Method, system and computer program for testing a command line interface of a software product

A computer program product in a computer-usable non-transitory storage medium, the computer program when executed on a data processing system causing the system to perform a method for testing a command line interface of a software product, wherein the method includes the steps of:

• providing a definition of a set of commands of the interface, each command requiring a set of arguments each one having a set of properties;
• providing a definition of a set of allowable conditions and non-allowable conditions of each property;
• selecting a value for an accuracy level parameter thereby setting an accuracy level, the value being one of (i) a predefined value and (ii) a custom value, the accuracy level causing a selection of a subset of conditions;
• generating a set of test scenarios including the invocation of a subset of commands with the arguments thereof assigned according to selected subset of conditions, wherein assigning the arguments according to the selected subset of conditions includes selecting a particular value for a property of an argument from the set of properties corresponding to the argument;
• generating a set of test cases by associating an expected result to each test scenario;
• and
• causing the execution of the test cases.

A system for testing a command line interface of a software product, the system including:

• a storage device including a storage medium, wherein the storage device stores computer usable program code;
• and
• a processor, wherein the processor executes the computer usable program code, and wherein the computer usable program code comprises:
• computer usable code for providing a definition of a set of commands of the interface, each command requiring a set of arguments each one having a set of properties;
• computer usable code for providing a definition of a set of allowable conditions and non-allowable conditions of each property;
• computer usable code for selecting a value for an accuracy level parameter thereby setting an accuracy level, the value being one of (i) a predefined value and (ii) a custom value, the accuracy level causing a selection of a subset of conditions;
• computer usable code for generating a set of test scenarios including the invocation of a subset of commands with the arguments thereof assigned according to selected subset of conditions, wherein assigning the arguments according to the selected subset of conditions includes selecting a particular value for a property of an argument from the set of properties corresponding to the argument;
• computer usable code for generating a set of test cases by associating an expected result to each test scenario;
• and
• computer usable code for causing the execution of the test cases.