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PegoMock is a mocking framework for the Go programming language. It integrates well with Go’s built-in testing package, but can be used in other contexts too. It is based on golang/mock, but uses a DSL closely related to Mockito.

Installing Pegomock

Pegomock consists of a binary pegomock and a package. Install both via:

go install github.com/petergtz/pegomock/v4/pegomock@latest
go get github.com/petergtz/pegomock/v4@latest

This will download the package and install an executable pegomock in the directory named by the $GOBIN environment variable, which defaults to $GOPATH/bin or $HOME/go/bin if the $GOPATH environment variable is not set.

The pegomock binary is used to generate mocks and to watch over changes in interfaces. The package is used in your tests to create and verify mocks.

See also section Tracking the pegomock tool in your project for a per-project control of the tool version.

For migration from Pegomock v1/v2 to v3, see Migration notes in v3 release description.

For migration from Pegomock v3 to v4, see Migration notes in v4 release description.

Getting Started

Using Pegomock with Golang’s XUnit-style Tests

The preferred way is:

import (
	"github.com/petergtz/pegomock/v4"
	"testing"
)

func TestUsingMocks(t *testing.T) {
	mock := NewMockPhoneBook(pegomock.WithT(t))

	// use your mock here
}

Alternatively, you can set a global fail handler within your test:

func TestUsingMocks(t *testing.T) {
	pegomock.RegisterMockTestingT(t)

	mock := NewMockPhoneBook()

	// use your mock here
}

Note: In this case, Pegomock uses a global (singleton) fail handler. This has the benefit that you don’t need to pass the fail handler down to each test, but does mean that you cannot run your XUnit style tests in parallel with Pegomock.

If you configure both a global fail handler and a specific one for your mock, the specific one overrides the global fail handler.

Using Pegomock with Ginkgo

When a Pegomock verification fails, it calls a FailHandler. This is a function that you must provide using pegomock.RegisterMockFailHandler().

If you’re using Ginkgo, all you need to do is:

pegomock.RegisterMockFailHandler(ginkgo.Fail)

before you start your test suite.

Avoiding Ginkgo Naming Collision with `When` Function

Ginkgo introduced a new keyword in its DSL: When. This causes name collisions when dot-importing both Ginkgo and Pegomock. To avoid this, you can use a different dot-import for Pegomock which uses Whenever instead of When. Example:

package some_test

import (
	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo"
	. "github.com/petergtz/pegomock/v4/ginkgo_compatible"
)

var _ = Describe("Some function", func() {
	When("certain condition", func() {
		It("succeeds", func() {
			mock := NewMockPhoneBook()
			Whenever(mock.GetPhoneNumber(Eq("Tom"))).ThenReturn("123-456-789")
		})
	})
})

Generating Your First Mock and Using It

Let’s assume you have:

type Display interface {
	Show(text string)
}

The simplest way is to call pegomock from within your go package specifying the interface by its name:

cd path/to/package
pegomock generate Display

This will generate a mock_display_test.go file which you can now use in your tests:

// creating mock
display := NewMockDisplay()

// using the mock
display.Show("Hello World!")

// verifying
display.VerifyWasCalledOnce().Show("Hello World!")

Why yet Another Mocking Framework for Go?

I’ve looked at some of the other frameworks, but found none of them satisfying:

GoMock seemed overly complicated when setting up mocks and verifying them. The command line interface is also not quite intuitive. That said, Pegomock is based on the GoMock, reusing mostly the mockgen code.

Counterfeiter uses a DSL that I didn’t find expressive enough. It often seems to need more lines of code too. In one of its samples, it uses e.g.:

  fake.DoThings("stuff", 5)
  Expect(fake.DoThingsCallCount()).To(Equal(1))

  str, num := fake.DoThingsArgsForCall(0)
  Expect(str).To(Equal("stuff"))
  Expect(num).To(Equal(uint64(5)))

In Pegomock, this can be written as simple as:

  fake.DoThings("stuff", 5)
  fake.VerifyWasCalledOnce().DoThings("stuff", 5)

In addition, Pegomock provides a “watch” command similar to Ginkgo, which constantly watches over changes in an interface and updates its mocks. It gives the framework a much more dynamic feel, similar to mocking frameworks in Ruby or Java.

Using Mocks In Your Tests

Verifying Behavior

Interface:

type Display interface {
	Show(text string)
}

Test:

// creating mock:
display := NewMockDisplay()

// using the mock:
display.Show("Hello World!")

// verifying:
display.VerifyWasCalledOnce().Show("Hello World!")

