eth_increaseTime breaks subsequent contract calls

[coventry]

• I've asked for help in the Truffle Gitter before filing this issue.

https://gitter.im/ConsenSys/truffle?at=5de5c3d91659720ca8eb0c4c

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Issue

I'm seeing the failure reported here: https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/15101/how-to-use-the-testrpc-evm-increasetime-parameter-from-truffle-console#comment89683_21515

Namely, if I use eth_increaseTime, then invoke a contract, I get Uncaught TypeError: callback is not a function.

There's a test case here: https://github.com/coventry/white_elephant/blob/failing-eth_increaseTime/test/white_elephant_test.js#L117

Remove line 117, and the test passes. Remove lines 115-116, and I get a proper revert from the contract. Only with the two lines together do I get the above error.

Steps to Reproduce

Clone the above white_elephant repo, install truffle, run truffle test. Fails with

Uncaught TypeError: callback is not a function

It's unclear which callback this error is referring to.

Expected Behavior

Revert on the contract transaction on line 117 of white_elephant_test.js.

Actual Results

See above.

Environment

• Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04
• Ethereum client: Whatever truffle uses under the hood.
• Truffle version (truffle version):

$ truffle version
Truffle v5.0.21 (core: 5.0.21)
Solidity - 0.5.1 (solc-js)
Node v10.17.0
Web3.js v1.0.0-beta.37

• node version (node --version): 10.17.0
• npm version (npm --version): 6.10.3

[CruzMolina]

Having difficulty diagnosing this issue, although the error message definitely appears to happen when hitting the web3.currentProvider.send call on line 115.

Can't seem to find an older v5.0.x version of truffle that works with this test because of unpinned Web3 dependencies 😬.

[CruzMolina]

Okay, so AFAICT, web3.currentProvider.send expects a callback to be passed.

See Synthetix and JoinColony's use of web3.currentProvider in their test helpers :

• Synthetix helper example
• JoinColony helper example

It would be pretty useful to document this. We can likely also do some things on our end to enable not having to pass a callback.