gateway-conformance

A tool designed to test if an IPFS Gateway implementation complies with the IPFS Gateway Specification correctly.
Distributed as a Docker image, as well as a GitHub Action(s).

• Commands
  • test
    • Inputs
    • Subdomain Testing and subdomain-url
    • Usage
  • extract-fixtures
    • Inputs
    • Outputs
    • Usage
• Testing Your Gateway
  • Provisioning the Gateway
• Local Development
• Examples
• APIs
• Dashboard
  • Adding your gateway to the dashboard
  • Building the Dashboard
• FAQ
• In Development

Commands

test

The test command is the main command of the tool. It is used to test a given IPFS Gateway implementation against the IPFS Gateway Specification.

Inputs

Input	Availability	Description	Default
gateway-url	Both	The URL of the IPFS Gateway implementation to be tested.	http://localhost:8080
subdomain-url	Both	The Subdomain URL of the IPFS Gateway implementation to be tested.	http://example.com
json	Both	The path where the JSON test report should be generated.	./report.json
xml	GitHub Action	The path where the JUnit XML test report should be generated.	./report.xml
html	GitHub Action	The path where the one-page HTML test report should be generated.	./report.html
markdown	GitHub Action	The path where the summary Markdown test report should be generated.	./report.md
specs	Both	A comma-separated list of specs to be tested. Accepts a spec (test only this spec), a +spec (test also this immature spec), or a -spec (do not test this mature spec).	Mature specs only
args	Both	[DANGER] The args input allows you to pass custom, free-text arguments directly to the Go test command that the tool employs to execute tests.	N/A

Specs

By default, only mature specs (reliable, stable, or permanent) will be tested if this input is not provided. You can specify particular specs without any prefixes (e.g., subdomain-gateway, trustless-gateway, path-gateway) to test exclusively those, irrespective of their maturity status.

To selectively enable or disable specs based on their maturity, use the "+" and "-" prefixes. Adding a "+" prefix (e.g., +subdomain-gateway) means that the spec should be included in the test, in addition to the mature specs. Conversely, using a "-" prefix (e.g., -subdomain-gateway) means that the spec should be excluded from the test, even if it is mature.

If you provide a list containing both prefixed and unprefixed specs, the prefixed specs will be ignored. It is advisable to use either prefixed or unprefixed specs, but not both. However, you can include specs with both "+" and "-" prefixes in the same list.

Args

This input should be used sparingly and with caution, as it involves interacting with the underlying internal processes, which may be subject to changes. It is recommended to use the args input only when you have a deep understanding of the tool's inner workings and need to fine-tune the testing process. Users should be mindful of the potential risks associated with using this input.

Subdomain Testing and subdomain-url

The subdomain-url parameter is utilized when testing subdomain support in your IPFS gateway. It can be set to any domain that your gateway permits. During testing, the suite keeps connecting to the gateway-url while employing HTTP techniques to simulate requests as if they were sent to the subdomain. This approach enables testing of local gateways during development or continuous integration (CI) scenarios.

A few examples:

Use Case	gateway-url	subdomain-url
CI & Dev	http://127.0.0.1:8080	http://example.com
Production	https://dweb.link	https://dweb.link

Usage

GitHub Action

- name: Run gateway-conformance tests
  uses: ipfs/gateway-conformance/.github/actions/test@v1
  with:
    gateway-url: http://localhost:8080
    specs: +subdomain-gateway,-path-gateway
    json: report.json
    xml: report.xml
    markdown: report.md
    html: report.html
    args: -timeout 30m

Docker

docker run --network host -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -w "/workspace" ghcr.io/ipfs/gateway-conformance test --gateway-url http://localhost:8080 --json report.json --specs +subdomain-gateway,-path-gateway -- -timeout 30m

extract-fixtures

The extract-fixtures command is used to extract the test fixtures from the gateway-conformance tool.

