Backend Test Environment Setup

Env Variables

Make a copy of .env.testing.example and save it as .env.testing. Make sure the following env variables are set correctly if you changed these values during installation of mysql or mariadb:

DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

MinIO

Integration tests require a valid MinIO configuration, since we use the s3 filesystems disk by default. Hence, make sure to set all the AWS environment values similar to the settings in your local development environment file.

Database Setup

The backend uses a MySQL database for integration testing. You need to create a database named test_emmie before running the tests.

MySQL client binaries

The Integration and Feature suites need the mysqldump and mysql executables on your PATH, on top of the database server itself. Both ship in mariadb-client (Fedora/Debian) or mysql-client; CI installs the same package (.github/workflows/ci.yml).

They are used on both sides of the tenant schema snapshot that keeps these suites fast:

Binary	Used by	When
mysqldump	schema:dump:all	Writing database/schema/mysql-tenant-schema.sql
mysql	tenant database creation	Loading that file instead of replaying every tenant migration

Check both resolve:

command -v mysqldump mysql

Missing either one fails loudly — Laravel's schema dumper/loader shells out through Symfony Process, so you get a process error naming the binary, not a silent fallback.

Coverage

To enable coverage support(the --coverage flag) with phpunit/pest, follow the guides for windows or fedora.

Troubleshooting

Out of memory

If you get an error about php unable to allocate enough memory, while running tests, make sure the memory_limit setting in your systems php.ini is set to at least 512M.