Specification: continuous integration and the test suite (July to August 2026) #

This page describes the test suite of the root repository and the GitHub Actions workflow that runs it on PHP 8.1 to 8.5 on every change: what runs, how to run the same on your machine, and what each piece protects. Read it if you change the kernel or ship extensions and want proof that a change keeps the platform working. Both were added between 11 July and 18 August 2026.

In short #

• Run everything: php vendor/bin/phpunit. Run one suite: php vendor/bin/phpunit --testsuite security.
• The workflow is .github/workflows/phpunit.yml, with a job per PHP version and a database job.
• Database tests create and drop tables: point them only at a throw-away database.

What was added #

Many of the 18 August commits are fixes of single workflow failures that were found by running it; they are merged pull requests with the title "Initial plan" (an empty first commit) followed by the fix.

The workflow #

File .github/workflows/phpunit.yml. Triggers: a push or pull request to main or master that changes a .php file, composer.json, composer.lock, phpunit.xml or the workflow itself, and a manual run (workflow_dispatch). The token has read access only (permissions: contents: read).

Job phpunit #

The workflow copies composer.json to a temporary overlay file (composer.ci-phpunit.json), adjusts phpunit/phpunit for the PHP version, requires mongodb/mongodb, resolves the dependencies fresh with composer update, and deletes the overlay when it ends. It cannot use one committed lock file: the dev requirements differ per PHP version, and a frozen lock broke on every later repin of composer.json.

PHP 7.4 and PHP 8.0 are not in this matrix: PHPUnit 10 and later need 8.1, and the tests are written for them. PHP 8.0 is covered by the job php80 of .github/workflows/quality.yml instead: php -l with 8.0 on every PHP file, a production composer install on 8.0, and the boot smoke test tests/bin/bootsmoke.php (every kernel and extension class loaded, the compatibility functions, a template with wash). See PHP 8.0 support and quality checks.

Job phpunit-db #

Runs on PHP 8.3 with MySQL 8.0 and with PostgreSQL 15 (service containers), creates the database testdb (PostgreSQL also gets the pgcrypto extension), sets the time zone to America/Los_Angeles for stable results and runs:

php -d date.timezone=America/Los_Angeles tests/runtests.php --dsn "mysql://[email protected]/testdb" --db-per-test tests extension/ezoe

--db-per-test gives each test class a fresh schema, as the legacy toolkit does.

Run the same on your machine #

You need a checkout with its vendor/ directory (a copy of the Exponential distribution, not a bare git clone; if vendor/ is missing, run composer install once yourself).

# all suites
php vendor/bin/phpunit

# one suite
php vendor/bin/phpunit --testsuite security
php vendor/bin/phpunit --testsuite kernel-classes

# list tests and files
php vendor/bin/phpunit --list-tests
php vendor/bin/phpunit --list-test-files

# the suites and how many tests each holds (6.0.15 tree, PHPUnit 13.0.0)
php vendor/bin/phpunit --list-suites

# the database tests of the legacy toolkit (use a throw-away database)
php tests/runtests.php --dsn=mysql://YOUR_USER:[email protected]/testdb --db-per-test tests

The test suites in phpunit.xml. Test counts were checked with --list-suites on 5 October 2026 (2 October: kernel-classes 1364, kernel-datatypes 38, lib 610); they grow with every release.

Groups database, mail-live, mongodb-live and network-live are excluded from the default run. Do not point a test run at a database that holds content you want to keep: the database tests create and drop tables.

Running the tests: the two kinds of test #

• Unit tests need no database and no siteaccess. They call a class directly, with stand-ins where it needs an object (a template, a content object attribute, a request) and with the settings they depend on set in the test and put back in tearDown(). They run in every CI job. Examples: eZTemplateEngineRenderTest renders about 150 template sources once processed and once compiled (compiled files go to a private directory under var/tmp and are removed afterwards) and both outputs must match; eZLocaleFormattingTest checks every locale in share/locale; the datatype tests write and read back the stored XML and the text form used by import and export; the REST tests build ezpRestRequest objects.
• Tests of a live installation start with ezpLiveInstallation::requireOrSkip() and skip with the reason when there is no database with an installed site, as in CI. They create their own data and remove it again.

Rules for new tests: tables of cases as data providers; no network, no sleeps, no real mail (the file transport); temporary files under var/tmp, removed in tearDown(); PHP 8.0 syntax (type declarations only on setUp()/tearDown(), which PHPUnit requires). A test written for a bug fails before the fix and is committed with it or right after it; a failing test is never weakened to pass.

On a shared server where several people run suites against one SQLite database, run the suites that write to it one at a time: SQLite allows one writer.

Coverage with Xdebug #

tests/xdebug.ini loads Xdebug in coverage mode for isolated test processes. tests/bootstrap.php finds the system's PHP ini scan directory at run time and appends tests/, so the children load it too (11 July; on 18 August the double zend_extension load that broke PHP 8.4 with Xdebug 3.5 was removed, 302134b6e8).

php -d xdebug.mode=coverage vendor/bin/phpunit --coverage-text

When Xdebug is installed but not enabled for the CLI (as with Plesk's PHP builds), load it for one run only: -d zend_extension=... does not reach the isolated test processes, which read the ini scan directories, so put a directory with an ini file that loads it in front of tests/:

mkdir -p var/tmp/xdebug-scan
printf 'zend_extension=/opt/plesk/php/8.5/lib64/php/modules/xdebug.so\nxdebug.mode=coverage\n' > var/tmp/xdebug-scan/90-xdebug.ini
PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR="/opt/plesk/php/8.5/etc/php.d:$PWD/var/tmp/xdebug-scan:$PWD/tests" XDEBUG_MODE=coverage \
    /opt/plesk/php/8.5/bin/php -d memory_limit=4G vendor/bin/phpunit --coverage-text --only-summary-for-coverage-text

The <source> of phpunit.xml is lib/ and kernel/, about 205 000 lines. Measured on 5 October 2026 with a live database present: all suites together covered 23.4 % of the lines (47 580) and 18.7 % of the methods before that day's unit tests were added; the lib suite alone went from 2.4 % of the lines (629 tests) to 7.6 % (2 028 tests) the same day. The suites that write to a live database are slow with coverage on, so on a shared server measure the suites that need no database directly and the live ones one directory at a time.

For extension authors #

• Put tests under tests/ in your extension and add a testsuite to a copy of phpunit.xml.
• Do not declare the same test class name twice (two fixes in August renamed duplicates in the MongoDB tests and the eZINITest class).
• Abstract base classes are excluded from the suites; concrete subclasses require_once their base.
• The test toolkit still offers ezpTestCase, ezpDatabaseTestCase and ezpTestSuite; they boot the kernel through eZScript, so do not bootstrap the kernel yourself in bootstrap.php.

Related pages #

• Tool-chain: PHPUnit 10, PHPUnit 13, PHPUnit 13 for PHP 8.4.1, PHP 8 support
• Specifications: Security patches of August 2026 (the security suite), Database drivers and installers, September 2026
• Behaviour changes of July and August 2026, 6.0.15 changelog, month pages July 2026 and August 2026