CMake & CTest : make test doesn't build tests

user_61838 0
Viewed 55942

I'm trying CTest in CMake in order to automatically run some of my tests using make test target. The problem is CMake does not "understand" that the test I'm willing to run has to be built since it is part of the project.

So I'm looking for a way to explicitly specify this dependency.

ctest dependencies cmake
11 Answers

It is arguably a bug in CMake (previously tracked here) that this doesn't work out of the box. A workaround is to do the following:

add_test(TestName ExeName)
add_custom_target(check COMMAND ${CMAKE_CTEST_COMMAND}
                  DEPENDS ExeName)

Then you can run make check and it will compile and run the test. If you have several tests, then you would have to use DEPENDS exe1 exe2 exe3 ... in the above line.

Richard_Quirk_45960

If you are using CMake >= 3.7, then the recommended approach is to use fixtures:

add_executable(test test.cpp)
add_test(test_build
  "${CMAKE_COMMAND}"
  --build "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}"
  --config "$<CONFIG>"
  --target test
)
set_tests_properties(test_build PROPERTIES FIXTURES_SETUP    test_fixture)
add_test(test test)
set_tests_properties(test       PROPERTIES FIXTURES_REQUIRED test_fixture)

This does the following:

  • Adds a test executable target built from test.cpp
  • Adds a test_build "test" that runs Cmake to build target test
  • Marks the test_build test to be a setup task of fixture test_fixture
  • Add a test test that just runs the test executable
  • Marks the test test to need fixture test_fixture.

So, every time test test is to be run, it first runs test test_build, which builds the necessary executable.

user_6189060

For CMake 3.10 or later, another option is to use the TEST_INCLUDE_FILES directory property to set up a script that triggers a build before a test is run. In your outermost CMakeLists.txt add the following code:

set_property(DIRECTORY APPEND
    PROPERTY TEST_INCLUDE_FILES "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/BuildTestTarget.cmake")
file(WRITE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/BuildTestTarget.cmake"
   "execute_process(COMMAND \"${CMAKE_COMMAND}\""
   " --build \"${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}\""
   " --config \"\$ENV{CMAKE_CONFIG_TYPE}\")")

The actual test configuration is passed through to the build via the environment variable CMAKE_CONFIG_TYPE. Optionally you can add a --target option to only build targets required by the test.

user_1129550

This is what I hammered out and have been using:

set(${PROJECT_NAME}_TESTS a b c)

enable_testing()
add_custom_target(all_tests)
foreach(test ${${PROJECT_NAME}_TESTS})
        add_executable(${test} EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL ${test}.cc)
        add_test(NAME ${test} COMMAND $<TARGET_FILE:${test}>)
        add_dependencies(all_tests ${test})
endforeach(test)

build_command(CTEST_CUSTOM_PRE_TEST TARGET all_tests)
string(CONFIGURE \"@CTEST_CUSTOM_PRE_TEST@\" CTEST_CUSTOM_PRE_TEST_QUOTED ESCAPE_QUOTES)
file(WRITE "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CTestCustom.cmake" "set(CTEST_CUSTOM_PRE_TEST ${CTEST_CUSTOM_PRE_TEST_QUOTED})" "\n")

YMMV

user_25400180

Derrick's answer, simplified and commented:

# It is impossible to make target "test" depend on "all":
# https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/issues/8774
# Set a magic variable in a magic file that tells ctest
# to invoke the generator once before running the tests:
file(WRITE "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CTestCustom.cmake"
    "set(CTEST_CUSTOM_PRE_TEST ${CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM})\n"
)

It is not perfectly correct, as it does not solve the concurrency problem of running ninja all test, in case anyone does that. On the contrary, because now, you have two ninja processes.

(Ftr, I also shared this solution here.)

user_23942840
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