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Review: Test Helpers, Data Source Tests, List Resource Tests, Unit Tests

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Review: Test Helpers, Data Source Tests, List Resource Tests, Unit Tests

Assume the @maintainer persona. Scope: Exists/Destroy helpers, data source tests, list resource tests, unit tests. See review-tests for per-resource basics. Loaded from review-pr.

Exists / Destroy helpers

testAccCheck<Resource>Exists should:

  • Look up the resource state with s.RootModule().Resources[name].
  • Verify rs.Primary.ID != "".
  • Use acctest.ProviderMeta(ctx, t).<Service>Client(ctx) for the client — never construct a fresh client.
  • Call the exported finder tf<svc>.Find<Name>ByID(ctx, conn, ...).

testAccCheck<Resource>Destroy should:

  • Skip rows where rs.Type != "aws_<svc>_<thing>".
  • Treat retry.NotFound(err) as success (return nil).
  • Use errs.IsA[*awstypes.<NotFoundException>] rather than type assertions if it inspects errors directly.

Wrap real failures with create.Error(names.<Service>, create.ErrActionCheckingExistence|ErrActionCheckingDestroyed, tf<svc>.ResName<Name>, id, err) rather than fmt.Errorf / errors.New.

exports_test.go

Test files reach into the package via a sibling exports_test.go:

go
package <svc>

var (
    Resource<Name> = new<Name>Resource   // Framework
    // or: Resource<Name> = resource<Name> // SDKv2
    Find<Name>ByID = find<Name>ByID
)

Flag PRs that export production identifiers (capitalize the real find<Name>ByID) instead of using exports_test.go, or reach into the package via build tags or internal/ traversal hacks. The package is imported in tests as tf<svc> "github.com/hashicorp/terraform-provider-aws/internal/service/<svc>".

Data source tests

Data source tests follow the resource conventions with these differences:

  • Reference dataSourceName := "data.aws_<svc>_<thing>.test".
  • Prefer resource.TestCheckResourceAttrPair(dataSourceName, attr, resourceName, attr) over hard-coded values when the data source mirrors a resource.
  • No _disappears test.
  • A CheckDestroy is still required when the test creates a backing resource.

List resource tests

List resources require three scenarios for parity:

  • _List_basic — basic listing.
  • _List_includeResource — with include_resource = true and full attribute checks.
  • _List_regionOverride — region override; requires acctest.PreCheckMultipleRegion(t, 2).

List resource tests use static testdata, not inline configs:

go
ConfigDirectory: config.StaticDirectory("testdata/<Resource>/list_<scenario>/"),
ConfigVariables: config.Variables{ acctest.CtRName: config.StringVariable(rName), ... },

A separate Step with Query: true exercises the list operation. Identity assertions use tfstatecheck.Identity() / identity.GetIdentity(resourceName) and the tfquerycheck.* helpers under internal/acctest/querycheck.

List resource tests also require a Terraform version floor (currently 1.14):

go
TerraformVersionChecks: []tfversion.TerraformVersionCheck{
    tfversion.SkipBelow(tfversion.Version1_14_0),
},

Unit tests

Unit tests are for logic that doesn't touch AWS — parsers, custom flatteners/expanders, ID composition, validators. They:

  • Run in parallel (t.Parallel() at top and inside subtests).
  • Are table-driven with t.Run(tc.TestName, ...).
  • Must not call acctest.Context, acctest.PreCheck, or instantiate an AWS client.

Flag unit tests added for trivial pass-through flatteners/expanders — they're noise. Flag acceptance-style tests mis-named without the TestAcc prefix.