Testing Frameworks for C

Question

After doing some work with Ruby, Rails, and RSpec last summer and I learned to TATFT. Now I can't write code without writing tests first.

I'm taking a programming course in C next year, and I would like to learn to write C test-driven. Is it a good idea (or even possible) to do TDD with C? If so, are there any good testing frameworks compatible with C?

Answer 1

There are a number of unit testing harnesses for C. Wikipedia has a much better list than I could assemble here.

Answer 2

We use "check" from http://check.sourceforge.net/, it provides basic functionality for testsuites and tests (similiar to junit), but is fairly lightweight. On feature I like is that it handles if your test dumps code and considers that a failure.

Also note "check" is a "C" based framework rather than a "C++" one.

Answer 3

If you are actually using a C++ compiler, but using it in 'C' mode by compiling .c files, then, also, any of the C++ unit test frameworks will work OK.

Take a look at the original list of xUnit frameworks at http://www.xprogramming.com/software.htm

Answer 4

So a proper C programmer will tell you that because C is statically typed it catches all bugs you might have and therefore you don't need a unit test framework.

They are full of shit, but that's the argument for statically type languages like C.

I think you should probably take the approach that Adobe did with Photoshop. Write a series of core libraries in C, and then all the glue and real logic of the application should be in a higher level language. Photoshop is mostly written in Lua, but many languages work for this.

Answer 5

I just discovered CSpec, which does BDD in C. Doesn't look very mature, but it reminds me of RSpec.

Answer 6

Is it a good idea (or even possible) to do TDD with C?

Yes, it obviously is a good idea, as with other languages. However, due to the procedural nature of the language, it comes with its some more difficulties.

• Static functions quickly get in the way. This can be solved by including the source file under test, or defining a STATIC macro that only means static when compiling the code for production - not unit test

  #if defined(UNIT_TEST)
  #define STATIC
  #else
  #define STATIC static
  #endif
  

• There is no isolation: there is only one global context. With an OO language you can just instantiate one object (or a cluster of collaborating objects) to test it (them), you can also use mock objects. With C, you can, however, override functions just by re-defining them in your unit tests. This works fine on Unix-like systems where the linker invokes the first function he is finding - I'm not sure on Windows.

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If so, are there any good testing frameworks compatible with C?

You can start small with minunit. The learning curve is flat as it only is four macros long.

EDIT: There are two lists of UT frameworks for the C language, that were mentioned in other answers and I didn't repeat : one on Wikepedia and another one on xprogramming.com.

Answer 7

This similar question also has a lot of answers "Unit Testing C Code"

I used RCUNIT, it is mature and has everything I need. I have also used ipl canata which is great but is very expensive so that is probability not what you want.

Answer 8

You certainly can do unit testing in C (I do). The framework I use (for the Windows platform) is CunitWin32