Testing framework for shell commands with declarative syntax.
Features
- Test shell commands with expected success/failure
- Interactive command testing with pexpect
- Variable storage and manipulation
- File operations and content verification
- Reusable test snippets
- Isolated test environments
Installation
Requirements: Python 3.7+, pexpect library
pip install pexpect chmod +x shellspec.py
Usage
# Run all tests ./shellspec.py mytests.spec # Run specific test by number or name ./shellspec.py mytests.spec --test 1 ./shellspec.py mytests.spec --test "file operations" # Show command output ./shellspec.py mytests.spec --verbose
Writing Tests
For complete syntax documentation, see SYNTAX.md.
For a quick reference, see the cheatsheet.
Basic Test Structure
> Test case name
$. command args # Run command expecting success
?. stdout "expected" # Assert stdout contains "expected"
Demos and Examples
Calculator
See the calculator_spec.txt for the test implementation.
File Processor
See the file_processor_spec.txt for the test implementation.
Interactive Calculator
See the interactive_calculator_spec.txt for the test implementation.
Configuration
Command Aliases
ShellSpec allows you to define aliases for commands to simplify testing or provide custom paths. Edit the COMMAND_ALIASES dictionary in shellspec.py:
COMMAND_ALIASES = { "myapp": "../path/to/myapp", "python3": "/usr/bin/python3", }
Commands not found in the aliases dictionary will be executed directly as system commands.
Timeout Settings
The default timeout for shell commands is 30 seconds. Modify SHELL_TIMEOUT in shellspec.py to change this.
Documentation
- SYNTAX.md - Complete syntax reference with examples
- shellspec-cheatsheet.txt - Quick reference for all commands
License
MIT License - see LICENSE for details.
Related Projects
ShellSpec was originally developed as part of the age-store project for testing command-line encryption tools. It has been extracted into its own project for broader use.