3 Testing is an important part of the Mono project: every one of its
4 three major components has a test suite tailored for its needs. This
5 is very helpful, because in the course of developing the software it
6 is very common to introduce bugs in existing code. A test suite
7 helps us fix the bugs as soon as they are introduced.
9 There are various kinds of tests in Mono:
11 <li><a href="#unit"><b>Class Library Unit
12 Tests:</b></a> These are used to test the class
15 <li><a href="#compiler"><b>Compiler tests</b></a>: Both
16 tests that should pass and tests that should fail are included.
18 <li><a href="#runtime"><b>Runtime tests</b></a>: Tests for
21 <li><a href="#aspnet"><b>ASP.NET tests</b></a>: ASP.NET tests.
27 All classes in Mono libraries should have comprehensive unit test
28 suites to go with them. Unit testing is a software engineering
29 methodology that makes it easier to build correct code. Every
30 method in every class should have a set of tests to verify
31 that they work correctly. Mono also needs a testing framework
32 to make it easy to write and run lots of tests.
34 In some classes, we might also provide standalone tests because of
35 some reasons such as too huge testcases, another downloading and so on.
36 (For example, managed XSLT has standalone test which downloads and
37 expands some megabytes of OASIS test suite.)
39 Here I list them up as long as I know. If you are going to add another
40 standalone tests, please add one line here. It is also recommended that
41 you add some notes on how to build and run tests.
46 * System.Data/Test, and some individual ADO.NET libraries:
47 there are some standalone tests. See the bottom of <a href="ado-net.html">
48 ADO.NET page</a> for detail.
49 * System.Web/Test/TestMonoWeb : see README
50 * System.Web.Services/Test/standalone : see README
51 * System.Windows.Forms/SWFTest/
52 * System.XML/Tests/System.Xml.Schema/standalone_tests : see README
53 * System.XML/System.Xml.Serialization/standalone_tests/
54 * System.XML/Tests/System.Xml.Xsl/standalone_tests : see README
60 If you are new to writing NUnit tests, there is a template you may use
61 to help get started. The file is:
63 <b>mcs/class/doc/TemplateTest.cs</b>
65 Save a copy of this file in the appropriate test subdirecty
66 (see below), and replace all the {text} markers with
67 appropriate code. Comments in the template are there to guide
68 you. You should also look at existing tests to see how other
69 people have written them.
70 mcs/class/corlib/Test/System.Collections/CollectionBaseTest.cs
71 is a small one that might help.
73 The directory that will contain your new file depends on the
74 assembly/namespace of the class for which you are creating the
75 tests. Under mcs/class there is a directory for each
76 assembly. In each assembly there is a Test directory,
77 e.g. mcs/class/corlib/Test. In the Test directory there are
78 sub-directories for each namespace in the assembly,
79 e.g. mcs/class/corlib/Test/Sytem. Put your new test file in
80 the appropriate sub-directory under Test for the class you are
83 Once all of that is done, you can do a 'make test' from the top mcs
84 directory. Your test class will be automagically included in the
85 build and the tests will be run along with all the others.
87 * Tips on writing Unit tests.
89 You should look at the <a href="http://nunit.org">NUnit documentation</a>,
90 as it is a fantastic product, and includes fantastic documentation,
91 but here are some tips for those of you who are already reading
95 ** Provide an unique error message for Assert()
97 Include an unique message for each Assert() so that when the assert
98 fails, it is trivial to locate it in the source. Otherwise, it may be
99 difficult to determine which part of the test is failing. A good way
100 to ensure unique messages is to use something like #A01, #A02 etc.
105 AssertEquals("array match", compare[0], i1[0]);
106 AssertEquals("array match", compare[1], i1[1]);
107 AssertEquals("array match", compare[2], i1[2]);
108 AssertEquals("array match", compare[3], i1[3]);
113 AssertEquals("#A01", compare[0], i1[0]);
114 AssertEquals("#A02", compare[1], i1[1]);
115 AssertEquals("#A03", compare[2], i1[2]);
116 AssertEquals("#A04", compare[3], i1[3]);
119 Once you used such a number in an Assert(), don't change it later on -
120 people might use it it identify the test in bug reports or in mailing
123 ** Use AssertEquals() to compare things, not Assert().
125 Do not compare two values with Assert() - if the test fails,
126 people have no idea what went wrong while AssertEquals()
127 reports the failed value.
131 Assert ("A01", myTicks[0] == t1.Ticks);
136 AssertEquals ("A01", myTicks[0], t1.Ticks);
139 ** Test your test with the Microsoft runtime
141 If possible, try to run your testsuite with the Microsoft runtime on
142 .NET on Windows and make sure all tests in it pass. This is especially
143 important if you're writing a totally new testcase - without this
144 check you can never be sure that your testcase contains no bugs ....
146 Don't worry if you're writing your test on Linux, other people can
147 test it for you on Windows.
149 Sometimes you may discover that a test doesn't show the expected
150 result when run with the Microsoft runtime - either because there is a
151 bug in their runtime or something is misleading or wrong in their
152 documentation. In this case, please put a detailed description of the
153 problem to mcs/class/doc/API-notes and do also report it to the
154 <a href="mailing-lists">mailing list</a> - we'll forward this to the
155 Microsoft people from time to time to help them fix their documentation
160 Why do unit testing? It becomes simple to run automated tests
161 for the whole library. Unit tests are a safety net - you can
162 change part of the code and verify that you haven't broken
163 anything. Ideally, tests are written before the actual library
164 code itself. And every time a bug is discovered, a test should
165 be written to demonstrate the bug and its fix. Then, if
166 you ever reintroduce the bug, you will know immediately. For
168 href="http://junit.sourceforge.net/doc/testinfected/testing.htm">
169 JUnit Test Infected: Programmers Love Writing Tests</a>.
174 We welcome all contributions to the Class Libary Test Suite.
176 There is information to help you get started in CVS at
177 mcs/class/doc/NUnitGuidelines. Once you have written your test, please
178 post it to <a href="mailing-lists.html">mono-list</a>.
180 Someone will make sure to add the file or apply the patch as
181 appropriate. If you plan to be an on-going contributor and
182 would like to get cvs account, email <a href="mailto:miguel@ximian.com">miguel</a>.
184 Normally, after you send a couple of well-written new files
185 and/or patches to the list, you will be given cvs access.
187 <a name="compiler"></a>
190 Mono ships with three compilers: C#, VB.NET and JScript. The
191 tests are ran by running the makefile target `make
192 run-test-local' in the appropriate directory.
194 The C# compilation tests live in mcs/tests, and the C# error
195 tests live in mcs/errors.
197 The VB.NET compilation tests live in mcs/btests.
199 <a name="runtime"></a>
202 These tests verify the virtual machine, to run these tests, do:
209 <a name="aspnet"></a>
212 XSP, the Mono ASP.NET server has tests for ASP.NET pages. It uses
213 <a href="http://nunitasp.sourceforge.net">NUnitAsp</a>. Right now
214 it only has standalone tests, ie., tests that do not need their own
215 global.asax or web.config files.
217 If you want to run them, get the xsp CVS module and install it. Then:
225 And from another terminal:
227 cd xsp/nunit-tests/standalone
228 nunit-console standalone-tests.dll