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<h2>NUnit-Console Command Line Options</h2>
<p>The console interface has a few additional options compared to the forms
interface. The command line must always specify one or more file names. The
console interface always creates an XML representation of the test results.
This file by default is called TestResult.xml and is placed in the working
directory.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> By default the nunit-console program is not added to your path. You
must do this manually if this is the desired behavior.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> Under the Windows operating system, options may be prefixed by either
a forward slash or a hyphen. Under Linux, a hyphen must be used. Options that
take values may use an equal sign, a colon or a space to separate the option
from its value.</p>
<h4>Specifying an Assembly</h4>
<p>The console program must always have an assembly or project specified. To run
the tests contained in the nunit.tests.dll use the following command:</p>
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console nunit.tests.dll</pre>
<p>To run the tests in nunit.tests.dll through the Visual Studio project, use:</p>
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console nunit.tests.csproj</pre>
<p>To run the same tests through an NUnit test project you have defined, use:</p>
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console nunit.tests.nunit</pre>
<h4>Specifying an Assembly and a Test to be Run</h4>
<p>You may specify a test to be run by providing the full name of the test along
with the containing assembly. For example to run NUnit.Tests.AssertionTests
in the nunit.tests assembly use the following command:
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console /run:NUnit.Tests.AssertionTests nunit.tests.dll</pre>
<p>The name of the test to be run may be that of a test case, test fixture or
a namespace.
<p>You can specify multiple tests by separating names with commas (without spaces). For example:
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console /run:NUnit.Tests.AssertionTests,NUnit.Tests.ConstraintTests nunit.tests.dll</pre>
<p>Unlike the <b>/fixture</b> option, this option affects the running
rather than the loading of the tests. Consequently it supports much broader use,
including situations involving SetUpFixtures, which are not run if the class
in question is not loaded. You should use <b>/run</b> in lieu of <b>/fixture</b>
in most cases.
<h4>Specifying an Assembly and a Fixture to be Loaded</h4>
<p>When specifying a fixture, you must give the full name of the test fixture
along with the containing assembly. For example, to load the
NUnit.Tests.AssertionTests in the nunit.tests.dll assembly use the following
command:
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console /fixture:NUnit.Tests.AssertionTests nunit.tests.dll</pre>
</p>
<p>The name specified after the <b>/fixture</b> option may be that of a TestFixture
class, a legacy suite (using the Suite property ) or a namespace. If a
namespace is given, then all fixtures under that namespace are loaded.</p>
<p>This option is provided for backward compatibility. In most cases, you will
be better served by using the <b>/run</b> option.
<h4>Specifying the .NET Framework Version</h4>
<p>Most applications are written to run under a specific version of the CLR.
A few are designed to operate correctly under multiple versions. In either case,
it is important to be able to specify the CLR version to be used for testing.</p>
<p>Prior to version 2.5, it was necessary to run the console program itself using
the CLR version under which you wanted to run tests. This was done either by
editing the nunit-console.exe.config file or by setting the COMPLUS_Version
environment variable before running the program.
<p>Under NUnit 2.5 and later versions, you may still use either of these approaches,
but a simpler method is available.
<p>The <b>/framework</b> option allows you to specify the version of the runtime
to be used in executing tests. If that version specified is different from the
one being used by NUnit, the tests are run in a separate process. For example,
you may enter
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console myassembly.dll /framework:net-1.1</pre>
</p>
<p>This command will run tests under .NET 1.1 even if you are running the .NET 2.0
build of the nunit-console. Beginning with version 2.5.3, all versions of .NET
through 4.0 as well as Mono profiles 1.0, 2.0 and 3.5 are supported.
<h4>Specifying Test Categories to Include or Exclude</h4>
<p>NUnit provides CategoryAttribute for use in marking tests as belonging to
one or more categories. Categories may be included or excluded in a test run
using the <b>/include</b> and <b>/exclude</b> options. The following command
runs only the tests in the BaseLine category:
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console myassembly.dll /include:BaseLine</pre>
</p>
<p>The following command runs all tests <b>except</b> those in the Database
category:
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console myassembly.dll /exclude:Database</pre>
</p>
<p>
Multiple categories may be specified on either option, by using commas to
separate them.
<p><b>Notes:</b> Beginning with NUnit 2.4, the /include and /exclude options may
be combined on the command line. When both are used, all tests with the included
categories are run except for those with the excluded categories.</p>
<p>Beginning with NUnit 2.4.6, you may use a <b>Category Expression</b> with either
of these options:
<dl>
<dt>A|B|C
<dd>Selects tests having any of the categories A, B or C.
<dt>A,B,C
<dd>Selects tests having any of the categories A, B or C.
<dt>A+B+C
<dd>Selects only tests having all three of the categories assigned
<dt>A+B|C
<dd>Selects tests with both A and B OR with category C.
<dt>A+B-C
<dd>Selects tests with both A and B but not C.
<dt>-A
<dd>Selects tests not having category A assigned
<dt>A+(B|C)
<dd>Selects tests having both category A and either of B or C
</dl>
<p>The comma operator is equivalent to | but has a higher precendence. Order
of evaluation is as follows:
<ol>
<li>Unary exclusion operator (-)
<li>High-precendence union operator (,)
<li>Intersection and set subtraction operators (+ and binary -)
<li>Low-precedence union operator (|)
</ol>
<p><b>Note:</b> Because the operator characters have special meaning,
you should avoid creating a category that uses any of them in it's name.
