// Copyright (C) 2023 The Qt Company Ltd. // SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only /*! \previouspage creator-ctf-visualizer.html \page creator-autotest.html \nextpage creator-squish.html \title Running Autotests \QC supports both \e {code based tests} and \e {build system based tests}. Code based testing offers special handling for particular testing frameworks that strongly ties to the underlying code models or specialized parsers. Build system based testing is independent from any testing frameworks. It retrieves information directly from the underlying build system and uses it or even the build system as such to execute the respective tests. \QC integrates the following testing frameworks for unit testing applications and libraries: \list \li \l{https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_81_0/libs/test/doc/html/index.html} {Boost.Test} \li \l{https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2}{Catch2 test framework} \li \l{https://github.com/google/googletest}{Google C++ Testing Framework} \li \l{Qt Test} framework \endlist In addition, \QC offers build system based support for \l{https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/ctest.1.html}{CTest}. You can use \QC to create, build, and run code based tests for your projects. \image qtcreator-autotests.png \section1 Build System Based Tests By default, \QC does not handle build system based tests to avoid interference with code based parsers. To enable build system based tests, select the respective test tool in \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Testing > \uicontrol General. The detection of tests is usually much faster for build system based tests as this normally does not involve scanning or parsing. The information in the tests tree is usually more detailed when using code based tests. If you enable both code based and build system based tests, you may duplicate tests inside the tests tree. See also \l {Selecting Tests to Run}. \section1 Creating Tests Use a wizard to create projects that have tests. \section2 Creating Qt and Qt Quick Tests To create a Qt or Qt Quick test: \list 1 \li Select \uicontrol File > \uicontrol {New Project} > \uicontrol {Other Project} > \uicontrol {Auto Test Project} > \uicontrol Choose to create a project with boilerplate code for a Qt test or a Qt Quick test. \li In the \uicontrol {Project and Test Information} dialog, specify settings for the project and test: \list 1 \li In the \uicontrol {Test framework} field, select \uicontrol {Qt Test} or \uicontrol {Qt Quick Test}. \li For a Qt test, select the \uicontrol {GUI Application} check box to create a Qt application. \image qtcreator-autotests-project-qt-test.png {Autotest project wizard - Qt Test} \li In the \uicontrol {Test case name} field, enter a name for the test case. \li For a Qt test, select the \uicontrol {Requires \QApplication} check box to add the include statement for QApplication to the main.cpp file of the project. \li For a Qt Quick test, select the \uicontrol {Generate setup code} check box to execute C++ code before running any of the QML tests. The testing framework will call slots and invocable functions, as described in \l{Executing C++ Before QML Tests}. \image qtcreator-autotests-project-qtquick-test.png {Autotest project wizard - Qt Quick Test} \li Select the \uicontrol {Generate initialization and cleanup code} checkbox to add functions to your test that the testing framework executes to initialize and clean up the test. \li In the \uicontrol {Build system} field, select the build system to use for building the project: qmake, CMake, or Qbs. \endlist \endlist \QC creates the test in the specified project directory. Edit the .cpp file to add private slots for each test function in your test. For more information about creating Qt tests, see \l{Creating a Test}. \section2 Creating Google Tests To create a Google test: \list 1 \li Select \uicontrol File > \uicontrol {New Project} > \uicontrol {Other Project} > \uicontrol {Auto Test Project} > \uicontrol Choose to create a project with boilerplate code for a Google test. \li In the \uicontrol {Project and Test Information} dialog, specify settings for the project and test: \list 1 \li In the \uicontrol {Test framework} field, select \uicontrol {Google Test}. \li In the \uicontrol {Test suite name} field, enter a name for the test suite. \li In the \uicontrol {Test case name} field, enter a name for the test case. \li Select the \uicontrol {Enable C++ 11} check box to support C++ 11 features in the test. \li In the \uicontrol {Google test repository} field, select a directory that has a clone of the googletest repository. To use an installed Google C++ Testing framework instead, see \l{Setting Up the Google C++ Testing Framework}. \li In the \uicontrol {Build system} field, select the build system to use for building the project: qmake, CMake, or Qbs. \endlist \endlist \QC creates the test in the specified project directory. For more information about creating Google tests, see the \l{https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/master/docs/primer.md} {Google Test Primer}. \section2 Creating Boost Tests To build and run Boost tests, you must have the Boost.Test installed on the development host. Typically, the Boost installation includes it. You can download Boost from \l{https://www.boost.org/}{Boost.org}. If the compiler and build system can find the Boost libraries, you do not need to specify the include directory when creating the test. To create a Boost test: \list 1 \li Select \uicontrol File > \uicontrol {New Project} > \uicontrol {Other Project} > \uicontrol {Auto Test Project} > \uicontrol Choose to create a project with boilerplate code for a Boost test. \li In the \uicontrol {Project and Test Information} dialog, specify settings for the project and test: \list 1 \li In the \uicontrol {Test framework} field, select \uicontrol {Boost Test}. \li In the \uicontrol {Test suite name} field, enter a name for the test suite. \li In the \uicontrol {Test case name} field, enter a name for the test case. \li In the \uicontrol {Boost include dir (optional)} field, enter the path to the directory that has files needed by Boost.Test, such as \e version.hpp and the \e test subfolder that contains the test header files. \li In the \uicontrol {Build system} field, select the build system to use for building the project: qmake, CMake, or Qbs. \endlist \endlist \QC creates the test in the project directory. For more information about creating Boost tests, see \l{https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_81_0/libs/test/doc/html/index.html} {Boost.Test}. \section2 Creating Catch2 Tests To build and run Catch2 tests, you can either install Catch2 libraries and headers or use the single include header file in the Catch2 repository. If the compiler and build system can find the Catch2 headers automatically, you do not need to specify the include directory when creating the test. To create a basic Catch2 test: \list 1 \li Select \uicontrol File > \uicontrol {New Project} > \uicontrol {Other Project} > \uicontrol {Auto Test Project} > \uicontrol Choose to create a project with boilerplate code for a Catch2 test. \li In the \uicontrol {Project and Test Information} dialog, specify settings for the project and test: \list 1 \li In the \uicontrol {Test framework} field, select \uicontrol {Catch2}. \li In the \uicontrol {Test case name} field, specify a name for the test case file. \li Select the \uicontrol {Use Qt libraries} check box to use a self-defined main function and set up the project to use Qt features. \li In the \uicontrol {Catch2 include directory (optional)} field, you may enter a path to the directory that has the Catch2 header files. \li In the \uicontrol {Build system} field, select the build system to use for building the project: qmake, CMake, or Qbs. \endlist \endlist \QC creates the test in the project directory. For more information about creating Catch2 tests, see \l{https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/blob/master/docs/Readme.md} {Catch2}. \section2 Creating CTest Based Tests CTest can execute tests for CMake based projects regardless of the test framework. You configure tests in the project file, usually, CMakeLists.txt. Basically, you enable testing for the project and register the test applications or even special commands. \code enable_testing() add_test(NAME test_example COMMAND test_example) \endcode Add \c test_example as an executable before trying to register it as test. It may be any executable command including arguments. For detailed information on how to use CTest see \l{https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/community/-/wikis/doc/ctest/Testing-With-CTest} {Testing with CTest}. \section1 Setting Up the Google C++ Testing Framework To build and run Google tests, install and configure the Google C++ Testing framework on the development host. You can either clone it from Git Hub or install it from an installation package. To configure a project to use a cloned Google testing framework, edit the \c INCLUDEPATH variable in the project file (.pro) to include the source and \c include folders of Google Test's \c googletest and \c googlemock. Usually, you need to add the following subfolders: \list \li \c googletest \li \c googlemock \li \c googletest/include \li \c googlemock/include \endlist Also, add the necessary files to the \c SOURCES variable. For example: \list \li \c googletest/src/gtest-all.cc \li \c googlemock/src/gmock-all.cc \endlist To configure a project to use an installed Google testing framework package, add the following include paths to the .pro file: \list \li \c /include/gtest \li \c /include/gmock \endlist Then add linker options to be able to find the libraries and to link against them. For example, for qmake based projects, you typically need to add the following values to the .pro file: \list \li \c {LIBS += -lgtest -L} \li \c {LIBS += -lgmock -L} \endlist \section1 Building and Running Tests To build and run tests: \list 1 \li Open a project that has tests. \li In the \uicontrol Tests view, select the tests to run. \li In the \uicontrol {Test Results}, select: \list \li \inlineimage icons/run_small.png (\uicontrol {Run All Tests}) to run all tests. \li \inlineimage icons/qtcreator-run-selected-tests.png (\uicontrol {Run Selected Tests}) to run the selected tests. \li \inlineimage icons/qtcreator-run-failed-tests.png (\uicontrol {Run Failed Tests}) to re-run the tests which failed in the last run. Depending on the framework, this may select more tests if it is impossible to distinguish or to fully address the test. \li \inlineimage icons/qtcreator-run-tests-in-current-file.png (\uicontrol {Run Tests for Current File}) to run the tests in the file currently open in the code editor. \endlist \endlist By default, \QC builds a project before deploying and running it. To run all tests without building and deploying them again, select \uicontrol {Run All Tests Without Deployment} in the context menu. To run the selected tests without deployment, select \uicontrol {Run Selected Tests Without Deployment}. The functions to run tests are also available in the context menu in the \uicontrol Tests view and in \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Tests. \note If you enable both build system based and code based tests, you may run tests twice when using \uicontrol {Run All Tests} or \uicontrol {Run Selected Tests}. This happens if the tests can be found by the code based test frameworks and are registered as test with the build system. If a test takes more than a minute to execute, the default timeout might stop the test execution. To increase the timeout, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol General. \section2 Selecting Tests to Run The \uicontrol Tests view shows all the tests found for the currently active test frameworks in the current project. Select the test cases to run. \image qtcreator-tests-view.png If a Qt Quick test case does not have a name, it is marked \uicontrol Unnamed in the list. \uicontrol {Run All Tests} executes unnamed test cases. You cannot select or deselect them. \QC scans the project for tests when you open the project and updates the test list for the currently active test frameworks when you edit tests. To refresh the view, select \uicontrol {Rescan Tests} in the context menu. To show or hide init and cleanup or data functions in the \uicontrol Tests view, select \inlineimage icons/filtericon.png (\uicontrol {Filter Test Tree}), and then select \uicontrol {Show Init and Cleanup Functions} or \uicontrol {Show Data Functions}. Double-click a function in the list to open its source code in the code editor. The \uicontrol Tests view lists test cases in alphabetic, case insensitive order. To list them in the order in which they appear in the source code, select \inlineimage icons/leafsort.png (\uicontrol {Sort Naturally}). \section2 Running and Debugging Tests from Code Editor You can run and debug tests in the file currently open in the code editor. To run all tests in the open file, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Tests > \uicontrol {Run Tests for Current File}. \note Available only for code based test frameworks. To run the test currently selected in the open file, select \uicontrol {Run Test Under Cursor} in the context menu. \note Available only for code based test frameworks. To debug the currently selected test, select \uicontrol {Debug Test Under Cursor} in the context menu. \note Availability for build system based tests depends on the build system tool's abilities. \section1 Specifying Test Settings To customize the handling of tests, test frameworks, and test tools, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol General. \image qtcreator-preferences-testing-general.webp {General tab in Testing preferences} You can customize some settings at project level. To change settings for the current project instead of globally, select \uicontrol Projects > \uicontrol {Project Settings} > \uicontrol {Testing}. In the \uicontrol {Active Test Frameworks} list, select tests for \QC to handle. To improve the performance of full scans for tests, disable test frameworks you do not use. To group related test cases for an active test framework, select the \uicontrol Group check box next to the framework name in the \uicontrol {Active Test Frameworks} list. By default, \QC groups tests that are in the same directory. \QC omits internal messages and run configuration warnings for deduced configurations by default. To view them, deselect the \uicontrol {Omit internal messages} and \uicontrol {Omit run configuration warnings} check boxes. By default, test result output shows a maximum of 100,000 characters. The view automatically scrolls to show the latest results. To display full results, deselect the \uicontrol {Limit result output} check box. To disable automatic scrolling, deselect the \uicontrol {Automatically scroll results} check box. Set the maximum number of lines in the test result tooltip and description in \uicontrol {Limit result description}. To group test results by the executable