Stubbing

Interface:

type PhoneBook interface {
	GetPhoneNumber(name string) string
}

Test:

// creating the mock
phoneBook := NewMockPhoneBook()

// stubbing:
When(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Tom")).ThenReturn("345-123-789")
When(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Invalid")).ThenPanic("Invalid Name")

// prints "345-123-789":
fmt.Println(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Tom"))

// panics:
fmt.Println(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Invalid"))

// prints "", because GetPhoneNumber("Dan") was not stubbed
fmt.Println(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Dan"))

// Although it is possible to verify a stubbed invocation, usually it's redundant
// If your code cares what GetPhoneNumber("Tom") returns, then something else breaks (often even before a verification gets executed).
// If your code doesn't care what GetPhoneNumber("Tom") returns, then it should not be stubbed.

// Not convinced? See http://monkeyisland.pl/2008/04/26/asking-and-telling.
phoneBook.VerifyWasCalledOnce().GetPhoneNumber("Tom")

By default, for all methods that return a value, a mock will return zero values.
Once stubbed, the method will always return a stubbed value, regardless of how many times it is called.
ThenReturn supports chaining, i.e. ThenReturn(...).ThenReturn(...) etc. The mock will return the values in the same order the chaining was done. The values from the last ThenReturn will be returned indefinitely when the number of call exceeds the ThenReturns.

Stubbing Functions That Have no Return Value

Stubbing functions that have no return value requires a slightly different approach, because such functions cannot be passed directly to another function. However, we can wrap them in an anonymous function:

// creating mock:
display := NewMockDisplay()

// stubbing
When(func() { display.Show("Hello World!") }).ThenPanic("Panicking")

// panics:
display.Show("Hello World!")

Argument Matchers

Pegomock provides matchers for stubbing and verification.

Verification:

display := NewMockDisplay()

// Calling mock
display.Show("Hello again!")

// Verification:
display.VerifyWasCalledOnce().Show(AnyString())

Stubbing:

phoneBook := NewMockPhoneBook()

// Stubbing:
When(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber(AnyString())).ThenReturn("123-456-789")

// Prints "123-456-789":
fmt.Println(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Dan"))
// Also prints "123-456-789":
fmt.Println(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Tom"))

Important: When you use argument matchers, you must always use them for all arguments:

// Incorrect, panics:
When(contactList.getContactByFullName("Dan", AnyString())).thenReturn(Contact{...})
// Correct:
When(contactList.getContactByFullName(Eq("Dan"), AnyString())).thenReturn(Contact{...})

Matching custom types:

type SearchQuery struct { ... }

When(contactList.searchContacts(Eq(SearchQuery{...}))).thenReturn([]Contact{...})

When(contactList.searchContacts(Any[SearchQuery]())).thenReturn([]Contact{...})

Verifying the Number of Invocations

display := NewMockDisplay()

// Calling mock
display.Show("Hello")
display.Show("Hello, again")
display.Show("And again")

// Verification:
display.VerifyWasCalled(Times(3)).Show(AnyString())
// or:
display.VerifyWasCalled(AtLeast(3)).Show(AnyString())
// or:
display.VerifyWasCalled(Never()).Show("This one was never called")

Verifying in Order

display1 := NewMockDisplay()
display2 := NewMockDisplay()

// Calling mocks
display1.Show("One")
display1.Show("Two")
display2.Show("Another two")
display1.Show("Three")

// Verification:
inOrderContext := new(InOrderContext)
display1.VerifyWasCalledInOrder(Once(), inOrderContext).Show("One")
display2.VerifyWasCalledInOrder(Once(), inOrderContext).Show("Another two")
display1.VerifyWasCalledInOrder(Once(), inOrderContext).Show("Three")

Note that it’s not necessary to verify the call for display.Show("Two") if that one is not of any interested. An InOrderContext only verifies that the verifications that are done, are in order.

Stubbing with Callbacks

phoneBook := NewMockPhoneBook()

// Stubbing:
When(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber(AnyString())).Then(func(params []Param) ReturnValues {
	return []ReturnValue{fmt.Sprintf("1-800-CALL-%v", strings.ToUpper(params[0]))}
},


// Prints "1-800-CALL-DAN":
fmt.Println(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Dan"))
// Prints "1-800-CALL-TOM":
fmt.Println(phoneBook.GetPhoneNumber("Tom"))

Verifying with Argument Capture

In some cases it can be useful to capture the arguments from mock invocations and assert on them separately. This method is only recommended if the techniques using matchers are not sufficient.

display := NewMockDisplay()

// Calling mock
display.Show("Hello")
display.Show("Hello, again")
display.Show("And again")

// Verification and getting captured arguments
text := display.VerifyWasCalled(AtLeast(1)).Show(AnyString()).GetCapturedArguments()

// Captured arguments are from last invocation
Expect(text).To(Equal("And again"))

You can also get all captured arguments:

// Verification and getting all captured arguments
texts := display.VerifyWasCalled(AtLeast(1)).Show(AnyString()).GetAllCapturedArguments()

// Captured arguments are a slice
Expect(texts).To(ConsistOf("Hello", "Hello, again", "And again"))