For example, the category "db-tests" could not be used on the command
line, since it appears to means "run category db, except for category tests."
The same limitation applies to characters that have special meaning for
the shell you are using.
<p>For a clear understanding of how category
selection works, review the documentation for both the
<a href="category.html">Category Attribute</a> and the
<a href="explicit.html">Explicit Attribute</a>.</p>
<h4>Redirecting Output</h4>
<p>Output created by the test, which is normally shown on the console, may be
redirected to a file. The following command redirects standard output to the
file TestResult.txt:
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console nunit.tests.dll /out:TestResult.txt</pre>
</p>
<p>The following command redirects standard error output to the StdErr.txt file.
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console nunit.tests.dll /err:StdErr.txt</pre>
</p>
<p><b>Note:</b>This option only redirects output produced <b>by the tests</b>,
together with selected NUnit output that is interspersed with the test output.
It does not redirect <b>all</b> console output. If you want to redirect <b>all</b>
output to a file, you should use command line redirection as supported by the
shell you are using. This option exists for the purpose of separating test
output from other output, such as the NUnit summary report.
<h4>Labeling Test Output</h4>
<p>The output from each test normally follows right after that of the preceding
test. You may use the <b>/labels</b> option to cause an identifying label to be
displayed at the start of each test case.</p>
<h4>Specifying the XML file name</h4>
<p>As stated above, the console program always creates an XML representation of the
test results. To change the name of the output file to
"console-test.xml" use the following command line option:
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console /xml:console-test.xml nunit.tests.dll</pre>
</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> For additional information see the XML schema for the test results.
This file is in the same directory as the executable and is called
<a href="files/Results.xsd">Results.xsd</a>.
<h4>Specifying which Configuration to run</h4>
<p>When running tests from a Visual Studio or NUnit project, the first
configuration found will be loaded by default. Usually this is Debug. The
configuration loaded may be controlled by using the <b>/config</b> switch. The
following will load and run tests for the Release configuration of
nunit.tests.dll.
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console nunit.tests.csproj /config:Release</pre>
</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> This option has no effect when loading an assembly directly.</p>
<h4>Specifying Multiple Assemblies</h4>
<p>You may run tests from multiple assemblies in one run using the console
interface even if you have not defined an NUnit test project file. The
following command would run a suite of tests contained in assembly1.dll,
assembly2.dll and assembly3.dll.
<pre class="programtext"> nunit-console assembly1.dll assembly2.dll assembly3.dll</pre>
</p>
<p><b>Notes:</b> You may specify multiple assemblies, but not multiple NUnit or
Visual Studio projects on the command line. Further, you may not specify an
NUnit or Visual Studio project together with a list of assemblies.</p>
<p>Beginning with NUnit 2.4, the console loads multiple assemblies specified
in this way into separate AppDomains by default. You may provide a separate
config file for each assembly. You may override the default by use of the
<b>/domain</b> option.
<p>Beginning with NUnit 2.4, the <b>/fixture</b>
option, when used with multiple assemblies, will run tests matching the
fixture name in all the assemblies. In earlier versions, only the first
test found was executed.</p>
<h4>Controlling the Use of Processes</h4>
<p>The <b>/process</b> option controls how NUnit loads tests in processes. The
following values are recognized.
<dl style="margin-left: 2em">
<dt><b>Single</b>
<dd>All the tests are run in the nunit-console process. This is the default.
<dt><b>Separate</b>
<dd>A separate process is created to run the tests.
<dt><b>Multiple</b>
<dd>A separate process is created for each test assembly, whether specified
on the command line or listed in an NUnit project file.
</dl>
<h4>Controlling the Use of AppDomains</h4>
<p>The <b>/domain</b> option controls of the creation of AppDomains for running tests.
The following values are recognized:</p>
<dl style="margin-left: 2em">
<dt><b>None</b>
<dd>No domain is created - the tests are run in the primary domain. This normally
requires copying the <b>NUnit</b> assemblies into the same directory as your tests.
<dt><b>Single</b>
<dd>A test domain is created - this is how NUnit worked prior to version 2.4
<dt><b>Multiple</b>
<dd>A separate test domain is created for each assembly
</dl>
<p>The default is to use multiple domains if multiple assemblies are listed on
the command line. Otherwise a single domain is used.</p>
<h4>Specifying a Default Timeout Value</h4>
<p>The <b>/timeout</b> option takes an int value representing the default timeout
to be used for test cases in this run. If any test exceeds the timeout value,
it is cancelled and reported as an error. The default value may be overridden
for selected tests by use of <b>TimeoutAttribute</b>.
<p><b>Note:</b> If you do not use this option, no timeout is set and tests
may run for any amount of time.
<h4>Other Options</h4>
<p>The <b>/noshadow</b> option disables shadow copying of the assembly in order to
provide improved performance.</p>
<p>The <b>/nothread</b> option suppresses use of a separate thread for running the
tests and uses the main thread instead.</p>
<p>The <b>/wait</b> option causes the program to wait for user input before
exiting. This is useful when running nunit-console from a shortcut.</p>
<p>The <b>/xmlconsole</b> option displays raw XML output on the console rather than
transforming it. This is useful when debugging problems with the XML format.</p>
<p>The <b>/nologo</b> option disables display of the copyright information at the
start of the program.</p>
<p>The <b>/help</b> or <b>/?</b> option displays a brief help message</p>
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