Inputs

Input	Availability	Description	Default
output	Both	The path where the test fixtures should be extracted.	./fixtures
merged	Both	Whether the fixtures should be merged into as few files as possible.	false

Outputs

When you use --merged=true the following files are be generated:

• fixtures.car: A car file that contains all the blocks required to run the tests
• dnslinks.json: A configuration file listing all the dnslink names required to run the tests related to DNSLinks
• *.ipns-record: Many raw ipns-record files required to run the tests related to IPNS

Examples of how to import these in Kubo are shown in kubo-config.example.sh and the Makefile.

Without --merged=true, many car files and dnslink configurations file will be generated, we don't recommend using these.

Usage

GitHub Action

- name: Extract gateway-conformance fixtures
  uses: ipfs/gateway-conformance/.github/actions/extract-fixtures@v1
  with:
    output: fixtures
    merged: false

Docker

docker run -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -w "/workspace" ghcr.io/ipfs/gateway-conformance extract-fixtures --output fixtures --merged false

Testing Your Gateway

You can find the workflow that runs the gateway conformance test suite against Kubo in the file .github/workflows/test.yml. This can serve as a good starting point when setting up your own test suite.

We've also aimed to keep the kubo-config.example.sh script and the Makefile as straightforward as possible to provide useful examples to get started.

Provisioning the Gateway

We make minimal assumptions about the capabilities of the gateway being tested. Which means that we don't require nor expect the gateway to be writable. Therefore, you need to provision the gateway with test fixtures before running the test suite.

These fixtures are located in the ./fixtures folders. We distribute tools for extracting them. Refer to the documentation for the extract-fixtures command for more details.

Fixtures:

• Blocks & Dags: These are served as CAR file(s).
• IPNS Records: These are distributed as files containing IPNS Record serialized as protobuf. The file name includes the Multihash of the public key (IPNS Name) in this format: pubkey(_optional_suffix)?.ipns-record. We may decide to share CAR files in the future.
• DNS Links: These are distributed as yml configurations. You can use the --merge option to generate a consolidated .json file, which can be more convenient for use in a shell script.

Local Development

This is how we use the test-suite when we work on the suite itself or a gateway implementation:

# Generate the fixtures
make fixtures.car

# Import the fixtures in Kubo
# We import car files and ipns-records during this step.
# We import DNSLink fixtures through the `IPFS_NS_MAP` below. 
make provision-kubo

# Configure Kubo for the test-suite
# This also generated the `IPFS_NS_MAP` variable to setup DNSLink fixtures
source ./kubo-config.example.sh

# Start a Kubo daemon in offline mode
ipfs daemon --offline

By then the gateway is configured and you may run the test-suite.

make test-kubo

# run with subdomain testing which requires more configuration (see kubo-config.example.sh)
make test-kubo-subdomains

If you are using a different gateway and would like to use a different configuration, the Makefile and configuration scripts are great, up-to-date, starting points.

The test-suite is a regular go test-suite, which means that any IDE integration will work as-well. You can use env variables to configure the tests from your IDE.

Here is an example for VSCode, example.com is the domain configured via kubo-config.example.sh

{
  "go.testEnvVars": {
    "GATEWAY_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:8080",
    "SUBDOMAIN_GATEWAY_URL": "http://example.com",
    "GOLOG_LOG_LEVEL": "conformance=debug"
  },
}

With this configuration, the tests will appear in Testing on VSCode's left sidebar.

It's also possible to run test suite locally and use make ./reports/output.html to generate a human-readable report from the test results in reports/output.json.

Examples

The examples are going to use gateway-conformance as a wrapper over docker run -v "${PWD}:/workspace" -w "/workspace" ghcr.io/ipfs/gateway-conformance for simplicity.

