3 <!-- GOOGLETEST_CM0014 DO NOT DELETE -->
5 ## Why should test suite names and test names not contain underscore?
7 Underscore (`_`) is special, as C++ reserves the following to be used by the
8 compiler and the standard library:
10 1. any identifier that starts with an `_` followed by an upper-case letter, and
11 2. any identifier that contains two consecutive underscores (i.e. `__`)
12 *anywhere* in its name.
14 User code is *prohibited* from using such identifiers.
16 Now let's look at what this means for `TEST` and `TEST_F`.
18 Currently `TEST(TestSuiteName, TestName)` generates a class named
19 `TestSuiteName_TestName_Test`. What happens if `TestSuiteName` or `TestName`
22 1. If `TestSuiteName` starts with an `_` followed by an upper-case letter (say,
23 `_Foo`), we end up with `_Foo_TestName_Test`, which is reserved and thus
25 2. If `TestSuiteName` ends with an `_` (say, `Foo_`), we get
26 `Foo__TestName_Test`, which is invalid.
27 3. If `TestName` starts with an `_` (say, `_Bar`), we get
28 `TestSuiteName__Bar_Test`, which is invalid.
29 4. If `TestName` ends with an `_` (say, `Bar_`), we get
30 `TestSuiteName_Bar__Test`, which is invalid.
32 So clearly `TestSuiteName` and `TestName` cannot start or end with `_`
33 (Actually, `TestSuiteName` can start with `_` -- as long as the `_` isn't
34 followed by an upper-case letter. But that's getting complicated. So for
35 simplicity we just say that it cannot start with `_`.).
37 It may seem fine for `TestSuiteName` and `TestName` to contain `_` in the
38 middle. However, consider this:
41 TEST(Time, Flies_Like_An_Arrow) { ... }
42 TEST(Time_Flies, Like_An_Arrow) { ... }
45 Now, the two `TEST`s will both generate the same class
46 (`Time_Flies_Like_An_Arrow_Test`). That's not good.
48 So for simplicity, we just ask the users to avoid `_` in `TestSuiteName` and
49 `TestName`. The rule is more constraining than necessary, but it's simple and
50 easy to remember. It also gives googletest some wiggle room in case its
51 implementation needs to change in the future.
53 If you violate the rule, there may not be immediate consequences, but your test
54 may (just may) break with a new compiler (or a new version of the compiler you
55 are using) or with a new version of googletest. Therefore it's best to follow
58 ## Why does googletest support `EXPECT_EQ(NULL, ptr)` and `ASSERT_EQ(NULL, ptr)` but not `EXPECT_NE(NULL, ptr)` and `ASSERT_NE(NULL, ptr)`?
60 First of all you can use `EXPECT_NE(nullptr, ptr)` and `ASSERT_NE(nullptr,
61 ptr)`. This is the preferred syntax in the style guide because nullptr does not
62 have the type problems that NULL does. Which is why NULL does not work.
64 Due to some peculiarity of C++, it requires some non-trivial template meta
65 programming tricks to support using `NULL` as an argument of the `EXPECT_XX()`
66 and `ASSERT_XX()` macros. Therefore we only do it where it's most needed
67 (otherwise we make the implementation of googletest harder to maintain and more
68 error-prone than necessary).
70 The `EXPECT_EQ()` macro takes the *expected* value as its first argument and the
71 *actual* value as the second. It's reasonable that someone wants to write
72 `EXPECT_EQ(NULL, some_expression)`, and this indeed was requested several times.
73 Therefore we implemented it.
75 The need for `EXPECT_NE(NULL, ptr)` isn't nearly as strong. When the assertion
76 fails, you already know that `ptr` must be `NULL`, so it doesn't add any
77 information to print `ptr` in this case. That means `EXPECT_TRUE(ptr != NULL)`
80 If we were to support `EXPECT_NE(NULL, ptr)`, for consistency we'll have to
81 support `EXPECT_NE(ptr, NULL)` as well, as unlike `EXPECT_EQ`, we don't have a
82 convention on the order of the two arguments for `EXPECT_NE`. This means using
83 the template meta programming tricks twice in the implementation, making it even
84 harder to understand and maintain. We believe the benefit doesn't justify the
87 Finally, with the growth of the gMock matcher library, we are encouraging people
88 to use the unified `EXPECT_THAT(value, matcher)` syntax more often in tests. One
89 significant advantage of the matcher approach is that matchers can be easily
90 combined to form new matchers, while the `EXPECT_NE`, etc, macros cannot be
91 easily combined. Therefore we want to invest more in the matchers than in the
94 ## I need to test that different implementations of an interface satisfy some common requirements. Should I use typed tests or value-parameterized tests?
