unit-threaded

My DConf2016 Lightning talk demonstrating unit-threaded.

Multi-threaded advanced unit test framework for the D programming language.

Augments D's unittest blocks with:

• Tests can be named and individually run
• Custom assertions for better error reporting (e.g. 1.should == 2)
• Runs in threads by default
• UDAs for customisation of tests
• Property based testing
• Mocking

Quick start with dub

Note: while getting started this way is easy, it also increases build times and may run into edge cases. See below for how to do it manually.

dub runs tests with dub test. Unfortunately, due to the nature of D's compile-time reflection, to use this library a test runner file listing all modules to reflect on must exist. Since this is a tedious task and easily automated, unit-threaded has a dub configuration called gen_ut_main to do just that. To use unit-threaded with a dub project, you can use a unittest configuration as exemplified in this dub.json:

{
    "name": "myproject",
    "targetType": "executable",
    "targetPath": "bin",
    "configurations": [
        { "name": "executable" },
        {
            "name": "unittest",
            "targetType": "executable",
            "preBuildCommands": ["$DUB run --compiler=$$DC unit-threaded -c gen_ut_main -- -f bin/ut.d -d $DUB"],
            "mainSourceFile": "bin/ut.d",
            "excludedSourceFiles": ["src/main.d"],
            "dependencies": {
                "unit-threaded": "*"
            }
        }
    ]
}

With dub.sdl:

configuration "executable" {
}

configuration "unittest" {
    dependency "unit-threaded" version="*"
    mainSourceFile "bin/ut.d"
    excludedSourceFiles "src/main.d"
    targetType "executable"
    preBuildCommands "$DUB run --compiler=$$DC unit-threaded -c gen_ut_main -- -f bin/ut.d -d $DUB"
}

excludedSourceFiles is there to not compile the file containing the main function to avoid linker errors. As an alternative to using excludedSourceFiles, the "real" main can be versioned out:

version(unittest) {
    import unit_threaded;
    mixin runTestsMain!(
        "module1",
        "module2",
        // ...
    );
} else {
    void main() {
        //...
    }
}

Manually listing the D modules with tests

Alternatively to the above and the recommended way is to manually (unfortunately) list all the modules with tests in the unittest main function. There's a mixin for that:

import unit_threaded;
mixin runTestsMain!(
    "mypkg.mymod0",
    "mypkg.mymod1",
    // ...
);

Your unittest blocks will now be run in threads and can be run individually. To name each unittest, simply attach a string UDA to it:

@("Test that 2 + 3 is 5")
unittest {
    assert(2 + 3 == 5);
}

You can also have multiple configurations for running unit tests, e.g. one that uses the standard D runtime unittest runner and one that uses unit-threaded:

"configurations": [
    {"name": "ut_default"},
    {
      "name": "unittest",
      "preBuildCommands: ["$DUB run --compiler=$$DC unit-threaded -c gen_ut_main -- -f bin/ut.d -d $DUB"],
      "mainSourceFile": "bin/ut.d",
      ...
    }
]

In this example, dub test -c ut_default runs as usual if you don't use this library, and dub test runs with the unit-threaded test runner.

To use unit-threaded's assertions or UDA-based features, you must import the library:

// Don't use `version(unittest)` here - if anyone depends on your code and
// doesn't depend on unit-threaded they won't be able to test their own
// code!
version(TestingMyCode) { import unit_threaded; }
else                   { enum ShouldFail; }  // so production builds compile

int adder(int i, int j) { return i + j; }

@("Test adder") unittest {
    adder(2, 3).shouldEqual(5);
}

@("Test adder fails", ShouldFail) unittest {
    adder(2, 3).shouldEqual(7);
}

If using a custom dub configuration for unit-threaded as shown above, a version block can be used on Have_unit_threaded (this is added by dub to the build).

Custom Assertions

Code speaks louder than words:

    1.should == 1;
    1.should.not == 2;
    1.should in [1, 2, 3];
    4.should.not in [1, 2, 3];

    void funcThrows() { throw new Exception("oops"); }
    funcThrows.shouldThrow;

    // or with .be
    1.should.be == 1;
    1.should.not.be == 2;
    1.should.be in [1, 2, 3];
    4.should.not.be in [1, 2, 3];

    // I know this is operator overload abuse. I still like it.
    [1, 2, 3].should ~ [3, 2, 1];
    [1, 2, 3].should.not ~ [1, 2, 2];
    1.0.should ~ 1.0001;
    1.0.should.not ~ 2.0;

See more in the unit_threaded.should module.

Fast compilation mode

Fast compilation mode. Set the version to unitThreadedLight and it will compile much faster, but with no error reporting and certain features might not work. Experimental support.

Advanced Usage: Attributes

@ShouldFail is used to decorate a test that is expected to fail, and can be passed a string to explain why. @ShouldFail should be preferred to @HiddenTest. If the relevant bug is fixed or not-yet-implemented functionality is done, the test will then fail, which makes them harder to sweep under the carpet and forget about.

Since code under test might not be thread-safe, the @Serial attribute can be used on a test. This causes all tests in the same module that have this attribute to be executed sequentially so they don't interleave with one another.

