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Testing Rails migrations at GitLab

In order to reliably check Rails migrations, we need to test them against a database schema.

When to write a migration test

  • Post migrations (/db/post_migrate) and background migrations (lib/gitlab/background_migration) must have migration tests performed.
  • If your migration is a data migration then it must have a migration test.
  • Other migrations may have a migration test if necessary.

We don't enforce tests on post migrations that only perform schema changes.

How does it work?

All specs in (ee/)spec/migrations/ and spec/lib/(ee/)background_migrations are automatically tagged with the :migration RSpec tag. This tag enables some custom RSpec before and after hooks in our spec/support/migration.rb to run. If performing a migration against a database schema other than :gitlab_main (for example :gitlab_ci), then you must explicitly specify it with an RSpec tag like: migration: :gitlab_ci. See spec/migrations/change_public_projects_cost_factor_spec.rb for an example.

A before hook reverts all migrations to the point that a migration under test is not yet migrated.

In other words, our custom RSpec hooks finds a previous migration, and migrate the database down to the previous migration version.

With this approach you can test a migration against a database schema.

An after hook migrates the database up and restores the latest schema version, so that the process does not affect subsequent specs and ensures proper isolation.

Testing an ActiveRecord::Migration class

To test an ActiveRecord::Migration class (for example, a regular migration db/migrate or a post-migration db/post_migrate), you must load the migration file by using the require_migration! helper method because it is not autoloaded by Rails.

Example:

require 'spec_helper'

require_migration!

RSpec.describe ...

Test helpers

require_migration!

Since the migration files are not autoloaded by Rails, you must manually load the migration file. To do so, you can use the require_migration! helper method which can automatically load the correct migration file based on the spec filename.

In GitLab 14.4 and later, you can use require_migration! to load migration files from spec files that contain the schema version in the filename (for example, 2021101412150000_populate_foo_column_spec.rb).

# frozen_string_literal: true

require 'spec_helper'
require_migration!

RSpec.describe PopulateFooColumn do
  ...
end

In some cases, you must require multiple migration files to use them in your specs. Here, there's no pattern between your spec file and the other migration file. You can provide the migration filename like so:

# frozen_string_literal: true

require 'spec_helper'
require_migration!
require_migration!('populate_bar_column')

RSpec.describe PopulateFooColumn do
  ...
end

table

Use the table helper to create a temporary ActiveRecord::Base-derived model for a table. FactoryBot should not be used to create data for migration specs because it relies on application code which can change after the migration has run, and cause the test to fail. For example, to create a record in the projects table:

project = table(:projects).create!(id: 1, name: 'gitlab1', path: 'gitlab1')

migrate!

Use the migrate! helper to run the migration that is under test. It runs the migration and bumps the schema version in the schema_migrations table. It is necessary because in the after hook we trigger the rest of the migrations, and we need to know where to start. Example:

it 'migrates successfully' do
  # ... pre-migration expectations

  migrate!

  # ... post-migration expectations
end

reversible_migration

Use the reversible_migration helper to test migrations with either a change or both up and down hooks. This tests that the state of the application and its data after the migration becomes reversed is the same as it was before the migration ran in the first place. The helper:

  1. Runs the before expectations before the up migration.
  2. Migrates up.
  3. Runs the after expectations.
  4. Migrates down.
  5. Runs the before expectations a second time.

Example:

reversible_migration do |migration|
  migration.before -> {
    # ... pre-migration expectations
  }

  migration.after -> {
    # ... post-migration expectations
  }
end

Custom matchers for post-deployment migrations

We have some custom matchers in spec/support/matchers/background_migrations_matchers.rb to verify background migrations were correctly scheduled from a post-deployment migration, and receive the correct number of arguments.

All of them use the internal matcher be_background_migration_with_arguments, which verifies that the #perform method on your migration class doesn't crash when receiving the provided arguments.

be_scheduled_migration

Verifies that a Sidekiq job was queued with the expected class and arguments.

This matcher usually makes sense if you're queueing jobs manually, rather than going through our helpers.

