JTN002 - MinUnit -- a minimal unit testing framework for C

Introduction

Source Code

Setting Up A Test Case

Example

Conclusion

License

Appendix: Why do {} while?



Unit testing frameworks are quite popular in the object-oriented programming world. Frameworks like JUnit (for Java), SUnit (for Smalltalk), and CppUnit (for C++) provide a rich set of functionality. However, this rich set of functionality can be intimidating to someone who wants to do unit testing in a more constrained environment, such as an embedded system written in C. But the important thing about unit testing is the testing, not the framework. MinUnit is an extremely simple unit testing framework written in C. It uses no memory allocation, so it should work fine under almost any circumstance, including ROMable code.

/* file: minunit.h */ #define mu_assert(message, test) do { if (!(test)) return message; } while (0) #define mu_run_test(test) do { char *message = test(); tests_run++; \ if (message) return message; } while (0) extern int tests_run;

No, that's not a typo. It's just 3 lines of code (4 here because I wrapped a long line.)

A MinUnit test case is just a function that returns 0 (null) if the tests pass. If the test fails, the function should return a string describing the failing test. mu_assert is simply a macro that returns a string if the expression passed to it is false. The mu_runtest macro calls another test case and returns if that test case fails. That's all there is to it!

The following example runs two tests, one that passes, one that fails.

/* file minunit_example.c */ #include <stdio.h> #include "minunit.h" int tests_run = 0; int foo = 7; int bar = 4; static char * test_foo() { mu_assert("error, foo != 7", foo == 7); return 0; } static char * test_bar() { mu_assert("error, bar != 5", bar == 5); return 0; } static char * all_tests() { mu_run_test(test_foo); mu_run_test(test_bar); return 0; } int main(int argc, char **argv) { char *result = all_tests(); if (result != 0) { printf("%s

", result); } else { printf("ALL TESTS PASSED

"); } printf("Tests run: %d

", tests_run); return result != 0; }

People think that writing a unit testing framework has to be complex. In fact, you can write one in just a few lines of code, as this tech note shows. Of course, if you have access to a full-featured testing framework like JUnit, by all means use it. But if you don't, you can still use a simple framework like MinUnit, or whip up your own in a few hours. There's no excuse for not unit testing.

You may use the code in this tech note for any purpose, with the understanding that it comes with NO WARRANTY.

I've gotten a number of questions about the use of do {} while in the mu_run_test macro. This is a standard C idiom for writing a macro that contains multiple statements. For more information, see: