Skip to content

Compatibility testing strategy

The most valuable tests for Gossipper are behavior-level compatibility checks, not only unit tests.

Layers

  1. Unit tests
  2. XML parser
  3. template rendering
  4. SIP parsing
  5. auth / HEP helpers

  6. RTP packet generation

  7. Integration tests

  8. run gossipper against a lightweight SIP stub over UDP/TCP/TLS as needed
  9. verify sent request order, response matching, retransmit behavior, XML actions, and summary stats

  10. verify trace outputs such as -trace_stat, -trace_rtt, -trace_logs, -trace_err, and HEP export

  11. Side-by-side compatibility tests

  12. execute representative SIPp scenarios from sipp/docs
  13. compare resulting SIP messages, branch progression, and observed timing windows
  • basic UAC call flow
  • basic UAS responder
  • optional provisional responses
  • label-based branching
  • action-heavy XML flows (ereg, lookup, arithmetic, auth validation)
  • HEP export smoke coverage
  • timeout and retransmit cases

Golden artifacts

Keep expected SIP exchanges under testdata/ as plain text golden fixtures so both the parser and engine can be regression-tested deterministically.

For CSV/JSON/HEP outputs, prefer assertions on stable semantic fields rather than byte-for-byte full-file snapshots, so the tests stay resilient when new columns or metadata are added intentionally.

For -trace_stat / -trace_rtt / -trace_screen, treat the CSV header as an explicit contract: assert exact column names and order against docs/trace-schema-contract.md.

For -trace_error_codes, keep a smoke assertion that verifies the CSV header and at least one expected unexpected-response row in the artifact.

For -trace_screen, keep a smoke assertion that verifies the CSV header and at least one runtime snapshot row in the artifact.

For parser migrations, prefer an external mapping adapter over adding runtime legacy alias columns in generated CSV traces.