114 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
114 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
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<a id="top"></a>
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# Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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**Contents**<br>
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[How do I run global setup/teardown only if tests will be run?](#how-do-i-run-global-setupteardown-only-if-tests-will-be-run)<br>
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[How do I clean up global state between running different tests?](#how-do-i-clean-up-global-state-between-running-different-tests)<br>
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[Why cannot I derive from the built-in reporters?](#why-cannot-i-derive-from-the-built-in-reporters)<br>
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[What is Catch2's ABI stability policy?](#what-is-catch2s-abi-stability-policy)<br>
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[What is Catch2's API stability policy?](#what-is-catch2s-api-stability-policy)<br>
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[Does Catch2 support running tests in parallel?](#does-catch2-support-running-tests-in-parallel)<br>
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[Can I compile Catch2 into a dynamic library?](#can-i-compile-catch2-into-a-dynamic-library)<br>
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[What repeatability guarantees does Catch2 provide?](#what-repeatability-guarantees-does-catch2-provide)<br>
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[My build cannot find `catch2/catch_user_config.hpp`, how can I fix it?](#my-build-cannot-find-catch2catch_user_confighpp-how-can-i-fix-it)<br>
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## How do I run global setup/teardown only if tests will be run?
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Write a custom [event listener](event-listeners.md#top) and place the
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global setup/teardown code into the `testRun*` events.
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## How do I clean up global state between running different tests?
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Write a custom [event listener](event-listeners.md#top) and place the
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cleanup code into either `testCase*` or `testCasePartial*` events,
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depending on how often the cleanup needs to happen.
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## Why cannot I derive from the built-in reporters?
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They are not made to be overridden, in that we do not attempt to maintain
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a consistent internal state if a member function is overridden, and by
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forbidding users from using them as a base class, we can refactor them
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as needed later.
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## What is Catch2's ABI stability policy?
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Catch2 provides no ABI stability guarantees whatsoever. Catch2 provides
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rich C++ interface, and trying to freeze its ABI would take a lot of
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pointless work.
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Catch2 is not designed to be distributed as dynamic library, and you
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should really be able to compile everything with the same compiler binary.
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## What is Catch2's API stability policy?
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Catch2 follows [semver](https://semver.org/) to the best of our ability.
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This means that we will not knowingly make backwards-incompatible changes
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without incrementing the major version number.
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## Does Catch2 support running tests in parallel?
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Not natively, no. We see running tests in parallel as the job of an
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external test runner, that can also run them in separate processes,
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support test execution timeouts and so on.
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However, Catch2 provides some tools that make the job of external test
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runners easier. [See the relevant section in our page on best
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practices](usage-tips.md#parallel-tests).
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## Can I compile Catch2 into a dynamic library?
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Yes, Catch2 supports the [standard CMake `BUILD_SHARED_LIBS`
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option](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/variable/BUILD_SHARED_LIBS.html).
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However, the dynamic library support is provided as-is. Catch2 does not
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provide API export annotations, and so you can only use it as a dynamic
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library on platforms that default to public visibility, or with tooling
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support to force export Catch2's API.
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## What repeatability guarantees does Catch2 provide?
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There are two places where it is meaningful to talk about Catch2's
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repeatability guarantees without taking into account user-provided
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code. First one is in the test case shuffling, and the second one is
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the output from random generators.
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Test case shuffling is repeatable across different platforms since v2.12.0,
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and it is also generally repeatable across versions, but we might break
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it from time to time. E.g. we broke repeatability with previous versions
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in v2.13.4 so that test cases with similar names are shuffled better.
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Since Catch2 3.5.0 the random generators use custom distributions,
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that should be repeatable across different platforms, with few caveats.
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For details see the section on random generators in the [Generator
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documentation](generators.md#random-number-generators-details).
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Before this version, random generators relied on distributions from
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platform's stdlib. We thus can provide no extra guarantee on top of the
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ones given by your platform. **Important: `<random>`'s distributions
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are not specified to be repeatable across different platforms.**
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## My build cannot find `catch2/catch_user_config.hpp`, how can I fix it?
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`catch2/catch_user_config.hpp` is a generated header that contains user
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compile time configuration. It is generated by CMake/Meson/Bazel during
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build. If you are not using either of these, your three options are to
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1) Build Catch2 separately using build tool that will generate the header
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2) Use the amalgamated files to build Catch2
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3) Use CMake to configure a build. This will generate the header and you
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can copy it into your own checkout of Catch2.
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---
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[Home](Readme.md#top)
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