Last Revision: 12/15/99 - Michael Feathers (mfeathers@acm.org) - written in standard C++, tested under Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
-CppUnit is a simple unit test framework for C++. It is a port from JUnit, a testing framework for Java, developed by Kent Beck and Erich Gamma.
-README.html this file - - test the source code - framework the testing framework - extensions some framework extension classes - textui a command line interface to run tests - ms code for a Microsoft specific TestRunner - samples some example test cases and extensions to the framework - multicaster a sample illustrating a publish/subscribe - multicaster under test - doc documentation-
To use the test framework, create a makefile or load all files in test\framework into your IDE. In this incarnation of CppUnit, all includes assume the current directory first. A makefile or project can be used to resolve the dependencies.
-The directory test\textui contains a simple command line example that uses the framework.
-CppUnit comes with the following documentation:
- -You can find several sample test cases in the samples directory:
- -Also, the wiki page http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ClassHierarchyTestingInCppUnit shows how to automatically apply tests of classes to the classes' subclasses.
- -You can find several classes that illustrate framework extensions in the extensions directory:
- -Porting this framework has been fun. I've tried to maintain the spirit and utility of JUnit in a C++ environment. Naturally, the move from Java to standard C++ forces out several nice JUnit features:
-In addition, the lack of garbage collection in C++ requires some careful use of the framework classes. In particular, TestSuites are composites that manage the lifetime of any tests added to them. Holding onto a TestResult past the lifetime of the tests which filled it is a bad idea. This is because TestResults hold TestFailures and TestFailures hold pointers to the Tests that generated them.
-On the plus side, we can use the C++ macro preprocessor to get the exact line at which a failure occurs, along with the actual text inside the assert () call that detected the failure. The features of C++ that enable this are the __LINE__ and __FILE__ preprocessor definitions, along with the stringizing operator. If you find that generating this much literal text bulks up your test executables, you can use the CPP_UNIT_SOURCEANNOT define to disable that portion of the reporting.
-Note: If you use the C++ macro "assert ()" in your code, or include assert.h, you may have a name clash with CppUnit's assert macro. This can be remedied by changing the name of the macro to "cu_assert ()" in TestCase.h.
-I'd like to thank Kent Beck and Erich Gamma for the inspiration, design, and a wonderful cookbook that was easily/shamelessly mutated to describe CppUnit. Double thanks to Erich for thinking up a way to implement TestCaller. Additional thanks to Kent, Ward Cunningham, Ron Jeffries, Martin Fowler, and several other netizens of the WikiWikiWeb. I don't think any other bunch of people could have convinced me that rapid development with unit tests can be both effective and easy.
-Thanks also to Fred Huls for mentioning the idea of template-based testing. The orthodox template class demonstrates only a small part of what can be done with templated test cases.
-1.2 -- Added the TestCaller template class. There is now no need to use the CPP_UNIT_TESTCASEDISPATCH macro unless you are using a C++ compiler which does not support templates well. CPP_UNIT_TESTCASEDISPATCH remains in TestCase.h for backward compatibility. I've also kept the use of the macro in the Multicaster sample to leave in an example.
-1.3 -- Retired the CPP_UNIT_TESTCASEDISPATCH macro and cleaned up the include structure. Fixed bug in the textui version.
-1.4 -- Removed using directives for std in CppUnit headers. Merged the old AssertionFailedError into CppUnitException. Fixed a memory leak in the TestRunner class of the MS GUI TestRunner. Removed CppUnit.h file. Now headers for each class must be included directly.
-1.5 -- Upgraded projects from VC++ 5.0 to 6.0.