# Unit tests

The sources in this directory are unit test cases. Boost includes a
unit testing framework, and since Bitcoin Core already uses Boost, it makes
sense to simply use this framework rather than require developers to
configure some other framework (we want as few impediments to creating
unit tests as possible).

The build system is set up to compile an executable called `test_bitcoin`
that runs all of the unit tests. The main source file for the test library is found in
`util/setup_common.cpp`.

### Compiling/running unit tests

Unit tests will be automatically compiled if dependencies were met in `./configure`
and tests weren't explicitly disabled.

After configuring, they can be run with `make check`.

To run the unit tests manually, launch `src/test/test_bitcoin`. To recompile
after a test file was modified, run `make` and then run the test again. If you
modify a non-test file, use `make -C src/test` to recompile only what's needed
to run the unit tests.

To add more unit tests, add `BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE` functions to the existing
.cpp files in the `test/` directory or add new .cpp files that
implement new `BOOST_AUTO_TEST_SUITE` sections.

To run the GUI unit tests manually, launch `src/qt/test/test_bitcoin-qt`

To add more GUI unit tests, add them to the `src/qt/test/` directory and
the `src/qt/test/test_main.cpp` file.

### Running individual tests

`test_bitcoin` has some built-in command-line arguments; for
example, to run just the `getarg_tests` verbosely:

    test_bitcoin --log_level=all --run_test=getarg_tests -- DEBUG_LOG_OUT

`log_level` controls the verbosity of the test framework, which logs when a
test case is entered, for example. The `DEBUG_LOG_OUT` after the two dashes
redirects the debug log, which would normally go to a file in the test datadir
(`BasicTestingSetup::m_path_root`), to the standard terminal output.

... or to run just the doubledash test:

    test_bitcoin --run_test=getarg_tests/doubledash

Run `test_bitcoin --help` for the full list.

### Adding test cases

To add a new unit test file to our test suite you need
to add the file to `src/Makefile.test.include`. The pattern is to create
one test file for each class or source file for which you want to create
unit tests. The file naming convention is `<source_filename>_tests.cpp`
and such files should wrap their tests in a test suite
called `<source_filename>_tests`. For an example of this pattern,
see `uint256_tests.cpp`.

### Logging and debugging in unit tests

`make check` will write to a log file `foo_tests.cpp.log` and display this file
on failure. For running individual tests verbosely, refer to the section
[above](#running-individual-tests).

To write to logs from unit tests you need to use specific message methods
provided by Boost. The simplest is `BOOST_TEST_MESSAGE`.

For debugging you can launch the `test_bitcoin` executable with `gdb`or `lldb` and
start debugging, just like you would with any other program:

```bash
gdb src/test/test_bitcoin
```