# Migration
BackgroundMigrationWorker.perform_async('MigrationClass', args)

# Spec
expect('MigrationClass').to be_scheduled_migration(*args)

be_scheduled_migration_with_multiple_args

Verifies that a Sidekiq job was queued with the expected class and arguments.

This works the same as be_scheduled_migration, except that the order is ignored when comparing array arguments.

# Migration
BackgroundMigrationWorker.perform_async('MigrationClass', ['foo', [3, 2, 1]])

# Spec
expect('MigrationClass').to be_scheduled_migration_with_multiple_args('foo', [1, 2, 3])

be_scheduled_delayed_migration

Verifies that a Sidekiq job was queued with the expected delay, class, and arguments.

This can also be used with queue_background_migration_jobs_by_range_at_intervals and related helpers.

# Migration
BackgroundMigrationWorker.perform_in(delay, 'MigrationClass', args)

# Spec
expect('MigrationClass').to be_scheduled_delayed_migration(delay, *args)

have_scheduled_batched_migration

Verifies that a BatchedMigration record was created with the expected class and arguments.

The *args are additional arguments passed to the MigrationClass, while **kwargs are any other attributes to be verified on the BatchedMigration record (Example: interval: 2.minutes).

# Migration
queue_batched_background_migration(
  'MigrationClass',
  table_name,
  column_name,
  *args,
  **kwargs
)

# Spec
expect('MigrationClass').to have_scheduled_batched_migration(
  table_name: table_name,
  column_name: column_name,
  job_arguments: args,
  **kwargs
)

be_finalize_background_migration_of

Verifies that a migration calls finalize_background_migration with the expected background migration class.

# Migration
finalize_background_migration('MigrationClass')

# Spec
expect(described_class).to be_finalize_background_migration_of('MigrationClass')

Examples of migration tests

Migration tests depend on what the migration does exactly, the most common types are data migrations and scheduling background migrations.

Example of a data migration test

This spec tests the db/post_migrate/20200723040950_migrate_incident_issues_to_incident_type.rb migration. You can find the complete spec in spec/migrations/migrate_incident_issues_to_incident_type_spec.rb.

# frozen_string_literal: true

require 'spec_helper'
require_migration!

RSpec.describe MigrateIncidentIssuesToIncidentType do
  let(:migration) { described_class.new }

  let(:projects) { table(:projects) }
  let(:namespaces) { table(:namespaces) }
  let(:labels) { table(:labels) }
  let(:issues) { table(:issues) }
  let(:label_links) { table(:label_links) }
  let(:label_props) { IncidentManagement::CreateIncidentLabelService::LABEL_PROPERTIES }

  let(:namespace) { namespaces.create!(name: 'foo', path: 'foo') }
  let!(:project) { projects.create!(namespace_id: namespace.id) }
  let(:label) { labels.create!(project_id: project.id, **label_props) }
  let!(:incident_issue) { issues.create!(project_id: project.id) }
  let!(:other_issue) { issues.create!(project_id: project.id) }

  # Issue issue_type enum
  let(:issue_type) { 0 }
  let(:incident_type) { 1 }

  before do
    label_links.create!(target_id: incident_issue.id, label_id: label.id, target_type: 'Issue')
  end

  describe '#up' do
    it 'updates the incident issue type' do
      expect { migrate! }
        .to change { incident_issue.reload.issue_type }
        .from(issue_type)
        .to(incident_type)

      expect(other_issue.reload.issue_type).to eq(issue_type)
    end
  end

  describe '#down' do
    let!(:incident_issue) { issues.create!(project_id: project.id, issue_type: issue_type) }

    it 'updates the incident issue type' do
      migration.up

      expect { migration.down }
        .to change { incident_issue.reload.issue_type }
        .from(incident_type)
        .to(issue_type)

      expect(other_issue.reload.issue_type).to eql(issue_type)
    end
  end
end

Example of a background migration scheduling test

To test these you usually have to:

  • Create some records.
  • Run the migration.
  • Verify that the expected jobs were scheduled, with the correct set of records, the correct batch size, interval, etc.

The behavior of the background migration itself needs to be verified in a separate test for the background migration class.

