Testing KIO Rclone

This document separates fast, deterministic tests from manual cloud testing. The automated suite must not need a personal OAuth token or a real remote.

Automated suite

Configure and run the suite from the repository root:

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo \
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
  -DBUILD_TESTING=ON
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Current tests:

Test	Purpose
rcloneurltest	Parses and builds rclone:/ URLs.
rclonebackendtest	Parses rclone JSON and exercises the local rclone backend.
rclonepausetest	Checks download/upload backpressure with a fake rclone process.
rcloneuploadtest	Verifies staged publication, exact bytes, cancellation/failure cleanup and preservation of the previous remote file.
rclonedownloadtest	Verifies unknown-size materialization and exact selection of duplicate remote objects.
appstreamtest	Validates installed desktop metadata.

rclonepausetest is especially important. It suspends a KIO copy, waits for the pipeline to settle, verifies that transfer growth stays bounded, then resumes and checks completion. It also verifies the live upload-status and finalization messages.

Package test

The Arch package recipe lives in its own AUR repository and runs ctest from its check() function. From a checkout of that repository:

makepkg -f

Before installing a package, inspect it:

pacman -Qp ./kio-rclone-*.pkg.tar.zst
pacman -Qlp ./kio-rclone-*.pkg.tar.zst

Manual smoke test

Use a dedicated test remote and a disposable cloud folder. Do not test a release candidate by deleting or renaming files in a personal root directory.

1. Open rclone:/ in a new Dolphin window.
2. Enter the test remote and list a folder.
3. Create a directory, press F5, then verify that it appears once.
4. Upload a small file and confirm that the notification shows upload status.
5. Download it, pause mid-transfer, confirm network activity settles, then resume and compare its checksum.
6. Rename the file within the remote, then remove it.
7. Test an overwrite prompt and a cancel action.
8. Restart Dolphin and verify the remote still opens.
9. Open, edit and save a TXT plus one ODT/DOCX file through rclone:/; close the application, reopen the file and verify the edited bytes/content.
10. Open a native Google document exported by rclone and verify it has real content, a nonzero size and is presented read-only.
11. Create two disposable Drive objects with the same exported name. Verify that Dolphin shows one read-only entry and LibreOffice opens one valid document rather than concatenated/corrupt bytes.

For Google Drive, perform this with a private OAuth client. A shared rclone client can introduce quota delays that make a release candidate look slow even when the worker is correct.

Manual compatibility matrix

Run this matrix before a public release:

Area	Minimum coverage
KDE session	Current Plasma release on Wayland and, when available, X11
Local source	Upload from a local filesystem to a remote
Local destination	Download from a remote to a local filesystem
Provider	Google Drive with private OAuth; one non-Google rclone backend
File size	Small file, multi-chunk file and a filename with spaces/Unicode
Document editing	TXT and one ZIP-based office format saved and reopened
Drive edge cases	Native export with unknown size and duplicate object names
Failure path	Cancel, network interruption and denied/expired OAuth
UI	Dolphin notification, F5, context menu, Properties/free-space query

Record rclone version, Plasma/KF version and the result of every row in the release issue or milestone.

Performance checks

Measure provider setup time separately from payload throughput. The important numbers are:

• time until the first directory entry appears;
• time until the first transfer byte moves;
• sustained upload and download rate;
• delay between the last byte and successful remote confirmation.

Use the same file, network and private OAuth client when comparing versions. Do not treat a single Google Drive run under a shared quota as a benchmark.

CI target

The desired continuous-integration gate is:

1. Configure with the supported minimum Qt/KF versions.
2. Build with warnings enabled.
3. Run all CTest tests.
4. Build the Arch package and run check().
5. Upload the package and CTest log as CI artifacts.

Cloud credentials must never be stored in CI. Provider testing belongs in a separate manually authorized release job with a disposable test account.