96 For testing various implementations of the same interface, either typed tests or
97 value-parameterized tests can get it done. It's really up to you the user to
98 decide which is more convenient for you, depending on your particular case. Some
101 * Typed tests can be easier to write if instances of the different
102 implementations can be created the same way, modulo the type. For example,
103 if all these implementations have a public default constructor (such that
104 you can write `new TypeParam`), or if their factory functions have the same
105 form (e.g. `CreateInstance<TypeParam>()`).
106 * Value-parameterized tests can be easier to write if you need different code
107 patterns to create different implementations' instances, e.g. `new Foo` vs
108 `new Bar(5)`. To accommodate for the differences, you can write factory
109 function wrappers and pass these function pointers to the tests as their
111 * When a typed test fails, the default output includes the name of the type,
112 which can help you quickly identify which implementation is wrong.
113 Value-parameterized tests only show the number of the failed iteration by
114 default. You will need to define a function that returns the iteration name
115 and pass it as the third parameter to INSTANTIATE_TEST_SUITE_P to have more
117 * When using typed tests, you need to make sure you are testing against the
118 interface type, not the concrete types (in other words, you want to make
119 sure `implicit_cast<MyInterface*>(my_concrete_impl)` works, not just that
120 `my_concrete_impl` works). It's less likely to make mistakes in this area
121 when using value-parameterized tests.
123 I hope I didn't confuse you more. :-) If you don't mind, I'd suggest you to give
124 both approaches a try. Practice is a much better way to grasp the subtle
125 differences between the two tools. Once you have some concrete experience, you
126 can much more easily decide which one to use the next time.
128 ## I got some run-time errors about invalid proto descriptors when using `ProtocolMessageEquals`. Help!
130 **Note:** `ProtocolMessageEquals` and `ProtocolMessageEquiv` are *deprecated*
131 now. Please use `EqualsProto`, etc instead.
133 `ProtocolMessageEquals` and `ProtocolMessageEquiv` were redefined recently and
134 are now less tolerant of invalid protocol buffer definitions. In particular, if
135 you have a `foo.proto` that doesn't fully qualify the type of a protocol message
136 it references (e.g. `message<Bar>` where it should be `message<blah.Bar>`), you
137 will now get run-time errors like:
140 ... descriptor.cc:...] Invalid proto descriptor for file "path/to/foo.proto":
141 ... descriptor.cc:...] blah.MyMessage.my_field: ".Bar" is not defined.
144 If you see this, your `.proto` file is broken and needs to be fixed by making
145 the types fully qualified. The new definition of `ProtocolMessageEquals` and
146 `ProtocolMessageEquiv` just happen to reveal your bug.
148 ## My death test modifies some state, but the change seems lost after the death test finishes. Why?
150 Death tests (`EXPECT_DEATH`, etc) are executed in a sub-process s.t. the
151 expected crash won't kill the test program (i.e. the parent process). As a
152 result, any in-memory side effects they incur are observable in their respective
153 sub-processes, but not in the parent process. You can think of them as running
154 in a parallel universe, more or less.
156 In particular, if you use mocking and the death test statement invokes some mock
157 methods, the parent process will think the calls have never occurred. Therefore,
158 you may want to move your `EXPECT_CALL` statements inside the `EXPECT_DEATH`
161 ## EXPECT_EQ(htonl(blah), blah_blah) generates weird compiler errors in opt mode. Is this a googletest bug?
163 Actually, the bug is in `htonl()`.
165 According to `'man htonl'`, `htonl()` is a *function*, which means it's valid to
166 use `htonl` as a function pointer. However, in opt mode `htonl()` is defined as
167 a *macro*, which breaks this usage.
169 Worse, the macro definition of `htonl()` uses a `gcc` extension and is *not*
170 standard C++. That hacky implementation has some ad hoc limitations. In
171 particular, it prevents you from writing `Foo<sizeof(htonl(x))>()`, where `Foo`
172 is a template that has an integral argument.