Verifying with Asynchronous Mock Invocations

When the code exercising the mock is run as part of a Goroutine, it’s necessary to verify in a polling fashion until a timeout kicks in. VerifyWasCalledEventually can help here:

display := NewMockDisplay()

go func() {
	doSomething()
	display.Show("Hello")
}()

display.VerifyWasCalledEventually(Once(), 2*time.Second).Show("Hello")

The Pegomock CLI

Installation

Install it via:

go install github.com/petergtz/pegomock/v4/pegomock@latest

Tracking the pegomock tool in your project

Go modules allow to pin not only a package but also a tool (that is, an executable). The steps are:

Use a file named tools.go with contents similar to this: ```go // +build tools

// This file will never be compiled (see the build constraint above); it is // used to record dependencies on build tools with the Go modules machinery. // See https://github.com/go-modules-by-example/index/blob/master/010_tools/README.md

package tools

import ( _ “github.com/petergtz/pegomock/v4/pegomock” )

2. Set `$GOBIN` to a `bin` directory relative to your repo (this defines where tool dependencies will be installed).
2. Install the tool with `go install`:
```console
$ cd /path/to/myproject
$ export GOBIN=$PWD/bin
$ go install github.com/petergtz/pegomock/v4/pegomock

Use that $GOBIN when invoking pegomock for that project:

$ $GOBIN/pegomock ...

$ export PATH=$GOBIN:$PATH
$ pegomock ...

See Tools as dependencies for details.

Generating Mocks

To generate mocks, invoke Pegomock like this:

pegomock generate [<flags>] [<packagepath>] <interfacename>

Flags can be any of the following:

--output,-o: Output file; defaults to mock__test.go.
--package: Package of the generated code; defaults to the package from which pegomock was executed suffixed with _test

For more flags, run:

pegomock --help

Generating Mocks with `--use-experimental-model-gen`

There are a number of shortcomings in the current reflection-based implementation. To overcome these, there is now an option to use a new, experimental implementation that is based on golang.org/x/tools/go/loader. To use it when generating your mocks, invoke pegomock like this:

pegomock generate --use-experimental-model-gen [<flags>] [<packagepath>] <interfacename>

What are the benefits?

The current default uses the reflect package to introspect the interface for which a mock should be generated. But reflection cannot determine method parameter names, only types. This forces the generator to generate them based on a pattern. In a code editor with code assistence, those pattern-based names (such as _param0, _param1) are non-descriptive and provide less help while writing code. The new implementation properly parses the source (including all dependent packages) and subsequently uses the same names as used in the interface definition.
With the current default you cannot generate an interface that lives in the main package. It’s due to the way this implementation works: it imports the interface’s package into temporarily generated code that gets compiled on the fly. This compilation fails, because there are now two main functions.
The new implementation is simpler and will probably become the default in the future, because it will be easier to maintain.

What are the drawbacks?

There is only one drawback: maturity. The new implementation is not complete yet, and also might have some bugs that still need to be fixed.

Users of Pegomock are encouraged to use this new option and report any problems by opening an issue. Help to stabilize it is greatly appreciated.

Generating mocks with `go generate`

pegomock can be used with go generate. Simply add the directive to your source file.

Here’s an example for a Display interface used by a calculator program:

// package/path/to/display/display.go

package display

type Display interface {
	Show(text string)
}

// package/path/to/calculator/calculator_test.go

package calculator_test

//go:generate pegomock generate package/path/to/display Display

// Use generated mock
mockDisplay := NewMockDisplay()
...

Generating it:

cd package/path/to/calculator
go generate

Note: While you could add the directive adjacent to the interface definition, the author’s opinion is that this violates clean dependency management and would pollute the package of the interface. It’s better to generate the mock in the same package, where it is used (if this coincides with the interface package, that’s fine). That way, not only stays the interface’s package clean, the tests also don’t need to prefix the mock with a package, or use a dot-import.

Continuously Generating Mocks

The watch command lets Pegomock generate mocks continuously on every change to an interface:

pegomock watch

For this, Pegomock expects an interfaces_to_mock file in the package directory where the mocks should be generated. In fact, pegomock watch will create it for you if it doesn’t exist yet. The contents of the file are similar to the ones of the generate command:

# Any line starting with a # is treated as comment.

# interface name without package specifies an Interface in the current package:
PhoneBook

 # generates a mock for SomeInterfacetaken from mypackage:
path/to/my/mypackage SomeInterface

# you can also specify a Go file:
display.go

# and use most of the flags from the "generate" command
--output my_special_output.go MyInterface

Flags can be:

--recursive,-r: Recursively watch sub-directories as well.

Removing Generated Mocks

Sometimes it can be useful to systematically remove all mocks and matcher files generated by Pegomock. For this purpose, there is the remove command. By simply calling it from the current directory

pegomock remove

it will remove all Pegomock-generated files in the current directory. It supports additional flags, such as --recursive to recursively remove all Pegomock-generated files in sub-directories as well. To see all possible options, run:

pegomock remove --help