Although not the best practice, it happens sometimes that a test is flaky. It is recommended to fix the test, but as a stopgap measure the @Flaky UDA can be used to rerun the test up to a default number of 10 times. This can be customized by passing it a number (e.g. @Flaky(12));

The @Name UDA can be used instead of a plain string in order to name a unittest block.

unit-threaded uses D's package and module system to make it possible to select a subset of tests to run. Sometimes however, tests in different modules address cross-cutting concerns and it may be desirable to indicate this grouping in order to select only those tests. The @Tags UDA can be used to do that. Any number of tags can be applied to a test:

@Tags("foo", "tagged")
unittest { ... }

The strings a test is tagged with can be used by the test runner binary to constrain which tests to run either by selecting tests with or without tags:

./ut @foo ~@bar

That will run all tests that have the "foo" tag that also don't have the "bar" tag.

The @Setup and @Shutdown UDAs can be attached to a free function in a module. If they are, they will be run before/after each unittest block in a composite (usually a module). This feature currently only works for unittest blocks, not free functions. Classes could override setup and shutdown already.

Property-based testing

There is preliminary support for property-based testing. To check a property use the check function from unit_threaded.property with a function returning bool:

check!((int a) => a % 2 == 0);

The above example will obviously fail. By default check runs the property function with 100 random values, pass it a different runtime parameter to change that:

check!((int a) => a % 2 == 0)(10_000); // will still fail

If using compile-time delegates as above, the types of the input parameters must be explicitly stated. Multiple parameters can be used as long as each one is of one of the currently supported types.

Mocking

Classes and interfaces can be mocked like so:

interface Foo { int foo(int, string); }
int fun(Foo f, int i, string s) { return f.foo(i * 2, s ~ "stuff"); }

auto m = mock!Foo;
m.expect!"foo";
fun(m, 3, "bar");
m.verify; // throws if not called

To check the values passed in, pass them to expect:

m.expect!"foo"(6, "barstuff");
fun(m , 3, "bar");
m.verify;

Either call expect then verify or call expectCalled at the end:

fun(m, 3, "bar");
m.expectCalled!"foo"(6, "barstuff");

The return value is T.init unless returnValue is called (it's variadic):

m.returnValue!"foo"(2, 3, 4);
assert(fun(m, 3, "bar") == 2);
assert(fun(m, 3, "bar") == 3);
assert(fun(m, 3, "bar") == 4);
assert(fun(m, 3, "bar") == 0);

Structs can also be mocked:

int fun(T)(T f, int i, string s) { return f.foo(i * 2, s ~ "stuff"); }
auto m = mockStruct(2, 3, 4); // the ints are return values (none need be passed)
assert(fun(m, 3, "bar") == 2);
m.expectCalled!"foo"(6, "barstuff");

If a struct is needed that returns different types for different functions:

    auto m = mockStruct!(ReturnValues!("length", 5, 3),
                         ReturnValues!("greet", "hello", "g'day"));
    m.length.shouldEqual(5);
    m.length.shouldEqual(3);
    m.greet.shouldEqual("hello");
    m.grett.shouldEqual("g'day");

Structs that always throw:

{
    auto m = throwStruct;
    m.foo.shouldThrow!UnitTestException;
}

{
    auto m = throwStruct!MyException;
    m.foo.shouldThrow!MyException;
}

Command-line Parameters

To run in single-threaded mode, use -s.

There is support for debug prints in the tests with the -d switch. TestCases and test functions can print debug output with the function writelnUt available here.

Tests can be run in random order instead of in threads. To do so, use the -r option. A seed will be printed so that the same run can be repeated by using the --seed option. This implies running in a single thread.

Integration tests and a sandbox environment

If you want to write tests that read from and write to the file system, you can use the Sandbox struct from unit_threaded.integration like so:

with(immutable Sandbox()) {
    writeFile("foo.txt", "foobarbaz\ntoto"); // can also pass string[] for lines
    shouldExist("foo.txt");
    shouldNotExist("bar.txt");
    shouldEqualLines("foo.txt", ["foobarbaz", "toto"]);
}

By default the sandbox main path is tmp/unit-threaded but you can change that by calling Sandbox.setPath

Test Registration and Test Runner

There are two example programs in the example folder, one with passing unit tests and the other failing, to show what the output looks like in each case. Because of the way D packages work, they must be run from the top-level directory of the repository.

The built-in D unittest blocks are included automatically, as seen in the output of both example programs (example.tests.pass_tests.unittest and its homologue in example_fail). A name will be automatically generated for them. The user can specify a name by decorating them with a string UDA or the included @Name UDA.

The easiest way to run tests is by doing what the failing example code does: mixing in runTestsMain() in runner.d with the modules containing the tests as compile-time arguments (as strings).

There is no need to register tests. The registration is implicit and happens with:

• D's `unittest`` blocks
• Functions with a camelCase name beginning with test (e.g. testFoo())
• Classes that derive from TestCase and override test()

The modules to be reflected on must be specified when calling runTests or runTestsMain, but that's usually done as shown in the dub configuration above. Private functions are skipped. TestCase also has support for setup() and shutdown(), child classes need only override the appropriate functions(s).

Tests can be hidden with the @HiddenTest attribute. This means that particular test doesn't get run by default but can still be run by passing its name as a command-line argument. HiddenTest takes a compile-time string to list the reason why the test is hidden. This would usually be a bug id but can be anything the user wants.

Since D packages are just directories and there the compiler can't read the filesystem at compile-time, there is no way to automatically add all tests in a package. To mitigate this and avoid having to manually write the name of all the modules containing tests, a dub configuration called gen_ut_main runs unit-threaded as a command-line utility to write the file for you.

Related Projects

• dunit: xUnit Testing Framework for D
• DMocks-revived: a mock-object framework that allows to mock interfaces or classes
• deject: automatic dependency injection
• specd: a unit testing framework inspired by specs2 and ScalaTest
• DUnit: a toolkit of test assertions and a template mixin to enable mocking