174 The implementation of `EXPECT_EQ(a, b)` uses `sizeof(... a ...)` inside a
175 template argument, and thus doesn't compile in opt mode when `a` contains a call
176 to `htonl()`. It is difficult to make `EXPECT_EQ` bypass the `htonl()` bug, as
177 the solution must work with different compilers on various platforms.
179 `htonl()` has some other problems as described in `//util/endian/endian.h`,
180 which defines `ghtonl()` to replace it. `ghtonl()` does the same thing `htonl()`
181 does, only without its problems. We suggest you to use `ghtonl()` instead of
182 `htonl()`, both in your tests and production code.
184 `//util/endian/endian.h` also defines `ghtons()`, which solves similar problems
187 Don't forget to add `//util/endian` to the list of dependencies in the `BUILD`
188 file wherever `ghtonl()` and `ghtons()` are used. The library consists of a
189 single header file and will not bloat your binary.
191 ## The compiler complains about "undefined references" to some static const member variables, but I did define them in the class body. What's wrong?
193 If your class has a static data member:
199 static const int kBar = 100;
203 You also need to define it *outside* of the class body in `foo.cc`:
206 const int Foo::kBar; // No initializer here.
209 Otherwise your code is **invalid C++**, and may break in unexpected ways. In
210 particular, using it in googletest comparison assertions (`EXPECT_EQ`, etc) will
211 generate an "undefined reference" linker error. The fact that "it used to work"
212 doesn't mean it's valid. It just means that you were lucky. :-)
214 ## Can I derive a test fixture from another?
218 Each test fixture has a corresponding and same named test suite. This means only
219 one test suite can use a particular fixture. Sometimes, however, multiple test
220 cases may want to use the same or slightly different fixtures. For example, you
221 may want to make sure that all of a GUI library's test suites don't leak
222 important system resources like fonts and brushes.
224 In googletest, you share a fixture among test suites by putting the shared logic
225 in a base test fixture, then deriving from that base a separate fixture for each
226 test suite that wants to use this common logic. You then use `TEST_F()` to write
227 tests using each derived fixture.
229 Typically, your code looks like this:
232 // Defines a base test fixture.
233 class BaseTest : public ::testing::Test {
238 // Derives a fixture FooTest from BaseTest.
239 class FooTest : public BaseTest {
241 void SetUp() override {
242 BaseTest::SetUp(); // Sets up the base fixture first.
243 ... additional set-up work ...
246 void TearDown() override {
247 ... clean-up work for FooTest ...
248 BaseTest::TearDown(); // Remember to tear down the base fixture
249 // after cleaning up FooTest!
252 ... functions and variables for FooTest ...
255 // Tests that use the fixture FooTest.
256 TEST_F(FooTest, Bar) { ... }
257 TEST_F(FooTest, Baz) { ... }
259 ... additional fixtures derived from BaseTest ...
262 If necessary, you can continue to derive test fixtures from a derived fixture.
263 googletest has no limit on how deep the hierarchy can be.
265 For a complete example using derived test fixtures, see
266 [sample5_unittest.cc](../samples/sample5_unittest.cc).
268 ## My compiler complains "void value not ignored as it ought to be." What does this mean?
270 You're probably using an `ASSERT_*()` in a function that doesn't return `void`.
271 `ASSERT_*()` can only be used in `void` functions, due to exceptions being
272 disabled by our build system. Please see more details
273 [here](advanced.md#assertion-placement).
275 ## My death test hangs (or seg-faults). How do I fix it?
277 In googletest, death tests are run in a child process and the way they work is
278 delicate. To write death tests you really need to understand how they work.
279 Please make sure you have read [this](advanced.md#how-it-works).
281 In particular, death tests don't like having multiple threads in the parent
282 process. So the first thing you can try is to eliminate creating threads outside
283 of `EXPECT_DEATH()`. For example, you may want to use mocks or fake objects
284 instead of real ones in your tests.
286 Sometimes this is impossible as some library you must use may be creating
287 threads before `main()` is even reached. In this case, you can try to minimize
288 the chance of conflicts by either moving as many activities as possible inside
289 `EXPECT_DEATH()` (in the extreme case, you want to move everything inside), or
290 leaving as few things as possible in it. Also, you can try to set the death test
291 style to `"threadsafe"`, which is safer but slower, and see if it helps.
