via JUnit4 or JUnit5 integration

realCode.doThingThatLogs();
assertThat(systemOut.getLines())
  .anyMatch(line -> line.contains("Saving to database"));

Stubbing System.in

Interactive command-line applications read from System.in. You can supply the application with input at test time as lines of text, delimited by the system line separator, or by hooking System.in up to a specific InputStream.

With SystemStubs

You can specify the lines that are available from System.in with the method withTextFromSystemIn

@Test
void Scanner_reads_text_from_System_in() throws Exception {
  withTextFromSystemIn("first line", "second line")
    .execute(() -> {
      Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
      assertEquals("first line", scanner.nextLine());
      assertEquals("second line", scanner.nextLine());
    });
}

For a complete test coverage you may also want to simulate System.in throwing exceptions when the application reads from it. You can specify such an exception (either RuntimeException or IOException) after specifying the text. The exception will be thrown by the next read after the text has been consumed.

@Test
void System_in_throws_IOException() throws Exception {
  withTextFromSystemIn("first line", "second line")
    .andExceptionThrownOnInputEnd(new IOException())
    .execute(() -> {
      Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
      scanner.nextLine();
      scanner.nextLine();
      assertThrownBy(
        IOException.class,
        () -> scanner.readLine()
      );
  });
}

@Test
void System_in_throws_RuntimeException() throws Exception {
  withTextFromSystemIn("first line", "second line")
    .andExceptionThrownOnInputEnd(new RuntimeException())
    .execute(() -> {
      Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
      scanner.nextLine();
      scanner.nextLine();
      assertThrownBy(
        RuntimeException.class,
        () -> scanner.readLine()
      );
    });
}

You might also write a test that throws an exception immediately by not providing any text.

withTextFromSystemIn()
  .andExceptionThrownOnInputEnd(...)
  .execute(() -> {
    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
    assertThrownBy(
      ...,
      () -> scanner.readLine()
    );
  });

The SystemStubs implementation only allows you to specify text for stubbing System.in, the SystemIn object is more configurable.

SystemIn and AltInputStream

The SystemIn object allows you to compose your own input text. You can use it with any InputStream.

E.g.

SystemIn systemIn = new SystemIn(new FileInputStream("someTestFile"));
systemIn.execute(() -> {
    // code that uses System.in
});

The SystemIn object can be manipulated to throw an exception when the calling code reads from System.in when it has run out of text:

new SystemIn("some text in the input")
   .andExceptionThrownOnInputEnd(new IOException("file is broken"))
   .execute(() -> {
      // some test code
   });

SystemIn can be constructed with lines of text, or any instance of AltStream or InputStream you wish to create.

The lines of input are automatically separated by the system line separator via the LinesAltStream object. But the alternative TextAltStream can be used where the input is already formatted and should not have an extra line breaks added.

While hardcoded lists of strings are often perfect sources of test data, LinesAltStream also allows for more custom use cases, for example, SystemIn could be hooked up to a random input generator:

new SystemIn(new LinesAltStream(
    Stream.generate(() -> UUID.randomUUID().toString())))
    .execute(() -> {
        // this test code will be provided with an unlimited
        // series of lines in System.in containing GUIDs
    });

Stubbing SecurityManager

With SystemStubs

The function withSecurityManager lets you specify the SecurityManager that is returned by System.getSecurityManger() while your code under test is executed.

@Test
void execute_code_with_specific_SecurityManager() throws Exception {
  SecurityManager securityManager = new ASecurityManager();
  withSecurityManager(
    securityManager,
    () -> {
      //code under test
      //e.g. the following assertion is met
      assertSame(
        securityManager,
        System.getSecurityManager()
      );
    }
  );
}

After withSecurityManager(...) is executedSystem.getSecurityManager() returns the original security manager again.

With SecurityManagerStub

The SecurityManagerStub allows you to substitute the system security manager with another. Provide the alternative manager via the constructor.

new SecurityManagerStub(otherManager)
    .execute(() -> { ... test code ... });

This is used internally by the stubbing for System.exit.

Thread Safety

⚠ WARNING: Don't Break Your Parallel Tests!

If you are using System Stubs alongside concurrent test execution, then you MUST ensure that the concurrency is achieved by forking multiple JVMs to run different test classes, rather than running multiple threads within the same JVMs executing tests in parallel.

This is because many of the stubs modify global system properties which would bleed to other tests in the same JVM runtime and cannot be localised to just the current test.

Build tools allow the test runner to fork separate processes for running subsets of the test classes, and this is the only safe way to use System Stubs with concurrent testing.

Contributing

You have two options if you have a feature request, found a bug or simply have a question.

• Write an issue.
• Create a pull request. (See Understanding the GitHub Flow)

Development Guide

System Stubs is built with Maven. It requires JDK11 to build.

If you want to contribute code then:

• Please write a test for your change.
• Ensure that you didn't break the build by running mvnw test.
• Fork the repo and create a pull request. (See Understanding the GitHub Flow)

The basic coding style is described in the EditorConfig file .editorconfig.

System Stubs is built with Appveyor:

Release Guide

• Move the snapshot version number if necessary using Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 Standard.
• With gpg installed
• May need to login to gpg to set the passphrase
• With env variables
  • JAVA_HOME set to JDK11
  • GPG_TTY=$(tty)
  • GPG_AGENT_INFO
• With the nexus credentials set in the .m2/settings.xml
• Run mvn clean -Dgpg.executable=gpg -Prelease-sign-artifacts -Dgpg.passphrase=<biscuit leet> release:prepare release:perform
• Update the installation guide in the README
• Push a new version to the README