Advance localnet epoch for testing

Question

If we have some program that uses let epoch_now = Clock::get()?.epoch; and we want to write typescript tests around what happens when the epoch advances, is there a way to advance the localnet time or make epochs on localnet very short (e.g., several seconds)?

For time, it's easy to compile with a localnet flag that turns any time-equivalent into something small like a few seconds. For epochs, they are unfortunately always two days.

Obviously waiting 2 days is not ideal.

Answer 1

Consider Bankrun. I haven't used it but it aims to be a wrapper around solana-program-test which means it likely has what you want.

The clock-related functions shown here are examples of the useful functionality solana-program-test provides that should help in your case. With it, you can modify the clock sysvar information at will. Bankrun should in theory offer a way to do the same in Typescript.