293 If you go with thread-safe death tests, remember that they rerun the test
294 program from the beginning in the child process. Therefore make sure your
295 program can run side-by-side with itself and is deterministic.
297 In the end, this boils down to good concurrent programming. You have to make
298 sure that there is no race conditions or dead locks in your program. No silver
301 ## Should I use the constructor/destructor of the test fixture or SetUp()/TearDown()? {#CtorVsSetUp}
303 The first thing to remember is that googletest does **not** reuse the same test
304 fixture object across multiple tests. For each `TEST_F`, googletest will create
305 a **fresh** test fixture object, immediately call `SetUp()`, run the test body,
306 call `TearDown()`, and then delete the test fixture object.
308 When you need to write per-test set-up and tear-down logic, you have the choice
309 between using the test fixture constructor/destructor or `SetUp()/TearDown()`.
310 The former is usually preferred, as it has the following benefits:
312 * By initializing a member variable in the constructor, we have the option to
313 make it `const`, which helps prevent accidental changes to its value and
314 makes the tests more obviously correct.
315 * In case we need to subclass the test fixture class, the subclass'
316 constructor is guaranteed to call the base class' constructor *first*, and
317 the subclass' destructor is guaranteed to call the base class' destructor
318 *afterward*. With `SetUp()/TearDown()`, a subclass may make the mistake of
319 forgetting to call the base class' `SetUp()/TearDown()` or call them at the
322 You may still want to use `SetUp()/TearDown()` in the following cases:
324 * C++ does not allow virtual function calls in constructors and destructors.
325 You can call a method declared as virtual, but it will not use dynamic
326 dispatch, it will use the definition from the class the constructor of which
327 is currently executing. This is because calling a virtual method before the
328 derived class constructor has a chance to run is very dangerous - the
329 virtual method might operate on uninitialized data. Therefore, if you need
330 to call a method that will be overridden in a derived class, you have to use
331 `SetUp()/TearDown()`.
332 * In the body of a constructor (or destructor), it's not possible to use the
333 `ASSERT_xx` macros. Therefore, if the set-up operation could cause a fatal
334 test failure that should prevent the test from running, it's necessary to
335 use `abort` <!-- GOOGLETEST_CM0015 DO NOT DELETE --> and abort the whole test executable,
336 or to use `SetUp()` instead of a constructor.
337 * If the tear-down operation could throw an exception, you must use
338 `TearDown()` as opposed to the destructor, as throwing in a destructor leads
339 to undefined behavior and usually will kill your program right away. Note
340 that many standard libraries (like STL) may throw when exceptions are
341 enabled in the compiler. Therefore you should prefer `TearDown()` if you
342 want to write portable tests that work with or without exceptions.
343 * The googletest team is considering making the assertion macros throw on
344 platforms where exceptions are enabled (e.g. Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
345 client-side), which will eliminate the need for the user to propagate
346 failures from a subroutine to its caller. Therefore, you shouldn't use
347 googletest assertions in a destructor if your code could run on such a
350 ## The compiler complains "no matching function to call" when I use ASSERT_PRED*. How do I fix it?
352 If the predicate function you use in `ASSERT_PRED*` or `EXPECT_PRED*` is
353 overloaded or a template, the compiler will have trouble figuring out which
354 overloaded version it should use. `ASSERT_PRED_FORMAT*` and
355 `EXPECT_PRED_FORMAT*` don't have this problem.
357 If you see this error, you might want to switch to
358 `(ASSERT|EXPECT)_PRED_FORMAT*`, which will also give you a better failure
359 message. If, however, that is not an option, you can resolve the problem by
360 explicitly telling the compiler which version to pick.
362 For example, suppose you have
365 bool IsPositive(int n) {
369 bool IsPositive(double x) {
374 you will get a compiler error if you write
377 EXPECT_PRED1(IsPositive, 5);
380 However, this will work:
383 EXPECT_PRED1(static_cast<bool (*)(int)>(IsPositive), 5);
386 (The stuff inside the angled brackets for the `static_cast` operator is the type
387 of the function pointer for the `int`-version of `IsPositive()`.)