Testing only mature specs

By default, all mature tests are run. Mature tests generally refer to specifications whose status is mature.

gateway-conformance test

Testing specific specs, regardless of their maturity level

gateway-conformance test --specs subdomain-gateway,path-gateway

Testing mature specs and additionally enabling specific specs

gateway-conformance test --specs +subdomain-gateway

Testing mature specs, while disabling specific specs

gateway-conformance test --specs -subdomain-gateway,-dnslink-gateway

Testing specific spec (trustless gateway), while disabling a sub-part of it

gateway-conformance test --specs trustless-gateway,-trustless-gateway-ipns

Skip a specific test

Tests are skipped using Go's standard syntax:

gateway-conformance test -skip 'TestGatewayCar/GET_response_for_application/vnd.ipld.car/Header_Content-Length'

Extracting the test fixtures

gateway-conformance extract-fixtures

Extracting the test fixtures into a single CAR file

gateway-conformance extract-fixtures --merged true

APIs

Templating

golang's default string formating package is similar to C. Format strings might look like "this is a %s" where %s is a verb that will be replaced at runtime.

These verbs collides with URL-escaping a lot, strings like /ipfs/Qm.../%c4%85/%c4%99 might trigger weird errors. We implemented a minimal templating library that is used almost everywhere in the test.

It uses {{name}} as a replacement for %s. Other verbs are not supported.

Fmt("{{action}} the {{target}}", "pet", "cat") // => "pet the cat"

Backticks enable use of verbatim strings, without having to deal with golang-specific escaping of things like double quotes:

Fmt(`Etag: W/"{{etag-value}}"`, "weak-key") // => "ETag: W/\"weak-key\""

It is required to always provide a meaningful {{name}}:

Fmt(`/ipfs/{{cid}}/%c4%85/%c4%99`, fixture.myCID) // => "/ipfs/Qm..../%c4%85/%c4%99"

Values are replaced in the order they are defined, and you may reuse named values

Fmt(`<a href="{{cid}}">{{label}}}</a><a href="{{cid}}/index.html">index</a>`, fixture.myCID, "Link Title!") // => '<a href="Qm...">Link Title!</a><a href="Qm..../index.html">index</a>'

You may escape {{}} by using more than two opening or closing braces,

Fmt("{foo}") // => "{foo}"
Fmt("{{{foo}}}") // => "{{foo}}"
Fmt("{{{{foo}}}}") // => "{{{foo}}}"
Fmt("{{{foo}}}") // => {{foo}}

This templating is used almost everywhere in the test sugar, for example in request Path:

Request().Path("ipfs/{{cid}}", myCid) // will use "ipfs/Qm...."

Dashboard

The gateway conformance test suite includes a web dashboard. This dashboard aggregates results from many test runs and renders them on a static website. This'll give you more detailed insights and navigation options.

Adding your gateway to the dashboard

The dashboard is hosted at conformance.ipfs.tech. It aggregates test outputs from various IPFS implementations and renders them on a static website.

To add your gateway to the dashboard, you need to:

• Ensure that your gateway's repository is public.
• Ensure your gateway generates generates the output.json file in a gateway-conformance.yml file. Check kubo's workflow for an example.
• Add your gateway to the list of repositories in the REPOSITORIES file.

Once you join the dashboard, your test results will be picked up automatically and your implementation will show up on the dashboard.

Building the Dashboard

• Set up a GitHub Token: Ensure you have a GitHub Token with repo:read scope. This is required to download artifacts.
• Run the Build Command: GH_TOKEN=your_github_token make website

This command downloads the latest test artifacts from the repositories listed in the ./REPOSITORIES file. Then it generates a static website with Hugo in the www/public directory.

FAQ

How to generate XML, HTML and Markdown reports when using the tool as a Docker container?

The tool can generate XML, HTML and Markdown reports when used as a GitHub Action. However, when using the tool as a Docker container, you can generate these reports by using the saxon Docker image. You can draw inspiration from the gotest-json-to-junit-xml and the junit-xml-to-html GitHub Actions.

Please let us know if you would like to see this feature implemented directly in the Docker image distribution.

In Development

• How to deal with subdomains & configuration (t0114 for example)?
  • Some test relies on querying URLs like http://$CIDv1.ipfs.example.com/. While http://$CIDv1.ipfs.localhost/ works by default, do we need / want to test with .example.com?
• Debug logging
  • Set the environment variable GOLOG_LOG_LEVEL="conformance=debug" to toggle debug logging.