diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index 9c63032a..8101526a 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -22,13 +22,14 @@
         "ext-intl": "*",
         "ext-iconv": "*",
         "fguillot/picofeed": ">=0.1.31",
-        "jkingweb/druuid": "^3.0",
-        "phpseclib/phpseclib": "^2.0",
-        "hosteurope/password-generator": "^1.0",
-        "webmozart/glob": "^4.1"
+        "jkingweb/druuid": "^3.0.0",
+        "phpseclib/phpseclib": "^2.0.4",
+        "hosteurope/password-generator": "^1.0.1",
+        "webmozart/glob": "^4.1.0"
     },
     "require-dev": {
-        "mikey179/vfsStream": "^1.6.4"
+        "mikey179/vfsStream": "^1.6.4",
+        "phake/phake": "^2.3.2"
     },
     "autoload": {
         "psr-4": {
diff --git a/composer.lock b/composer.lock
index 4953e213..3cc201fa 100644
--- a/composer.lock
+++ b/composer.lock
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
         "Read more about it at https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#composer-lock-the-lock-file",
         "This file is @generated automatically"
     ],
-    "content-hash": "4afb7b406ec21a2c18f46fd176fc242f",
+    "content-hash": "58d51aeeabc7ce9d69626938805bb61f",
     "packages": [
         {
             "name": "fguillot/picofeed",
@@ -471,6 +471,300 @@
             "description": "Virtual file system to mock the real file system in unit tests.",
             "homepage": "http://vfs.bovigo.org/",
             "time": "2016-07-18T14:02:57+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "phake/phake",
+            "version": "v2.3.2",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/mlively/Phake.git",
+                "reference": "d5832f1a0dd2370e14d38bcbaeb6770e8546cff2"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/mlively/Phake/zipball/d5832f1a0dd2370e14d38bcbaeb6770e8546cff2",
+                "reference": "d5832f1a0dd2370e14d38bcbaeb6770e8546cff2",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": ">=5.3.3",
+                "sebastian/comparator": "~1.1"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "codeclimate/php-test-reporter": "dev-master",
+                "doctrine/common": "2.3.*",
+                "ext-soap": "*",
+                "hamcrest/hamcrest-php": "1.1.*",
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "3.7.*"
+            },
+            "suggest": {
+                "doctrine/common": "Allows mock annotations to use import statements for classes.",
+                "hamcrest/hamcrest-php": "Use Hamcrest matchers."
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "3.0.0-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "psr-0": {
+                    "Phake": "src/"
+                }
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "BSD-3-Clause"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Mike Lively",
+                    "email": "m@digitalsandwich.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "The Phake mock testing library",
+            "homepage": "https://github.com/mlively/Phake",
+            "keywords": [
+                "mock",
+                "testing"
+            ],
+            "time": "2017-03-20T05:16:34+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "sebastian/comparator",
+            "version": "1.2.4",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/comparator.git",
+                "reference": "2b7424b55f5047b47ac6e5ccb20b2aea4011d9be"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/sebastianbergmann/comparator/zipball/2b7424b55f5047b47ac6e5ccb20b2aea4011d9be",
+                "reference": "2b7424b55f5047b47ac6e5ccb20b2aea4011d9be",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": ">=5.3.3",
+                "sebastian/diff": "~1.2",
+                "sebastian/exporter": "~1.2 || ~2.0"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.4"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "1.2.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "classmap": [
+                    "src/"
+                ]
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "BSD-3-Clause"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Jeff Welch",
+                    "email": "whatthejeff@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Volker Dusch",
+                    "email": "github@wallbash.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Bernhard Schussek",
+                    "email": "bschussek@2bepublished.at"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Sebastian Bergmann",
+                    "email": "sebastian@phpunit.de"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Provides the functionality to compare PHP values for equality",
+            "homepage": "http://www.github.com/sebastianbergmann/comparator",
+            "keywords": [
+                "comparator",
+                "compare",
+                "equality"
+            ],
+            "time": "2017-01-29T09:50:25+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "sebastian/diff",
+            "version": "1.4.1",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/diff.git",
+                "reference": "13edfd8706462032c2f52b4b862974dd46b71c9e"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/sebastianbergmann/diff/zipball/13edfd8706462032c2f52b4b862974dd46b71c9e",
+                "reference": "13edfd8706462032c2f52b4b862974dd46b71c9e",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": ">=5.3.3"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.8"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "1.4-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "classmap": [
+                    "src/"
+                ]
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "BSD-3-Clause"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Kore Nordmann",
+                    "email": "mail@kore-nordmann.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Sebastian Bergmann",
+                    "email": "sebastian@phpunit.de"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Diff implementation",
+            "homepage": "https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/diff",
+            "keywords": [
+                "diff"
+            ],
+            "time": "2015-12-08T07:14:41+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "sebastian/exporter",
+            "version": "2.0.0",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/exporter.git",
+                "reference": "ce474bdd1a34744d7ac5d6aad3a46d48d9bac4c4"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/sebastianbergmann/exporter/zipball/ce474bdd1a34744d7ac5d6aad3a46d48d9bac4c4",
+                "reference": "ce474bdd1a34744d7ac5d6aad3a46d48d9bac4c4",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": ">=5.3.3",
+                "sebastian/recursion-context": "~2.0"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "ext-mbstring": "*",
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.4"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "2.0.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "classmap": [
+                    "src/"
+                ]
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "BSD-3-Clause"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Jeff Welch",
+                    "email": "whatthejeff@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Volker Dusch",
+                    "email": "github@wallbash.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Bernhard Schussek",
+                    "email": "bschussek@2bepublished.at"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Sebastian Bergmann",
+                    "email": "sebastian@phpunit.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Adam Harvey",
+                    "email": "aharvey@php.net"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Provides the functionality to export PHP variables for visualization",
+            "homepage": "http://www.github.com/sebastianbergmann/exporter",
+            "keywords": [
+                "export",
+                "exporter"
+            ],
+            "time": "2016-11-19T08:54:04+00:00"
+        },
+        {
+            "name": "sebastian/recursion-context",
+            "version": "2.0.0",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/sebastianbergmann/recursion-context.git",
+                "reference": "2c3ba150cbec723aa057506e73a8d33bdb286c9a"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/sebastianbergmann/recursion-context/zipball/2c3ba150cbec723aa057506e73a8d33bdb286c9a",
+                "reference": "2c3ba150cbec723aa057506e73a8d33bdb286c9a",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require": {
+                "php": ">=5.3.3"
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.4"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "extra": {
+                "branch-alias": {
+                    "dev-master": "2.0.x-dev"
+                }
+            },
+            "autoload": {
+                "classmap": [
+                    "src/"
+                ]
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "BSD-3-Clause"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Jeff Welch",
+                    "email": "whatthejeff@gmail.com"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Sebastian Bergmann",
+                    "email": "sebastian@phpunit.de"
+                },
+                {
+                    "name": "Adam Harvey",
+                    "email": "aharvey@php.net"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Provides functionality to recursively process PHP variables",
+            "homepage": "http://www.github.com/sebastianbergmann/recursion-context",
+            "time": "2016-11-19T07:33:16+00:00"
         }
     ],
     "aliases": [],
diff --git a/tests/Exception/TestException.php b/tests/Exception/TestException.php
index 7be980ae..21f82704 100644
--- a/tests/Exception/TestException.php
+++ b/tests/Exception/TestException.php
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 <?php
 declare(strict_types=1);
 namespace JKingWeb\Arsse;
+Use Phake;
 