389 As another example, when you have a template function
392 template <typename T>
393 bool IsNegative(T x) {
398 you can use it in a predicate assertion like this:
401 ASSERT_PRED1(IsNegative<int>, -5);
404 Things are more interesting if your template has more than one parameters. The
405 following won't compile:
408 ASSERT_PRED2(GreaterThan<int, int>, 5, 0);
411 as the C++ pre-processor thinks you are giving `ASSERT_PRED2` 4 arguments, which
412 is one more than expected. The workaround is to wrap the predicate function in
416 ASSERT_PRED2((GreaterThan<int, int>), 5, 0);
419 ## My compiler complains about "ignoring return value" when I call RUN_ALL_TESTS(). Why?
421 Some people had been ignoring the return value of `RUN_ALL_TESTS()`. That is,
425 return RUN_ALL_TESTS();
434 This is **wrong and dangerous**. The testing services needs to see the return
435 value of `RUN_ALL_TESTS()` in order to determine if a test has passed. If your
436 `main()` function ignores it, your test will be considered successful even if it
437 has a googletest assertion failure. Very bad.
439 We have decided to fix this (thanks to Michael Chastain for the idea). Now, your
440 code will no longer be able to ignore `RUN_ALL_TESTS()` when compiled with
441 `gcc`. If you do so, you'll get a compiler error.
443 If you see the compiler complaining about you ignoring the return value of
444 `RUN_ALL_TESTS()`, the fix is simple: just make sure its value is used as the
445 return value of `main()`.
447 But how could we introduce a change that breaks existing tests? Well, in this
448 case, the code was already broken in the first place, so we didn't break it. :-)
450 ## My compiler complains that a constructor (or destructor) cannot return a value. What's going on?
452 Due to a peculiarity of C++, in order to support the syntax for streaming
453 messages to an `ASSERT_*`, e.g.
456 ASSERT_EQ(1, Foo()) << "blah blah" << foo;
459 we had to give up using `ASSERT*` and `FAIL*` (but not `EXPECT*` and
460 `ADD_FAILURE*`) in constructors and destructors. The workaround is to move the
461 content of your constructor/destructor to a private void member function, or
462 switch to `EXPECT_*()` if that works. This
463 [section](advanced.md#assertion-placement) in the user's guide explains it.
465 ## My SetUp() function is not called. Why?
467 C++ is case-sensitive. Did you spell it as `Setup()`?
469 Similarly, sometimes people spell `SetUpTestSuite()` as `SetupTestSuite()` and
470 wonder why it's never called.
473 ## I have several test suites which share the same test fixture logic, do I have to define a new test fixture class for each of them? This seems pretty tedious.
475 You don't have to. Instead of
478 class FooTest : public BaseTest {};
480 TEST_F(FooTest, Abc) { ... }
481 TEST_F(FooTest, Def) { ... }
483 class BarTest : public BaseTest {};
485 TEST_F(BarTest, Abc) { ... }
486 TEST_F(BarTest, Def) { ... }
489 you can simply `typedef` the test fixtures:
492 typedef BaseTest FooTest;
494 TEST_F(FooTest, Abc) { ... }
495 TEST_F(FooTest, Def) { ... }
497 typedef BaseTest BarTest;
499 TEST_F(BarTest, Abc) { ... }
500 TEST_F(BarTest, Def) { ... }
503 ## googletest output is buried in a whole bunch of LOG messages. What do I do?
505 The googletest output is meant to be a concise and human-friendly report. If
506 your test generates textual output itself, it will mix with the googletest
507 output, making it hard to read. However, there is an easy solution to this
510 Since `LOG` messages go to stderr, we decided to let googletest output go to
511 stdout. This way, you can easily separate the two using redirection. For
515 $ ./my_test > gtest_output.txt
518 ## Why should I prefer test fixtures over global variables?
520 There are several good reasons:
522 1. It's likely your test needs to change the states of its global variables.
523 This makes it difficult to keep side effects from escaping one test and
524 contaminating others, making debugging difficult. By using fixtures, each
525 test has a fresh set of variables that's different (but with the same
526 names). Thus, tests are kept independent of each other.
527 2. Global variables pollute the global namespace.
