Simple Unit Test

A straightforward unit test utility for the C language

Disclaimer

• This is mainly designed for Linux.
  • If you're on MacOS or any POSIX-compliant OS, you probably still can use this well
  • If you're on Windows, I have bad news for you
• Due to the use of __attribute__ and 0b in the code, this is only compatible with compilers that support such features (gcc, clang, and perhaps more)
• Well, technically also a convenient utility for my other, left-behind project.
• If you want something that is as straightforward but much more featureful, check out Criterion. This, for now, is meant for my learning this language.
• Due to the design of this utility, running tests concurrently or multi-threadedly is very difficult. You can still spawn threads and run your program however, just be sure that what is passed into assertions is the final result of the multi-thread process.

Requirements

• clang or gcc or any gcc-compliant C compilers.
• C23. This is important for parameterized tests to work.
  • The utility does utilize the macro __VA_OPT__

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Installation: build from source

• Make sure you have clang (version 17 or higher) installed. (Older versions may work but it's not a guarantee) (gcc will work as well, but will need a tiny extra step)
• Clone this repo and build

git clone https://github.com/nguyenhuy0905/simple-utest.git
cd ./simple-utest
# if you only want to build the library
make 
# or make CC=gcc if you use gcc
# or make CC=gcc OPTS=-g if you want to include debug flags 
# for the library (which is only necessary if you need to test out the library)

• Optionally, to compile and run the demo files, run this command instead:

make test
# or make test OPTS=-g if you want to include debug flags 
# in the library and the test

• If you're on Windows, or if you're just lazy managing all dependencies of this project, simply use the provided Docker builds to run the demo test files:
  • Make sure you have installed Docker
  • Create a file named output.txt.format, placing it in the same directory as the Makefile
  • Run the following:

  docker build -t simpletest .
  docker compose up -d
  cat output.txt.format
  

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Installation: download package

• Download a release binary here, preferably the latest release. Note: as of now, the releases are not ready for "professional" use.
• Unzip to the directory of the project you would like to write tests on, (optionally,) rename the folder to simple-utest.
  • If you really really enjoy using this, you can add the directory to PATH.

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How to use

• Check out the example Makefile
• Documentation coming soon. Sorry :(
• To use in your C file/header:

/* simply include it */
#include "/path/to/simple-utest/simple-utest.h"

• Then, when compiling:

# or gcc
clang -o your-test-executable your-file-name.c -L/path/to/simple-utest/ -lsimple-utest

• To execute the test file:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/path/to/simple-utest/ /path/to/your-test-executable

• You can combine a few test files into one test executable to better utilize the 128 max-test cap.
  • If you choose to do so, make sure that no function has the same name.
  • This is necessary if for some reason, you want to write more than about 65000 lines of test.
  • You can check the demo Makefile to see how to combine tests
• Or, of course, you can just combine each test file as its own executable.

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Plans

• Write some documentation
• Finish documentation
• Release a binary package
• Allow user-defined assertion
• Implement parameterized tests
• Let users define more complex test with multiple comparisons in one
• Add pseudo-cross-platform functionality ;)

Issues

• Float or double assertions returning wrong results, especially if mathematical expressions are included/executed. This is due to how the variable types work. I will modify the method to request for degree of precision.

Changelog

• I'm lazy. Just check the Releases page.