m-test-engine

Minimal YottaDB Docker container for m-cli and m-stdlib testing.

Provides a long-running m-test-engine container exposing a YottaDB engine via docker exec. Consumers are m-cli's DockerEngine transport and m-stdlib's test runner — both dispatch on docker exec m-test-engine $ydb_dist/mumps -run ....

Why this exists

m-cli and m-stdlib previously bound their test runners to vista-meta — a heavyweight YottaDB + VistA + RPC broker + FileMan + Octo SQL stack. For non-VistA M development, that's overkill: the tests just need a YottaDB engine.

m-test-engine is exactly that — yottadb/yottadb-base:latest-master with a keep-alive command. No SSH server, no VistA, no extras. All participating m-* repos live under $HOME/m-work on the host (clones or symlinks) and the container bind-mounts that single directory as /m-work, so every repo's routines are simultaneously visible inside one running engine — no per-cwd remount, no SCP / staging round-trip.

For VistA-specific work, keep using vista-meta. This repo is the lightweight default for the rest of the toolchain.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/m-dev-tools/m-test-engine ~/projects/m-test-engine
cd ~/projects/m-cli         # or wherever your consumer project lives
make -C ~/projects/m-test-engine up

m-cli auto-detects the running container if no other engine is configured (M_CLI_ENGINE env var unset, no vista-meta conn.env):

m test            # runs against m-test-engine via DockerEngine

To force the Docker transport explicitly:

M_CLI_ENGINE=docker m test

Lifecycle

Make target	What
make up	Build the image (if needed) and start the container detached.
make down	Stop and remove the container. Globals volume preserved.
make logs	Tail the container's stdout (useful for debugging startup).
make shell	Drop into a bash shell inside the container.
make smoke	One-shot: assert mumps -run %XCMD works inside the container.
make clean	Destructive — stop + remove + delete the globals volume.

Run any of those from this repo's root.

How m-cli and m-stdlib consume this

m-cli's DockerEngine (in src/m_cli/engine.py) issues commands of the form:

docker exec m-test-engine bash -lc \
    'export ydb_routines="<stage> $ydb_dist" && exec $ydb_dist/mumps -run ^<SUITE>'

The <stage> is the in-container path to the consumer project's routine dirs — derived by mapping the project root through the shared /m-work bind mount. There's no SCP / SFTP step: every m-* repo's filesystem is directly visible inside the container.

m-stdlib's test runner uses the same transport once Track A3 of the m-dev-tools-todo plan lands.

Machine-readable contract

dist/m-test-engine.json is the canonical machine-readable contract between this repo and its consumers (primarily m-cli's m doctor and the upcoming m engine subcommand family). It declares the image registry, default tag, container name, bind-mount layout, compose file path, minimum Docker version, YottaDB release, and a run_args block sufficient to reconstruct an equivalent docker run invocation when the compose plugin is unavailable.

The schema lives alongside it at dist/m-test-engine.schema.json. make check-manifest validates both dist/repo.meta.json and dist/m-test-engine.json — schema-shape, compose_file resolves on disk, and verified_on is within 90 days.

Consumers vendor dist/m-test-engine.json at release time (m-cli pins to a tagged release of this repo). The protocol bump policy and the broader integration design are recorded in docs/m-engine-implementation-plan.md.

Configuration

Env var	Default	Purpose
M_TEST_ENGINE_BIND	$HOME/m-work	Override the host directory mounted as /m-work.

Optional: SSH overlay

The default container has no SSH server. For consumers still using m-cli's legacy SSHEngine transport (e.g. matching the vista-meta contract), add a compose.ssh.yml overlay layering an openssh-server install on top of the base image. Not shipped here — file an issue or PR if you need it.

Relationship to vista-meta

	m-test-engine	vista-meta
YottaDB	✓	✓
Bind-mount source code	✓ (via $HOME/m-work)	✓ (via /home/vehu/dev/r)
VistA + FileMan	—	✓
RPC broker / VistALink	—	✓
Octo SQL / YDB GUI	—	✓
SSH server	— (use overlay)	✓
Image size	smaller	larger
Use case	non-VistA M tooling tests	VistA-specific work

License

AGPL-3.0 — parity with the rest of the m-dev-tools toolchain repos.