528 3. Test fixtures can be reused via subclassing, which cannot be done easily
529 with global variables. This is useful if many test suites have something in
532 ## What can the statement argument in ASSERT_DEATH() be?
534 `ASSERT_DEATH(*statement*, *regex*)` (or any death assertion macro) can be used
535 wherever `*statement*` is valid. So basically `*statement*` can be any C++
536 statement that makes sense in the current context. In particular, it can
537 reference global and/or local variables, and can be:
539 * a simple function call (often the case),
540 * a complex expression, or
541 * a compound statement.
543 Some examples are shown here:
546 // A death test can be a simple function call.
547 TEST(MyDeathTest, FunctionCall) {
548 ASSERT_DEATH(Xyz(5), "Xyz failed");
551 // Or a complex expression that references variables and functions.
552 TEST(MyDeathTest, ComplexExpression) {
553 const bool c = Condition();
554 ASSERT_DEATH((c ? Func1(0) : object2.Method("test")),
555 "(Func1|Method) failed");
558 // Death assertions can be used any where in a function. In
559 // particular, they can be inside a loop.
560 TEST(MyDeathTest, InsideLoop) {
561 // Verifies that Foo(0), Foo(1), ..., and Foo(4) all die.
562 for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
563 EXPECT_DEATH_M(Foo(i), "Foo has \\d+ errors",
564 ::testing::Message() << "where i is " << i);
568 // A death assertion can contain a compound statement.
569 TEST(MyDeathTest, CompoundStatement) {
570 // Verifies that at lease one of Bar(0), Bar(1), ..., and
573 for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
577 "Bar has \\d+ errors");
581 gtest-death-test_test.cc contains more examples if you are interested.
583 ## I have a fixture class `FooTest`, but `TEST_F(FooTest, Bar)` gives me error ``"no matching function for call to `FooTest::FooTest()'"``. Why?
585 Googletest needs to be able to create objects of your test fixture class, so it
586 must have a default constructor. Normally the compiler will define one for you.
587 However, there are cases where you have to define your own:
589 * If you explicitly declare a non-default constructor for class `FooTest`
590 (`DISALLOW_EVIL_CONSTRUCTORS()` does this), then you need to define a
591 default constructor, even if it would be empty.
592 * If `FooTest` has a const non-static data member, then you have to define the
593 default constructor *and* initialize the const member in the initializer
594 list of the constructor. (Early versions of `gcc` doesn't force you to
595 initialize the const member. It's a bug that has been fixed in `gcc 4`.)
597 ## Why does ASSERT_DEATH complain about previous threads that were already joined?
599 With the Linux pthread library, there is no turning back once you cross the line
600 from single thread to multiple threads. The first time you create a thread, a
601 manager thread is created in addition, so you get 3, not 2, threads. Later when
602 the thread you create joins the main thread, the thread count decrements by 1,
603 but the manager thread will never be killed, so you still have 2 threads, which
604 means you cannot safely run a death test.
606 The new NPTL thread library doesn't suffer from this problem, as it doesn't
607 create a manager thread. However, if you don't control which machine your test
608 runs on, you shouldn't depend on this.
610 ## Why does googletest require the entire test suite, instead of individual tests, to be named *DeathTest when it uses ASSERT_DEATH?
612 googletest does not interleave tests from different test suites. That is, it
613 runs all tests in one test suite first, and then runs all tests in the next test
614 suite, and so on. googletest does this because it needs to set up a test suite
615 before the first test in it is run, and tear it down afterwords. Splitting up
616 the test case would require multiple set-up and tear-down processes, which is
617 inefficient and makes the semantics unclean.
619 If we were to determine the order of tests based on test name instead of test
620 case name, then we would have a problem with the following situation:
623 TEST_F(FooTest, AbcDeathTest) { ... }
624 TEST_F(FooTest, Uvw) { ... }
626 TEST_F(BarTest, DefDeathTest) { ... }
627 TEST_F(BarTest, Xyz) { ... }
630 Since `FooTest.AbcDeathTest` needs to run before `BarTest.Xyz`, and we don't
631 interleave tests from different test suites, we need to run all tests in the
632 `FooTest` case before running any test in the `BarTest` case. This contradicts
633 with the requirement to run `BarTest.DefDeathTest` before `FooTest.Uvw`.