This spec tests the db/post_migrate/20210701111909_backfill_issues_upvotes_count.rb post-deployment migration. You can find the complete spec in spec/migrations/backfill_issues_upvotes_count_spec.rb.

require 'spec_helper'
require_migration!

RSpec.describe BackfillIssuesUpvotesCount do
  let(:migration) { described_class.new }
  let(:issues) { table(:issues) }
  let(:award_emoji) { table(:award_emoji) }

  let!(:issue1) { issues.create! }
  let!(:issue2) { issues.create! }
  let!(:issue3) { issues.create! }
  let!(:issue4) { issues.create! }
  let!(:issue4_without_thumbsup) { issues.create! }

  let!(:award_emoji1) { award_emoji.create!( name: 'thumbsup', awardable_type: 'Issue', awardable_id: issue1.id) }
  let!(:award_emoji2) { award_emoji.create!( name: 'thumbsup', awardable_type: 'Issue', awardable_id: issue2.id) }
  let!(:award_emoji3) { award_emoji.create!( name: 'thumbsup', awardable_type: 'Issue', awardable_id: issue3.id) }
  let!(:award_emoji4) { award_emoji.create!( name: 'thumbsup', awardable_type: 'Issue', awardable_id: issue4.id) }

  it 'correctly schedules background migrations', :aggregate_failures do
    stub_const("#{described_class.name}::BATCH_SIZE", 2)

    Sidekiq::Testing.fake! do
      freeze_time do
        migrate!

        expect(described_class::MIGRATION).to be_scheduled_migration(issue1.id, issue2.id)
        expect(described_class::MIGRATION).to be_scheduled_migration(issue3.id, issue4.id)
        expect(BackgroundMigrationWorker.jobs.size).to eq(2)
      end
    end
  end
end

Testing a non-ActiveRecord::Migration class

To test a non-ActiveRecord::Migration test (a background migration), you must manually provide a required schema version. Please add a schema tag to a context that you want to switch the database schema within.

If not set, schema defaults to :latest.

Example:

describe SomeClass, schema: 20170608152748 do
  # ...
end

Example background migration test

This spec tests the lib/gitlab/background_migration/backfill_draft_status_on_merge_requests.rb background migration. You can find the complete spec on spec/lib/gitlab/background_migration/backfill_draft_status_on_merge_requests_spec.rb

# frozen_string_literal: true

require 'spec_helper'

RSpec.describe Gitlab::BackgroundMigration::BackfillDraftStatusOnMergeRequests do
  let(:namespaces)     { table(:namespaces) }
  let(:projects)       { table(:projects) }
  let(:merge_requests) { table(:merge_requests) }

  let(:group)   { namespaces.create!(name: 'gitlab', path: 'gitlab') }
  let(:project) { projects.create!(namespace_id: group.id) }

  let(:draft_prefixes) { ["[Draft]", "(Draft)", "Draft:", "Draft", "[WIP]", "WIP:", "WIP"] }

  def create_merge_request(params)
    common_params = {
      target_project_id: project.id,
      target_branch: 'feature1',
      source_branch: 'master'
    }

    merge_requests.create!(common_params.merge(params))
  end

  context "for MRs with #draft? == true titles but draft attribute false" do
    let(:mr_ids) { merge_requests.all.collect(&:id) }

    before do
      draft_prefixes.each do |prefix|
        (1..4).each do |n|
          create_merge_request(
            title: "#{prefix} This is a title",
            draft: false,
            state_id: n
          )
        end
      end
    end

    it "updates all open draft merge request's draft field to true" do
      mr_count = merge_requests.all.count

      expect { subject.perform(mr_ids.first, mr_ids.last) }
        .to change { MergeRequest.where(draft: false).count }
              .from(mr_count).to(mr_count - draft_prefixes.length)
    end

    it "marks successful slices as completed" do
      expect(subject).to receive(:mark_job_as_succeeded).with(mr_ids.first, mr_ids.last)

      subject.perform(mr_ids.first, mr_ids.last)
    end
  end
end

These tests do not run within a database transaction, as we use a deletion database cleanup strategy. Do not depend on a transaction being present.