libakerror/tests/MUTATION.md

# Mutation testing

The unit tests tell us the library works. **Mutation testing tells us the tests
work** — that they would actually fail if the library were broken.

`scripts/mutation_test.py` deliberately breaks the library in small ways
("mutants"), one at a time, and runs the whole CTest suite against each broken
copy:

* if the tests **fail**, the mutant is **killed** — good, the suite caught it;
* if the tests still **pass**, the mutant **survived** — a bug of that shape
  would slip through, so it points at a missing test.

The **mutation score** is `killed / (killed + survived)`. A surviving mutant is
a to-do item: write a test that distinguishes the mutant from the original.

## Running

No third-party tools are required — just Python 3 and the normal
cmake/ctest toolchain. The harness never touches your working tree; it copies
the repo to a scratch directory and mutates the copy.

```sh
# Default: mutate src/error.c and include/akerror.tmpl.h
scripts/mutation_test.py

# Faster: just the C source
scripts/mutation_test.py --target src/error.c

# See what would run without building anything
scripts/mutation_test.py --target src/error.c --list

# Gate CI: exit non-zero if the score drops below 90%
scripts/mutation_test.py --threshold 90
```

Via CMake (configures a build first if needed):

```sh
cmake --build build --target mutation
```

Useful flags: `--timeout SECONDS` (per-suite build+test cap; a mutant that
hangs is counted as killed), `--keep` (retain the scratch copy for debugging),
`--work DIR` (use a specific scratch directory), `--junit FILE` (write a JUnit
XML report — surviving mutants appear as failing test cases).

## CI reporting

Both the unit tests and the mutation run emit JUnit XML that CI consumes:

* `ctest --test-dir build --output-junit "$(pwd)/ctest-junit.xml"` — note the
  absolute path; `--output-junit` otherwise resolves relative to the test dir.
* `scripts/mutation_test.py --junit mutation-junit.xml`

`.gitea/workflows/ci.yaml` runs both and feeds the XML to
`mikepenz/action-junit-report` (with `if: always()`, so results publish even
when a gate fails). The reporter runs with `annotate_only: true`: Gitea does not
implement the Checks API the action uses to create a check run, so creating one
404s (mikepenz/action-junit-report#23). `annotate_only` skips that call and the
results surface via the job summary (`detailed_summary: true`) instead. The
generated `*-junit.xml` files are git-ignored.

## Mutation operators

Each mutant changes exactly one location by one of:

| Tag | Operator                       | Example                          |
|-----|--------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| ROR | relational operator            | `==` → `!=`, `<` → `<=`, `>=` → `>` |
| LCR | logical connector              | `&&` → `\|\|`                     |
| BCR | boolean constant               | `true` → `false`                 |
| AOR | arithmetic / compound assign   | `+` → `-`, `+=` → `-=`           |
| ICR | integer literal                | `0` → `1`, `1` → `0`             |
| SDL | statement deletion             | `err->refcount += 1;` → *(removed)* |

Preprocessor control lines, comments, and the block of error-code / buffer-size
`#define`s are skipped: mutating those produces equivalent or uninteresting
mutants that only add noise.

## Interpreting survivors

Not every survivor is a test gap — some mutants are **equivalent** (they don't
change observable behaviour, e.g. resizing an internal scratch buffer). For each
survivor, decide:

1. **Real gap** → add or strengthen a test in `tests/` so the mutant is killed,
   then re-run.
2. **Equivalent mutant** → no test can catch it; leave a note. If a specific
   line is a persistent source of equivalents, narrow the target with
   `--target` or extend the skip rules in `scripts/mutation_test.py`.

Re-run after adding tests and confirm the score went up.

## Current status

`src/error.c` scores 81.4% — 245 of 301 mutants killed (211 by a failing test,
24 by failing to compile, 10 by hanging the suite), 56 surviving. The CI gate is
set to 65% for headroom.

