How to capture stdout/stderr with googletest?

Putting Wgaffa's suggestion (which I like) to a Google Test fixture, one might write:

namespace {

    class MyTestFixture : public ::testing::Test {
    protected:
        MyTestFixture() : sbuf{nullptr} {
            // intentionally empty
        }

        ~MyTestFixture() override = default;

        // Called before each unit test
        void SetUp() override {
            // Save cout's buffer...
            sbuf = std::cout.rdbuf();
            // Redirect cout to our stringstream buffer or any other ostream
            std::cout.rdbuf(buffer.rdbuf());
        }

        // Called after each unit test
        void TearDown() override {
            // When done redirect cout to its old self
            std::cout.rdbuf(sbuf);
            sbuf = nullptr;
        }

        // The following objects can be reused in each unit test

        // This can be an ofstream as well or any other ostream
        std::stringstream buffer{};
        // Save cout's buffer here
        std::streambuf *sbuf;
    };

    TEST_F(MyTestFixture, StackOverflowTest) {
        std::string expected{"Hello"};
        // Use cout as usual
        std::cout << expected;
        std::string actual{buffer.str()};
        EXPECT_EQ(expected, actual);
    }
} // end namespace

We are doing exactly what you are referring to.

First we created some macros:

    #define CAPTURE_STDOUT StdoutRedirect::instance().redirect();
    #define RELEASE_STDOUT StdoutRedirect::instance().reset();
    #define ASSERT_INFO( COUNT, TARGET )   \
      ASSERT_PRED_FORMAT2(OurTestPredicates::AssertInfoMsgOutput, TARGET, COUNT );

See this answer for capturing stdout and stderr: https://stackoverflow.com/a/5419409/9796918 Just use their BeginCapture(), EndCapture() in place of our redirect() and reset().

In the AssertInfoMsgOutput method:

    AssertionResult OurTestPredicates::AssertInfoMsgOutput( const char* TARGET,
        const char* d1,
        const char* d2,
        int         COUNT )
    {
      int count = 0;
      bool match = false;
      std::string StdOutMessagge = GetCapture();
      // Here is where you process the stdout/stderr info for the TARGET, and for
      // COUNT instances of that TARGET message, and set count and match
      // appropriately
      ...
      if (( count == COUNT ) && match )
      {
        return ::testing::AssertionSuccess();
      }
      return :: testing::AssertionFailure() << "not found";
    }

Now in your unit test just wrap your calls that you want to capture stdout/stderr with:

    CAPTURE_STDOUT
    // Make your call to your code to test / capture here
    ASSERT_INFO( 1, "Foo bar" );
    RELEASE_STDOUT

Based on the answer of Wgaffa I made this helper class which can be constructed with either std::cout or std::cerr:

class CaptureHelper
{
public:
  CaptureHelper(std::ostream& ioStream)
    : mStream(ioStream),
    mIsCapturing(false)
  { }

  ~CaptureHelper()
  {
    release();
  }

  void capture()
  {
    if (!mIsCapturing)
    {
      mOriginalBuffer = mStream.rdbuf();
      mStream.rdbuf(mRedirectStream.rdbuf());
      mIsCapturing = true;
    }
  }

  std::string release()
  {
    if (mIsCapturing)
    {
      std::string wOutput = mRedirectStream.str();
      mStream.rdbuf(mOriginalBuffer);
      mIsCapturing = false;
      return wOutput;
    }
  }

private:
  std::ostream& mStream;
  bool mIsCapturing;
  std::stringstream mRedirectStream;
  std::streambuf* mOriginalBuffer;

};