k6exec

Launcher for k6 with seamless use of extensions.

k6exec is a launcher library for k6 with seamless use of extensions. The launcher will always run the k6 test script with the appropriate k6 binary, which contains the extensions used by the script. Extensions can also be recognized from the environment variable (default K6_DEPENDENCIES) or from the dependencies property of the manifest file.

k6exec is primarily used as a go library. In addition, it also contains a command-line tool, which is suitable for listing the dependencies of k6 test scripts.

The command line tool can be integrated into other command line tools as a subcommand. For this purpose, the library also contains the functionality of the command line tool as a factrory function that returns cobra.Command.

Install

Precompiled binaries can be downloaded and installed from the Releases page.

If you have a go development environment, the installation can also be done with the following command:

go install github.com/grafana/k6exec/cmd/k6exec@latest

Docker images are available on the GitHub Packages:

docker pull ghcr.io/grafana/k6exec:latest

Usage

k6exec

Run k6 with extensions

Synopsis

Run k6 with a seamless extension user experience.

k6exec is a k6 launcher that automatically provides k6 with the extensions used by the test. In order to do this, it analyzes the script arguments of the run and archive subcommands, detects the extensions to be used and their version constraints.

The launcher acts as a drop-in replacement for the k6 command. For more convenient use, it is advisable to create an alias or shell script called k6 for the launcher. The alias can be used in exactly the same way as the k6 command, with the difference that it generates the real k6 on the fly based on the extensions you want to use.

Any k6 command can be used. Use the help command to list the available k6 commands.

Since k6exec tries to emulate the k6 command line, the help command or the --help flag cannot be used to display help from k6exec command itself. The k6exec help can be displayed using the --usage flag:

k6exec --usage

Prerequisites

k6exec tries to provide the appropriate k6 executable after detecting the extension dependencies. This can be done using a build service or a native builder.

Build Service

No additional installation is required to use the build service, just provide the build service URL.

The build service URL can be specified in the K6_BUILD_SERVICE_URL environment variable or by using the --build-service-url flag.

There is no default URL for the build service, otherwise k6exec will automatically provide k6 with the native builder.

Native Builder

To use the native builder, you only need to install the Go language toolkit.

The native builder uses a k6 extension catalog to resolve extension URLs and versions. The extension catalog URL has a default value. A different extension catalog URL can be specified in the K6_EXTENSION_CATALOG_URL environment variable or by using the --extension-catalog-url flag.

Dependencies

Dependencies can come from three sources: k6 test script, manifest file, K6_DEPENDENCIES environment variable. Instead of these three sources, a k6 archive can also be specified, which can contain all three sources.

Pragma

Version constraints can be specified using the JavaScript "use ..." pragma syntax for k6 and extensions. Put the following lines at the beginning of the test script:

"use k6 >= v0.52";
"use k6 with k6/x/faker > 0.2";

Any number of "use k6" pragmas can be used.

Note The use of pragmas is completely optional for JavaScript type extensions, it is only necessary if you want to specify version constraints.

The pragma syntax can also be used to specify an extension dependency that is not referenced in an import expression. A typical example of this is the Output type extension such as xk6-top:

"use k6 with top >= 0.1";

Read the version constraints syntax in the Version Constraints section

Environment

The extensions to be used and optionally their version constraints can also be specified in the K6_DEPENDENCIES environment variable. The value of the environment variable K6_DEPENDENCIES is a list of elements separated by semicolons. Each element specifies an extension (or k6 itself) and optionally its version constraint.

k6>=0.52;k6/x/faker>=0.3;k6/x/sql>=0.4

Manifest

The manifest file is a JSON file, the dependencies property of which can specify extension dependencies and version constraints. The value of the dependencies property is a JSON object. The property names of this object are the extension names (or k6) and the values ​​are the version constraints.

{
  "dependencies": {
    "k6": ">=0.52",
    "k6/x/faker": ">=0.3",
    "k6/x/sql": ">=0.4"
  }
}

The manifest file is a file named package.json, which is located closest to the k6 test script or the current directory, depending on whether the given subcommand has a test script argument (e.g. run, archive) or not (e.g. version). The package.json file is searched for up to the root of the directory hierarchy.

Limitations

Version constraints can be specified in several sources (pragma, environment, manifest) but cannot be overwritten. That is, for a given extension, the version constraints from different sources must either be equal, or only one source can contain a version constraint.

k6exec [flags] [command]

Flags

      --build-service-url string       URL of the k6 build service to be used
      --extension-catalog-url string   URL of the k6 extension catalog to be used
  -h, --help                           help for k6
      --no-color                       disable colored output
  -q, --quiet                          disable progress updates
      --usage                          print launcher usage
  -v, --verbose                        enable verbose logging
      --version                        version for k6

Contribute

If you want to contribute or help with the development of k6exec, start by reading CONTRIBUTING.md.