Random PHP test failures

[SergeyBiryukov]

Every few commits, there's now a random PHP 7.1 test failure on Travis, mostly off-by-one errors unrelated to the preceding commit. Started about 1 month ago, after August 20th.

Seems like either PHP 7.1 tests are for some reason more prone to random errors than other versions, or it's just more prominent now that random date/time failures from #45821 are fixed.

Creating a ticket just for reference, any ideas as to why this happens appreciated.

Some examples:

1) WP_Test_REST_Posts_Controller::test_get_items_search_query
Failed asserting that 6 matches expected 7.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/rest-api/rest-posts-controller.php:459

1) WP_Test_REST_Posts_Controller::test_get_items_pagination_headers
Failed asserting that 49 matches expected 50.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/rest-api/rest-posts-controller.php:1157

1) Tests_Canonical_PageOnFront::test with data set #3 ('/?page=1', '/')
Failed asserting that two strings are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
-'/'
+'/?page=1'
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/testcase-canonical.php:268
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/canonical/pageOnFront.php:39

2) Tests_Query_MetaQuery::test_meta_query_single_query_compare_arithmetic_comparisons
Failed asserting that two arrays are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array (
-    0 => 2319
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:658
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/metaQuery.php:162

1) Tests_Query::test_tag_querystring_single_term
Failed asserting that two arrays are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array (
     0 => 2022
-    1 => 2023
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:658
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query.php:321

1) Tests_Term_getTerms::test_wp_delete_term_should_invalidate_cache
Failed asserting that 1 matches expected 2.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/term/getTerms.php:181

1) Tests_Query_VerbosePageRules::test_page_page_2
is_404 is true but is expected to be false. 
is_page is false but is expected to be true. 
is_paged is false but is expected to be true. 
is_singular is false but is expected to be true.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:971
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/conditionals.php:327

1) Tests_Query_MetaQuery::test_meta_query_decimal_results
Failed asserting that two arrays are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array (
-    0 => 2414
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:658
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/metaQuery.php:1170

1) Tests_Term_getTerms::test_hierarchical_true_with_parent
Failed asserting that two arrays are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array (
-    0 => 1277
-    1 => 1280
+    0 => 1280
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:658
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/term/getTerms.php:2257

1) Tests_Query_SetupPostdata::test_secondary_query_nextpage
Failed asserting that two arrays are identical.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array &0 (
-    0 => 'Post 1 Page 1'
-    1 => 'Post 1 Page 2'
+    0 => 'Post 2 Page 1'
+    1 => 'Post 2 Page 2'
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/setupPostdata.php:249

1) Tests_Query_MetaQuery::test_meta_between_not_between
Failed asserting that 1 matches expected 2.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/metaQuery.php:1537

1) Tests_Post_getPages::test_get_pages_non_hierarchical_non_empty_child_of
Failed asserting that two arrays are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array (
     0 => 1677
     1 => 1678
-    2 => 1679
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:649
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/post/getPages.php:617

1) Tests_Post_Query::test_orderby_post__in_array
Failed asserting that two arrays are identical.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array &0 (
-    0 => 428
-    1 => 426
-    2 => 429
+    0 => 426
+    1 => 429
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/post/query.php:192

1) Tests_Get_Archives::test_wp_get_archives_limit
Failed asserting that two strings are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
-'<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1143'>Post title 3347</a></li>\n
-	<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1142'>Post title 3346</a></li>\n
+'<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1142'>Post title 3346</a></li>\n
 	<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1141'>Post title 3345</a></li>\n
 	<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1140'>Post title 3344</a></li>\n
-	<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1139'>Post title 3343</a></li>'
+	<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1139'>Post title 3343</a></li>\n
+	<li><a href='http://example.org/?p=1138'>Post title 3342</a></li>'
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/functions/getArchives.php:79

2) Tests_Get_Archives::test_wp_get_archives_show_post_count
Failed asserting that two strings are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
-'<li><a href='http://example.org/?m=201909'>September 2019</a>&nbsp;(8)</li>'
+'<li><a href='http://example.org/?m=201909'>September 2019</a>&nbsp;(7)</li>'
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/functions/getArchives.php:127

1) Tests_Query_MetaQuery::test_meta_query_compare_not_exists
Failed asserting that two arrays are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
 Array (
     0 => 990
     1 => 991
-    2 => 992
 )
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:649
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/metaQuery.php:654

1) Test_WP_Customize_Nav_Menus::test_load_available_items_query_returns_post_item_with_page_number
Failed asserting that an array contains Array &0 (
    'id' => 'post-1030'
    'title' => 'Post Title'
    'type' => 'post_type'
    'type_label' => 'Post'
    'object' => 'post'
    'object_id' => 1030
    'url' => 'http://example.org/?p=1030'
).
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/customize/nav-menus.php:182

1) Tests_Comment_Template::test_get_comments_number_text_declension_with_custom_args with data set #10 (2, '% Comments', '2 Comments')
Failed asserting that two strings are equal.
--- Expected
+++ Actual
@@ @@
-'2 Comments'
+'No Comments'
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/comment/template.php:68

1) Tests_oEmbed_Discovery::test_add_oembed_discovery_links_to_attachment
is_404 is true but is expected to be false. 
is_attachment is false but is expected to be true. 
is_single is false but is expected to be true. 
is_singular is false but is expected to be true.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/includes/abstract-testcase.php:964
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/oembed/discovery.php:81

1) Tests_Rewrite::test_url_to_postid_hierarchical_with_matching_leaves
Failed asserting that 0 matches expected 3429.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/rewrite.php:245

1) Tests_Post_getPages::test_get_pages_meta
Failed asserting that 0 matches expected 1.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/post/getPages.php:267

1) Tests_Link_GetNextCommentsLink::test_page_should_respect_value_of_cpage_query_var
PHPUnit\Framework\Exception: Argument #2 (No Value) of PHPUnit\Framework\Assert::assertContains() must be a array, traversable or string
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/link/getNextCommentsLink.php:19

1) Tests_Term_WpSetObjectTerms::test_set_object_terms_by_id
Failed asserting that 4 matches expected 5.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/term/wpSetObjectTerms.php:128
2) Tests_Term_WpSetObjectTerms::test_set_object_terms_by_name
Failed asserting that 4 matches expected 5.
/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/term/wpSetObjectTerms.php:161

[johnbillion]

Might be due to the sort order being indeterminate. If posts are sorted by a field other than ID then the field value may not be unique (eg. two identical dates), which makes the sort order indeterminate.

Not sure why this would start showing up now though.

[desrosj]

Let's investigate and fix these after 5.3 is branched.

[SergeyBiryukov]

It looks like most of the failures here have to do with $this->factory->post->create() failing to create a post and the tests not handling that appropriately. Perhaps adding some logging there would help?

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 46657:

REST API: Speed up pagination unit tests by creating less fixtures and reusing them where possible.

Includes minor documentation and code layout fixes for better readability.

See #30017, #48145.

[desrosj]

Looks like these have creeped into 7.4 builds:

1) WP_Test_REST_Posts_Controller::test_get_items_include_query

Failed asserting that 1691 matches expected 1692.

/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/rest-api/rest-posts-controller.php:343

[johnbillion]

In 46670:

REST API: Use explicit dates in a post ordering test to avoid indeterminate ordering.

See #48145

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 46671:

Coding Standards: Fix WPCS issues in [46670].

See #48145.