detect-test-smells

Test Smell Detection

Identifies antipatterns and code smells in PHP test suites.

15 Test Smells

#	Smell	Severity	Detection Pattern
1	Logic in Test	High	if/for/while/foreach in tests
2	Mock Overuse	High	>3 mocks in single test
3	Test Interdependence	High	static $, @depends
4	Fragile Test	High	expects(exactly), at()
5	Mystery Guest	Medium	file_get_contents, getenv
6	Eager Test	Medium	Multiple unrelated assertions
7	Assertion Roulette	Medium	>5 assertions without context
8	Obscure Test	Low	test_it_works, test_foo
9	Test Code Duplication	Medium	Repeated setup/assertion
10	Conditional Test Logic	Medium	if.*assert patterns
11	Hard-Coded Test Data	Low	Magic values in tests
12	Testing Private Methods	High	setAccessible(true)
13	Slow Test	Medium	sleep, I/O in unit tests
14	Mocking Final Classes	High	Mock concrete final classes
15	Mocking Value Objects	High	Mock readonly/immutable classes

Quick Detection Commands

# Logic in tests
Grep: "if \(|for \(|while \(|foreach \(" --glob "tests/**/*Test.php"

# Mock overuse (manual count needed)
Grep: "createMock|createStub" --glob "tests/**/*Test.php"

# Test interdependence
Grep: "static \$|@depends" --glob "tests/**/*Test.php"

# Testing private methods
Grep: "setAccessible\(true\)|ReflectionMethod" --glob "tests/**/*Test.php"

# Mystery guest
Grep: "file_get_contents|fopen|getenv|_ENV|_SERVER" --glob "tests/**/*Test.php"

# Fragile tests
Grep: "expects\(.*exactly|expects\(.*at\(" --glob "tests/**/*Test.php"

Output Format

# Test Smell Report

## Summary

| Smell | Count | Severity |
|-------|-------|----------|
| Logic in Test | 5 | High |
| Mock Overuse | 3 | High |

## Findings

### Logic in Test (5 occurrences)

| File | Line | Code |
|------|------|------|
| OrderTest.php | 45 | `foreach ($items as $item)` |

**Recommendation:** Extract to data providers or inline values.

## Action Items

1. **High Priority** — Refactor tests with >5 mocks
2. **Medium Priority** — Inline fixture data

Severity Matrix

Severity	Smells	Impact
High	Logic in Test, Mock Overuse, Test Interdependence, Fragile Test, Mocking Final/VO, Testing Private	Unreliable results, design problems
Medium	Mystery Guest, Eager Test, Slow Test, Conditional Logic, Duplication	Hard to understand/maintain
Low	Obscure Test, Hard-Coded Data	Documentation/readability

Related Skills

Smell	Fix With
Mock Overuse	create-mock-repository
Mystery Guest	create-test-builder
Test Duplication	create-test-builder

References

• references/smell-catalog.md — Full smell descriptions with code examples
• references/refactoring-patterns.md — Refactoring patterns for testability