Regression testing - via a very short C testing framework
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2016-01-29 18:10:33 - Graham EllisCode testing is important. Separation of code into separate, managable sections is important. Retesting of code running all the old tests is important when the code sections are enhanced / debugged.
At the end of this week's C course, we wrote a whole series of pieces of logic relating to web server log files - loading data into dynamic (realloc'd arrays of structs, and then extracting data from those structures. And we wrote an initial main routine to run and test from the command line. For initial development, that's great but ...
... the main couldn't remain as we started to build with the logic
... lots of sections / routine groups need testing.
Solution?
• Rename main to a different name such as test_access and leave it in the original file
• build a tiny test harness that runs each set of tests and correlates the results
• have the test harness send standard output (stdout) within the tests to a file
Result?
A rudemintary regression testing system, where each time you add a new set of routines or change something, you can rerun all the tests and get an automated set of replies.
The results of running the test suite look a bit boring:
WomanWithCat:cj16 grahamellis$ ./framework
.F..
Failed 1 test(s) out of 4, passed 3
WomanWithCat:cj16 grahamellis$Commented framework source is [here] and tests and routines to be tested [here] and [here].