How to execute only one test spec with angular-cli

You can test only specific file with the Angular CLI (the ng command) like this:

ng test --main ./path/to/test.ts

Further docs are at https://angular.io/cli/test

Note that while this works for standalone library files, it will not work for angular components/services/etc. This is because angular files have dependencies on other files (namely src/test.ts in Angular 7). Sadly the --main flag doesn't take multiple arguments.


Each of your .spec.ts file have all its tests grouped in describe block like this:

describe('SomeComponent', () => {...}

You can easily run just this single block, by prefixing the describe function name with f:

fdescribe('SomeComponent', () => {...}

If you have such function, no other describe blocks will run. Btw. you can do similar thing with it => fit and there is also a "blacklist" version - x. So:

  • fdescribe and fit causes only functions marked this way to run
  • xdescribe and xit causes all but functions marked this way to run

Configure test.ts file inside src folder:

const context = require.context('./', true, /\.spec\.ts$/);

Replace /\.spec\.ts$/ with the file name you want to test. For example: /app.component\.spec\.ts$/

This will run test only for app.component.spec.ts.


This worked for me in every case:

ng test --include='**/dealer.service.spec.ts'

However, I usually got "TypeError: Cannot read property 'ngModule' of null" for this:

ng test --main src/app/services/dealer.service.spec.ts

Version of @angular/cli 10.0.4