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+# Proposal: testing: better support test helper functions with TB.Helper
+
+Author: Caleb Spare, based on previous work by Josh Bleecher Snyder
+
+Last updated: 2016-12-27
+
+Discussion at https://golang.org/issue/4899.
+
+## Abstract
+
+This proposal is about fixing the long-standing issue
+[#4899](https://golang.org/issue/4899).
+
+When a test calls a helper function that invokes, for instance,
+`"*testing.T".Error`, the line number that is printed for the test failure
+indicates the `Error` call site as inside the helper method.
+This is almost always unhelpful for pinpointing the actual failure.
+
+We propose to add a new `testing.TB` method, `Helper`,
+which marks the calling function as a test helper.
+When logging test messages, package testing ignores frames
+that are inside marked helper functions.
+It prints the first stack position inside a non-helper function.
+
+## Background
+
+In Go tests, it is common to use a helper function to perform some repeated
+non-trivial check.
+These are often of the form
+
+    func helper(t *testing.T, other, args)
+
+though other variants exist.
+Such helper functions may be local to the test package or may come from external packages.
+There are many examples of such helper functions in the standard library tests.
+Some are listed below.
+
+When a helper function calls `t.Error`, `t.Fatal`, or a related method,
+the error message includes file:lineno output that indicates the location of the failure.
+The failure location is currently considered inside the helper method, which is unhelpful.
+
+The misplaced failure location also inhibits useful IDE features like
+automatically jumping to the failure position.
+
+There are a variety of workarounds to which people have resorted.
+
+### 1. Ignore the problem, making it harder to debug test failures
+
+This is a common approach.
+
+If the helper is only called once from the `Test*` function,
+then the problem is less severe:
+the test failure prints the name of the `Test*` function that failed,
+and by locating the only call to the helper within that function,
+the user knows the failure site.
+This is just an annoyance.
+
+When the helper is called more than once, it can be impossible to locate the
+source of the failure without further debugging.
+
+A few examples of this pattern in the standard library:
+
+- cmd/cover: `func run(c *exec.Cmd, t *testing.T)`
+- cmd/go: the methods of `testgo`
+- compress/flate: `writeToType(t *testing.T, ttype string, bw *huffmanBitWriter, tok []token, input []byte)`
+- crypto/aes: `func mustPanic(t *testing.T, msg string, f func())`
+- database/sql: `func numPrepares(t *testing.T, db *DB) int`
+- encoding/json: `func diff(t *testing.T, a, b []byte)`
+- fmt: `func presentInMap(s string, a []string, t *testing.T)`, `func check(t *testing.T, got, want string)`
+- html/template: the methods of `testCase`
+- image/gif: `func try(t *testing.T, b []byte, want string)`
+- net/http: `func checker(t *testing.T) func(string, error)`
+- os: `func touch(t *testing.T, name string)`
+- reflect: `func assert(t *testing.T, s, want string)`
+- sync/atomic: `func shouldPanic(t *testing.T, name string, f func())`
+- text/scanner: `func checkPos(t *testing.T, got, want Position)` and some of its callers
+
+### 2. Pass around more context to be printed as part of the error message
+
+This approach adds enough information to the failure message to pinpoint the
+source of failure, at the cost of greater burden on the test writer.
+The result still isn't entirely satisfactory for the test invoker:
+if the user only looks at the file:lineno in the failure message,
+they are still led astray until they examine the full message.
+
+Some standard library examples:
+
+- bytes: `func check(t *testing.T, testname string, buf *Buffer, s string)`
+- context: `func testDeadline(c Context, name string, failAfter time.Duration, t testingT)`
+- debug/gosym: `func testDeadline(c Context, name string, failAfter time.Duration, t testingT)`
+- mime/multipart: `func expectEq(t *testing.T, expected, actual, what string)`
+- strings: `func equal(m string, s1, s2 string, t *testing.T) bool`
+- text/scanner: `func checkTok(t *testing.T, s *Scanner, line int, got, want rune, text string)`
+
+### 3. Use the \r workaround
+
+This technique is used by test helper packages in the wild.