635 ## But I don't like calling my entire test suite \*DeathTest when it contains both death tests and non-death tests. What do I do?
637 You don't have to, but if you like, you may split up the test suite into
638 `FooTest` and `FooDeathTest`, where the names make it clear that they are
642 class FooTest : public ::testing::Test { ... };
644 TEST_F(FooTest, Abc) { ... }
645 TEST_F(FooTest, Def) { ... }
647 using FooDeathTest = FooTest;
649 TEST_F(FooDeathTest, Uvw) { ... EXPECT_DEATH(...) ... }
650 TEST_F(FooDeathTest, Xyz) { ... ASSERT_DEATH(...) ... }
653 ## googletest prints the LOG messages in a death test's child process only when the test fails. How can I see the LOG messages when the death test succeeds?
655 Printing the LOG messages generated by the statement inside `EXPECT_DEATH()`
656 makes it harder to search for real problems in the parent's log. Therefore,
657 googletest only prints them when the death test has failed.
659 If you really need to see such LOG messages, a workaround is to temporarily
660 break the death test (e.g. by changing the regex pattern it is expected to
661 match). Admittedly, this is a hack. We'll consider a more permanent solution
662 after the fork-and-exec-style death tests are implemented.
664 ## The compiler complains about "no match for 'operator<<'" when I use an assertion. What gives?
666 If you use a user-defined type `FooType` in an assertion, you must make sure
667 there is an `std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const FooType&)` function
668 defined such that we can print a value of `FooType`.
670 In addition, if `FooType` is declared in a name space, the `<<` operator also
671 needs to be defined in the *same* name space. See https://abseil.io/tips/49 for details.
673 ## How do I suppress the memory leak messages on Windows?
675 Since the statically initialized googletest singleton requires allocations on
676 the heap, the Visual C++ memory leak detector will report memory leaks at the
677 end of the program run. The easiest way to avoid this is to use the
678 `_CrtMemCheckpoint` and `_CrtMemDumpAllObjectsSince` calls to not report any
679 statically initialized heap objects. See MSDN for more details and additional
680 heap check/debug routines.
682 ## How can my code detect if it is running in a test?
684 If you write code that sniffs whether it's running in a test and does different
685 things accordingly, you are leaking test-only logic into production code and
686 there is no easy way to ensure that the test-only code paths aren't run by
687 mistake in production. Such cleverness also leads to
688 [Heisenbugs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug). Therefore we strongly
689 advise against the practice, and googletest doesn't provide a way to do it.
691 In general, the recommended way to cause the code to behave differently under
692 test is [Dependency Injection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_injection). You can inject
693 different functionality from the test and from the production code. Since your
694 production code doesn't link in the for-test logic at all (the
695 [`testonly`](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/be/common-definitions.html#common.testonly) attribute for BUILD targets helps to ensure
696 that), there is no danger in accidentally running it.
698 However, if you *really*, *really*, *really* have no choice, and if you follow
699 the rule of ending your test program names with `_test`, you can use the
700 *horrible* hack of sniffing your executable name (`argv[0]` in `main()`) to know
701 whether the code is under test.
703 ## How do I temporarily disable a test?
705 If you have a broken test that you cannot fix right away, you can add the
706 DISABLED_ prefix to its name. This will exclude it from execution. This is
707 better than commenting out the code or using #if 0, as disabled tests are still
708 compiled (and thus won't rot).
710 To include disabled tests in test execution, just invoke the test program with
711 the --gtest_also_run_disabled_tests flag.
713 ## Is it OK if I have two separate `TEST(Foo, Bar)` test methods defined in different namespaces?
717 The rule is **all test methods in the same test suite must use the same fixture
718 class.** This means that the following is **allowed** because both tests use the
719 same fixture class (`::testing::Test`).
723 TEST(CoolTest, DoSomething) {
729 TEST(CoolTest, DoSomething) {
735 However, the following code is **not allowed** and will produce a runtime error
736 from googletest because the test methods are using different test fixture
737 classes with the same test suite name.
741 class CoolTest : public ::testing::Test {}; // Fixture foo::CoolTest
742 TEST_F(CoolTest, DoSomething) {
748 class CoolTest : public ::testing::Test {}; // Fixture: bar::CoolTest
749 TEST_F(CoolTest, DoSomething) {