The ten timeout kills are all in the locking: deleting `akerr_mutex_init()` or
the `akerr_initializing` re-entry guard deadlocks the very first test, which is
the correct behaviour for a broken lock and is why the harness counts a hang as
a kill.

The remaining survivors are dominated by:

* **Equivalent mutants** in `akerr_init`: deleting the `memset`/`NULL` setup of
  file-scope statics (`AKERR_ARRAY_ERROR`, `__akerr_last_ditch`,
  `__akerr_last_ignored`) changes nothing, because C already zero-initializes
  objects with static storage duration. `int oldid = 0;` → `1` is likewise
  dead: it is overwritten before use, and so is clearing `akerr_initializing`
  at the end of initialization — nothing reads that flag once the once-routine
  has returned.
* **Lock acquisition** (`akerr_mutex_lock`/`unlock` deletions, and the
  `akerr_init()` call at the head of an entry point). These are the one category
  where a survivor does *not* mean the mutant is harmless. Removing a lock
  leaves a real race, and the assertions in `tests/err_threads_pool.c` only fire
  when the race actually loses: rebuilding the surviving mutant and running that
  test ten times caught it **four** times. The same mutant under
  `scripts/thread_test.sh` failed **five of five**, with no false positive on
  the unmutated library — but the mutation harness builds without sanitizers, so
  it never sees that. Deleting an `akerr_init()` call survives for a duller
  reason: something else has always initialized the library by the time that
  line runs.
* **The default logger** (`vfprintf`, `va_end`, and the `return` in the
  no-stdlib branch): the other tests replace `akerr_log_method` with the
  in-process capturing logger, so nothing observes what the default one writes
  to a real stderr. Killing these needs a test that captures a child's stderr.
  The *handler* internals next to them are no longer in this category:
  `tests/err_unhandled_null.c` and `tests/err_exit_status.c` read a forked
  child's exit code, which kills every mutant in `akerr_exit()` and in
  `akerr_default_handler_unhandled_error()` — all twelve of them, including the
  `status < 0` → `status < 1` variant that only a test asserting
  `akerr_exit(0)` exits 0 can distinguish.
* **Static assertions** (`akerr_assert_name_slots_pow2` and the occupancy cap
  it guards): a mutated compile-time assertion that still compiles has no
  runtime behavior to observe. Unkillable by construction — the assertion is
  itself the test, and `tests/err_maxval.c` covers the runtime consequence.
* **Hash and probe details** in `akerr_status_slot`: dropping one of the
  multiply steps in `akerr_status_hash` leaves a worse but still correct hash,
  and probing backwards (`slot - 1u`) is an equally valid sequence over a
  power-of-two table. Both are behaviorally equivalent.
* **The `capacity <= 0` guard** in `akerr_copy_string`, which is defensive: both
  call sites pass a positive constant.

Findings surfaced by mutation testing:

* **Open:** the harness builds every mutant with the default CMake options, so a
  mutant that only breaks under concurrency is judged by a suite running without
  ThreadSanitizer. Mutating under `-DAKERR_SANITIZE=thread` would close that,
  and needs a way to pass CMake options through to the mutant build. See
  "Mutation testing judges concurrency mutants without a sanitizer" in
  `TODO.md`.

* **Superseded:** status names now use a private sparse registry, so the old
  public `AKERR_MAX_ERR_VALUE` ceiling and its consumer ABI mismatch no longer
  exist. `tests/err_maxval.c` covers arbitrary `int` values and registry
  exhaustion.
* **Fixed:** the open-addressing probe mask (`& (AKERR_STATUS_NAME_SLOTS - 1)`)
  could be mutated to `- 0` or `+ 1` — both of which index past the end of the
  table — without any test noticing. `tests/err_maxval.c` only asserted that
  *some* names registered before the table filled, which a collapsed probe
  sequence still satisfies. It now requires a substantial number of entries and
  reads every one of them back by its own distinct name, so a probe that
  revisits slots fails on both counts.