Boost.Test: Looking for a working non-Trivial Test Suite Example / Tutorial

C++ Unit Testing With Boost.Test

(permanent link: http://web.archive.org/web/20160524135412/http://www.alittlemadness.com/2009/03/31/c-unit-testing-with-boosttest/)

The above is a brilliant article and better than the actual Boost documentation.

Edit:

I also wrote a Perl script which will auto-generate the makefile and project skeleton from a list of class names, including both the "all-in-one" test suite and a stand alone test suite for each class. It's called makeSimple and can be downloaded from Sourceforge.net.

What I found to be the basic problem is that if you want to split your tests into multiple files you have to link against the pre-compiled test runtime and not use the "headers only" version of Boost.Test. You have to add #define BOOST_TEST_DYN_LINK to each file and when including the Boost headers for example use <boost/test/unit_test.hpp> instead of <boost/test/included/unit_test.hpp>.

So to compile as a single test:

g++ test_main.cpp test1.cpp test2.cpp -lboost_unit_test_framework -o tests

or to compile an individual test:

g++ test1.cpp -DSTAND_ALONE -lboost_unit_test_framework -o test1

.

// test_main.cpp
#define BOOST_TEST_DYN_LINK
#define BOOST_TEST_MODULE Main
#include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp>

// test1.cpp
#define BOOST_TEST_DYN_LINK
#ifdef STAND_ALONE
#   define BOOST_TEST_MODULE Main
#endif
#include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp>

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE(test1_suite)

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(Test1)
{
    BOOST_CHECK(2<1);
}

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE_END()

// test2.cpp
#define BOOST_TEST_DYN_LINK
#ifdef STAND_ALONE
#   define BOOST_TEST_MODULE Main
#endif
#include <boost/test/unit_test.hpp>

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE(test2_suite)

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(Test1)
{
    BOOST_CHECK(1<2);
}

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE_END()

When I only start with Boost.Test the following article with source code was very helpful: Boost test setup and usage

I don't know what else you really need than what's in the later tutorial. I've done everything I need to in just that way. Not sure I understand your description either.

One thing that you might be asking for is the ability to have more than one .cpp file in your test program. That's as simple as only defining BOOST_TEST_MODULE in one of those .cpp files. We have a "driver.cpp" file in all our test programs that just defines that and includes the unit test header. All the rest of the .cpp files (scoped by module or concept) only include the unit test header, they do not define that variable.

If you want to both be able to compile them together and compile them separately then you could use your own -D variable to define BOOST_TEST_MODULE or not.

If you're looking for a way to run a bunch of test programs in one single run and get a report then you could look at the automake method of doing tests or, better yet, the CMake method (CTest). Pretty sure you can use CTest from your own makefile if you insist.