+The idea is to print a carriage return from inside the test helper
+in order to hide the file:lineno printed by the testing package.
+Then the helper can print its own file:lineno and message.
+
+One example is
+[github.com/stretchr/testify](https://github.com/stretchr/testify/blob/2402e8e7a02fc811447d11f881aa9746cdc57983/assert/assertions.go#L226).
+
+## Proposal
+
+We propose to add two methods in package testing:
+
+    // Helper marks the current function as a test helper function.
+    // When printing file and line information
+    // from methods such as t.Error, t.Fatal, and t.Log,
+    // the current function will be skipped.
+    func (t *T) Helper()
+
+    // same doc comment
+    func (b *B) Helper()
+
+When package testing prints file:lineno, it walks up the stack,
+skipping helper functions, and chooses the first entry in a non-helper function.
+
+We also propose to add `Helper()` to the `testing.TB` interface.
+
+## Rationale
+
+### Alternative 1: allow the user to specify how many stack frames to skip
+
+An alternative fix is to give the user control over the number of stack frames to skip.
+This is similar to what package log already provides:
+
+    func Output(calldepth int, s string) error
+    func (l *Logger) Output(calldepth int, s string) error
+
+For instance, in https://golang.org/cl/12405043 @robpike writes
+
+>     // Up returns a *T object whose error reports identify the line n callers
+>     // up the frame.
+>     func (t *T) Up(n) *t { .... }
+>
+> Then you could write
+>
+>     t.Up(1).Error("this would be tagged with the caller's line number")
+
+@bradfitz mentions similar APIs in [#4899](https://golang.org/issue/4899) and
+[#14128](https://golang.org/issue/14128).
+
+`Helper` is easier to use, because the user doesn't have to think about stack frames,
+and it does not break when refactoring.
+
+Also, it is not always easy to decide how many frames to skip.
+A helper may be called through multiple paths, so it may be a variable depth
+from the desired logging site.
+For example, in the cmd/go tests, the `"*testgoData".must` helper is called directly
+by some tests, but is also called by other helpers such as `"*testgoData".cd`.
+Manual stack control would require the user to pass state into this method
+in order to know whether to skip one or two frames.
+Using the `Helper` API, the user would simply mark both `must` and `cd` as helpers.
+
+### Alternative 2: use a special Logf/Errorf/Fatalf sentinel
+
+Another approach given by @bradfitz in
+[#14128](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/14128#issuecomment-176254702)
+is to provide a magic format value:
+
+     t.Logf("some value = %v", val, testing.NoDecorate)
+
+This seems roughly equivalent in power to our proposal, but it has downsides:
+
+* It breaks usual `printf` conventions (@adg [points out that vet would have to
+  be aware of it](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/14128#issuecomment-176456878)).
+* The mechanism is unusual -- it lacks precedent in the standard library.
+* `NoDecorate` is less obvious in godoc than a TB method.
+* Every `testing.T` method in a helper method must be decorated.
+* It is not clear how to handle nested helpers other than by manually specifying
+  the number of stack frames to skip, inheriting the problems of alternative 1.
+
+## Compatibility
+
+Adding a method to `*testing.T` and `*testing.B` raises no compatibility issues.
+
+We will also add the method to the `testing.TB` interface.
+Normally changing interface method sets is verboten,
+but in this case it is be fine because `TB` has a private method
+specifically to prevent other implementations:
+
+    // A private method to prevent users implementing the
+    // interface and so future additions to it will not
+    // violate Go 1 compatibility.
+    private()
+
+## Implementation
+
+@cespare will send a CL implementing `"testing.TB".Helper` based on
+@josharian's previous work in https://golang.org/cl/79890043.
+
+The CL will be sent before April 30, 2017 in order to make the 1.9 release cycle.
+
+## Open issues
+
+This change directly solves [#4899](https://golang.org/issue/4899).