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+This directory contains integration tests that test bitcoind and its
+utilities in their entirety. It does not contain unit tests, which
+can be found in [/src/test](/src/test), [/src/wallet/test](/src/wallet/test),
+etc.
+
+There are currently two sets of tests in this directory:
+
+- [functional](/test/functional) which test the functionality of 
+bitcoind and bitcoin-qt by interacting with them through the RPC and P2P
+interfaces.
+- [util](test/util) which tests the bitcoin utilities, currently only
+bitcoin-tx.
+
+The util tests are run as part of `make check` target. The functional
+tests are run by the travis continuous build process whenever a pull
+request is opened. Both sets of tests can also be run locally.
+
+Functional Test dependencies
+============================
+The ZMQ functional test requires a python ZMQ library. To install it:
+
+- on Unix, run `sudo apt-get install python3-zmq`
+- on mac OS, run `pip3 install pyzmq`
+
+Running tests locally
+=====================
+
+Functional tests
+----------------
+
+You can run any single test by calling
+
+    test/functional/test_runner.py <testname>
+
+Or you can run any combination of tests by calling
+
+    test/functional/test_runner.py <testname1> <testname2> <testname3> ...
+
+Run the regression test suite with
+
+    test/functional/test_runner.py
+
+Run all possible tests with
+
+    test/functional/test_runner.py --extended
+
+By default, tests will be run in parallel. To specify how many jobs to run,
+append `--jobs=n` (default n=4).
+
+If you want to create a basic coverage report for the RPC test suite, append `--coverage`.
+
+Possible options, which apply to each individual test run:
+
+```
+  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
+  --nocleanup           Leave bitcoinds and test.* datadir on exit or error
+  --noshutdown          Don't stop bitcoinds after the test execution
+  --srcdir=SRCDIR       Source directory containing bitcoind/bitcoin-cli
+                        (default: ../../src)
+  --tmpdir=TMPDIR       Root directory for datadirs
+  --tracerpc            Print out all RPC calls as they are made
+  --coveragedir=COVERAGEDIR
+                        Write tested RPC commands into this directory
+```
+
+If you set the environment variable `PYTHON_DEBUG=1` you will get some debug
+output (example: `PYTHON_DEBUG=1 test/functional/test_runner.py wallet`).
+
+A 200-block -regtest blockchain and wallets for four nodes
+is created the first time a regression test is run and
+is stored in the cache/ directory. Each node has 25 mature
+blocks (25*50=1250 BTC) in its wallet.
+
+After the first run, the cache/ blockchain and wallets are
+copied into a temporary directory and used as the initial
+test state.
+
+If you get into a bad state, you should be able
+to recover with:
+
+```bash
+rm -rf cache
+killall bitcoind
+```
+
+Util tests
+----------
+
+Util tests can be run locally by running `test/util/bitcoin-util-test.py`. 
+Use the `-v` option for verbose output.
+
+Writing functional tests
+========================
+
+You are encouraged to write functional tests for new or existing features.
+Further information about the functional test framework and individual 
+tests is found in [test/functional](/test/functional).