path that you use to run the tests, select \uicontrol {Group results by application}. This is useful if you have multiple test executables and run them all at once. To automatically run tests after successfully building the current project, select them in \uicontrol {Automatically run}. Sometimes, \QC cannot deduce which executable or run configuration to use. If \QC repeatedly asks you to select the tests to run when trying to execute tests, you can let it cache your choices and use them where appropriate. \QC clears the cache when you switch to another project, close the current one, or select \uicontrol {Reset Cached Choices}. Select the \uicontrol {Process arguments} check box to pass arguments to the test executable that you specify in the \l {Managing Run Configurations} {run configuration}. This is an experimental feature that might cause the execution of the test executable to fail. \section2 Specifying Settings for Running Qt Tests The code inside a benchmark test is measured, and possibly also repeated several times in order to get an accurate measurement. This depends on the measurement back-end that you can select in the \uicontrol {Benchmark Metrics} group in \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol {Qt Test}: walltime, CPU tick counter, event counter, Valgrind Callgrind, and Linux Perf. For more information, see \l{Creating a Benchmark}. \image qtcreator-preferences-testing-qttest.webp {Qt Tests tab in Testing preferences} To receive verbose output when running benchmarks, select the \uicontrol {Verbose benchmarks} check box. To allow the debugger to interrupt Qt tests on assertions, select the \uicontrol {Disable crash handler while debugging} check box. To record information about signals and slots in the test log, select the \uicontrol {Log signals and slots} check box. To explicitly limit the maximum number of warnings in the test log, select the \uicontrol {Limit warnings} check box and set the limit. Set it to 0 if you want no limit at all. The default number is 2000. To check for Qt Quick Tests that are derived from TestCase, select the \uicontrol {Check for derived Qt Quick tests} check box. \note This feature is rather expensive and increases the scan time significantly. \section2 Specifying Settings for Running Google Tests To specify settings for running Google tests, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol {Google Test}. \image qtcreator-preferences-testing-googletest.webp {Gooble Test tab in Testing preferences} To run disabled tests, select the \uicontrol {Run disabled tests} check box. To run several iterations of the tests, select the \uicontrol {Repeat tests} check box and enter the number of times to run the tests in the \uicontrol Iterations field. To make sure that the tests are independent and repeatable, run them in a different order each time by selecting the \uicontrol {Shuffle tests} check box. Set the seed for initializing the randomizer in the \uicontrol Seed field. The value 0 generates a seed based on the current timestamp. To turn failures into debugger breakpoints, select the \uicontrol {Break on failure while debugging} check box. To group Google tests by using a GTest filter, select \uicontrol {GTest Filter} in the \uicontrol {Group mode} field, and specify the filter in the \uicontrol {Active filter} field. For more information about GTest filters, see \l{https://github.com/google/googletest/blob/master/docs/advanced.md#running-a-subset-of-the-tests} {Running a Subset of the Tests}. \section2 Specifying Settings for Running Boost Tests \list 1 \li To specify settings for running Boost tests, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol {Boost Test}. \image qtcreator-preferences-testing-boosttest.webp {Boost Test tab in Testing preferences} \li In the \uicontrol {Log format} field, select the error report format to specify the type of events to record in the test report. \li In the \uicontrol {Report level} field, select the verbosity level of the test result report. Select \uicontrol No if you do not want a report. \li Select the \uicontrol Randomize check box to execute the tests in a random order, using the seed specified in the \uicontrol Seed field for initializing the randomizer. The value 0 means no randomization, the value 1 uses the current time, and any other value generates a random seed. \li Select the \uicontrol {Catch system errors} check box to catch system errors. \li Select the \uicontrol {Floating point exceptions} check box to detect floating point exceptions. \li Select the \uicontrol {Detect memory leaks} check box to detect memory leaks. \endlist \section2 Specifying Settings for Running Catch2 Tests \list 1 \li To specify settings for running Catch2 tests, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol {Catch Test}. \image qtcreator-preferences-testing-catchtest.webp {Catch Test tab in Testing preferences} \li Select the \uicontrol {Show success} check box to show succeeding expressions as well. By default Catch2 will print only fails. \li Select the \uicontrol {Break on failure while debugging} check box to turn failures into debugger breakpoints. \li Select the \uicontrol {Skip throwing assertions} check box to skip any assertion that test for throwing an exception. \li Select the \uicontrol {Visualize whitespace} check box to turn whitespace into escape sequences. \li Select the \uicontrol {Warn on empty tests} check box to get a warning when a test case does not check any assertion. \li Select the \uicontrol {Abort after} check box to abort the test after the number of failures specified inside the spin box. \li Select the \uicontrol {Benchmark samples} check box to specify the number of samples to collect while running benchmarks. \li Select the \uicontrol {Benchmark resamples} check box to specify the number of resamples to use for statistical bootstrapping after benchmarking. \li Select the \uicontrol {Benchmark confidence interval} check box to specify the confidence interval for statistical bootstrapping. \li Select the \uicontrol {Benchmark warmup time} check box to specify the warmup time for each test before benchmarking starts. \li Select the \uicontrol {Disable analysis} check box to disable statistical analysis and bootstrapping. \endlist \section2 Specifying Settings for Running CTest-Based Tests \list 1 \li To specify settings for running CTest-based tests, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol {CTest}. \image qtcreator-preferences-testing-ctest.webp {CTest tab in Testing preferences} \li Select the \uicontrol {Output on failure} check box to show test specific output if a test fails. Contrary to the CTest default this is enabled by default. \li Select \uicontrol {Schedule random} to execute the tests in random order. \li Select \uicontrol {Stop on failure} to automatically stop the test execution on the first failing test. \li In the \uicontrol {Output mode} field, select the verbosity level of the CTest output. \note This only influences the output on the text display. \li Select \uicontrol {Repeat tests} if you want to re-run tests under certain circumstances. \li In the \uicontrol {Repetition mode} field, select the mode for re-running tests. Set the maximum count for repeating a test in the \uicontrol {Count} field. \li Select \uicontrol {Run in parallel} to run the tests in parallel using the specified number of \uicontrol {Jobs}. \li Select \uicontrol {Test load} to limit the parallel execution. CTest will not start a new test if it would cause the CPU load to pass the threshold set in \uicontrol {Threshold}. \endlist \section1 Viewing Test Output The \l{Viewing Output}{Test Results} view shows Qt and Qt Quick test results in XML format and other test results in plain text format. \section2 Qt Test Output XML can be parsed more easily and reliably than plain text. However, if a Qt or Qt Quick test crashes, it might not produce complete XML code that can be parsed, which might lead to information loss. You might see the lost information when viewing the results as plain text. To view the results of Qt and Qt Quick tests as plain text, select \uicontrol Edit > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol {Testing} > \uicontrol {Qt Test}, and then deselect the \uicontrol {Use XML output} check box. Then select the \inlineimage icons/text.png (\uicontrol {Switch Between Visual and Text Display}) button in \uicontrol {Test Results} to switch to the text display. \section2 Summary of Messages The following table lists the messages that \uicontrol {Test Results} displays: \table \header \li Result \li Description \row \li BENCH \li Benchmark test. \row \li DEBUG \li Debug message. \row \li FAIL \li Test case failed. Double-click the line for more information. \row \li FATAL \li A fatal error occurred that stops the test case from being run, for example. \row \li INFO \li Informative message. \row \li INTERNAL \li Internal message. \row \li PASS \li Test case passed. \row \li SKIP \li Test case was skipped. \row \li SYSTEM \li An error message received from or influenced by the OS. \row \li XFAIL \li Test case is expected to fail, so it is marked by using the QEXPECT_FAIL macro. If the test case passes instead, an unexpected pass (XPASS) is written to the test log. \row \li XPASS \li Test case passed even though it was expected to fail. \row \li WARN \li Warning message. \endtable To view only messages of a particular type, select \inlineimage icons/filtericon.png (\uicontrol {Filter Test Results}), and then select the types of messages to show. To show all messages, select \uicontrol {Check All Filters}. To deselect all message types, select \uicontrol {Uncheck All Filters}. Since Qt 5.4, you can add a BLACKLIST file for tests. It is mainly used internally by the Qt CI system. \table \header \li Result \li Description \row \li BFAIL \li Blacklisted test case failed. \row \li BPASS \li Blacklisted test case passed. \row \li BXFAIL \li Blacklisted test case failed but was marked to be expected to fail. \row \li BXPASS \li Blacklisted test case passed even though it was expected to fail. \endtable */