Published: October 26, 2016 • 2 min read
What is a Gold Master test? The idea is that you write a unit test that takes a known set of data (for instance, a production dump), feeds it into your program, and compares the output with a checked-in version of a known good output. If there are differences, you can review them; if they are valid, check in the new output file. If not, you’ll be alerted that the program’s behavior has changed.
The ideal use case for this technique would be a complex legacy app with lots of inputs and lots of outputs.
The potential downsides are that it would be a slow-ish test compared to the other unit tests, and it would register regular false positives. In some cases, the transparency gained could certainly justify these tradeoffs.
Edit 9/20: This turned into a post on the Hashrocket blog and talk at RailsConf 2017. Learn more on the Hashrocket blog.
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