This is a new series of articles covering short "Today I Learned" topics as I peel the layers of CockroachDB. This is meant to resemble release notes. I decided to mix it up with the format for these posts as they may not justify an entire blog. Link here for past articles.
Topics
Topic 1: Unit Testing With CockroachDB
I get this question a lot: "What is the best way to unit test CockroachDB as part of application development?" Depending on the use case, there are several approaches we can take. There is a venerable [cockroach demo](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/cockroach-demo.html), which has been my trusty go-to tool when I needed something in a hurry. It comes with a one-hour license for enterprise features, which you can also unit test, but it also comes with certain limitations. For example, there is reported latency at table creation, ports until recently were random and not configurable, and by default it loads data which you can also overcome with a flag. The goal for cockroach demo is to quickly spin up a working environment for demo purposes and not necessarily something designed for unit testing.