 
 class TestException extends \PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase {
@@ -8,12 +9,16 @@ class TestException extends \PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase {
 
     function setUp() {
         $this->clearData(false);
-        $m = $this->getMockBuilder(Lang::class)->setMethods(['msg'])->getMock();
-        $m->expects($this->any())->method("msg")->with($this->anything(), $this->anything())->will($this->returnValue(""));
-        Data::$l = $m;
+        // create a mock Lang object so as not to create a dependency loop
+        Data::$l = Phake::mock(Lang::class);
+        Phake::when(Data::$l)->msg->thenReturn("");
     }
 
     function tearDown() {
+        // verify calls to the mock Lang object
+        Phake::verify(Data::$l, Phake::atLeast(0))->msg($this->isType("string"), $this->anything());
+        Phake::verifyNoOtherInteractions(Data::$l);
+        // clean up
         $this->clearData(true);
     }
     
diff --git a/tests/lib/Lang/Setup.php b/tests/lib/Lang/Setup.php
index 888c1291..b98d450f 100644
--- a/tests/lib/Lang/Setup.php
+++ b/tests/lib/Lang/Setup.php
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 <?php
 declare(strict_types=1);
 namespace JKingWeb\Arsse\Test\Lang;
-use org\bovigo\vfs\vfsStream;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\Lang;
 use JKingWeb\Arsse\Data;
+use org\bovigo\vfs\vfsStream;
+use Phake;
 
 
 
@@ -34,16 +35,19 @@ trait Setup {
         chmod($this->path."ru.php", 0000);
         // make the test Lang class use the vfs files
         $this->l = new Lang($this->path);
-        // create a mock Lang object to keep exceptions from creating loops
+        // create a mock Lang object so as not to create a dependency loop
         $this->clearData(false);
-        $m = $this->getMockBuilder(Lang::class)->setMethods(['msg'])->getMock();
-        $m->expects($this->any())->method("msg")->with($this->anything(), $this->anything())->will($this->returnValue(""));
-        Data::$l = $m;
+        Data::$l = Phake::mock(Lang::class);
+        Phake::when(Data::$l)->msg->thenReturn("");
         // call the additional setup method if it exists
         if(method_exists($this, "setUpSeries")) $this->setUpSeries();
     }
 
     function tearDown() {
+        // verify calls to the mock Lang object
+        Phake::verify(Data::$l, Phake::atLeast(0))->msg($this->isType("string"), $this->anything());
+        Phake::verifyNoOtherInteractions(Data::$l);
+        // clean up
         $this->clearData(true);
         // call the additional teardiwn method if it exists
         if(method_exists($this, "tearDownSeries")) $this->tearDownSeries();