As I wrote in my last post, using mach to test Firefox for Android in an emulator simplifies the testing process and removes the need to connect a physical phone or tablet. Similarly, mach now looks out for and offers to “fix” some other common Android-specific complications.

The first complication is Firefox itself. “Browser tests” like mochitests and reftests run inside Firefox. On Android, that means that Firefox for Android must be installed on your device. When using a phone or tablet, you can connect it by usb, and use “mach install” to install Firefox. But you might forget — I know I forget all the time and then wonder, why didn’t my tests run?! Also, if you are running an emulator automatically from a mach test command, you may not have a chance to install Firefox. So now mach test commands that require Firefox for Android check to see if it is installed; if it isn’t, mach prompts you to install Firefox from your local build.

Another complication is the “host utilities” required for most test types on Android. Many tests make requests from Firefox (running on the Android device) back to a web server running on the local computer – the test “host”. The test harnesses automatically start that web server for you, but they need to run executables like xpcshell and ssltunnel to do so. These host utilities must run on your computer (the host driving the tests via mach and the test harnesses) rather than on Android. Your Android build probably has xpcshell and ssltunnel, but they are Android executables and will not run on the Linux or OSX that’s probably running on your host. You can set the MOZ_HOST_BIN environment variable to point to utilities suitable for your host (a desktop Firefox build will do), but if you neglect to set MOZ_HOST_BIN, mach will notice and prompt you to set up ready-made utilities that can be downloaded (for Linux or OSX only).

Putting it all together, if nothing is set up and all these components are needed, you might see something like this:

gbrown@mozpad:~/src$ ./mach robocop testLoad
No Android devices connected. Start an emulator? (Y/n) y
Fetching AVD. This may take a while...
Starting emulator running Android 4.3...
It looks like Firefox is not installed on this device.
Install Firefox? (Y/n) y
Installing Firefox. This may take a while...
Host utilities not found: environment variable MOZ_HOST_BIN is not set to a directory containing host xpcshell
Download and setup your host utilities? (Y/n) y
Installing host utilities. This may take a while...

…and then your tests will run!

Some people are concerned about all this prompting; they suggest just going ahead and doing the necessary steps rather than waiting for these Y/n questions to be answered. I see the appeal, but there are consequences. For example, you may have simply forgotten to connect your physical device and have no desire to download an AVD and run an emulator. Overall, I think it is best to prompt and it is easy to avoid most prompts if you wish:

mach android-emulator && mach install && mach <your test>

Happy testing!

Many of your favourite desktop mach test commands now work with Firefox for Android.

These commands now explicitly support Firefox for Android, running tests against a connected Android device or emulator when run from a Firefox for Android build environment:

 mach robocop
 mach mochitest
 mach reftest
 mach crashtest
 mach jstestbrowser
 mach xpcshell-test
 mach cppunittest

Note that most commands allow running the entire suite (rarely a good idea!), a directory or manifest, or a single test.

As usual, detailed information on testing Firefox for Android can be found at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Android/Testing.