About Ekstazi algorithm

[Igorxp5]

Ekstazi

Ekstazi is a Regression Test Selection algorithm. The best scenario is always run all test cases, but this takes time. This is where Ekstazi comes in, the algorithm selects the test cases based on the last changes on the project.

Overview

See below the main characteristics of Ekstazi:

• Ekstazi is algorithm for non-blackbox tests. So we need the source code to use it.
• Original Ekstazi doesn't use version control system like Git or SVN.
• Ekstazi figures out what project files each test case "touch", in runtime. It saves the depedencies of each test.
• Ekstazi calculates the hash of the content of each project file "touched" in the test cases to identify changes in the files.
• Based on previous testing round and last project changes, Ekstazi selects just test cases that contains features update.
• Original Ekstazi was made in Java. Its approach is change the JVM to figure out the dependencies of the test cases.

TODO: Move this to a Wiki page.