Fuzz Testing
Introduction
Fuzz testing produces pseudo-random / arbitrary data that is used to find stability issues within a code base. While Rust provides a strong type system, this does not guarantee that an object will convert properly from one struct to another. It is the responsibility of the developer to ensure that a struct is converted properly. Fuzz testing will generate input within the domain of each property. This arbitrary data can then be used to convert from ObjectA to ObjectB and then back. This type of testing will help catch bugs that the type system is not able to see.
Installation
This crate relies on the cargo-fuzz component. To install this component,
run the following from the fuzz directory:
cargo install cargo-fuzz
Listing Targets
Once installed, fuzz targets can be listed by running the following command:
cargo fuzz list
This command will print out a list of all targets that can be tested.
Running Fuzz Tests
To run a fuzz test, the target must be specified:
cargo fuzz run <target>
Note that the above will run the fuzz test indefinitely. Use the
-max_total_time=<num seconds> flag to specify how many seconds the test
should run for:
cargo fuzz run <target> -- -max_total_time=5
The above command will run the fuzz test for five seconds. If the test completes without error it will show how many tests were run successfully. The test will abort and return a non-zero error code if it is able to produce an error. The arbitrary input will be displayed in the event of a failure.