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by Snaipe 3946 days ago
Developer here.

I made this unit testing framework out of frustrations I had (and still have) with other C frameworks like CUnit or Check.

I wanted to make something much more simple, yet as powerful, and I think (and hope) I nailed it pretty much after a few months of work.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask :)

2 comments

Why did you rule out using Google Test (https://code.google.com/p/googletest)?

(In case you mulled over using it.)

Google Test requires you to write your tests in C++ rather than C; so there was times I just could not use it.
I'm having a little trouble imagining a situation where unit tests for a C codebase are appropriate that would be stymied by having to write the tests in C++. (Maybe relying on struct layout?)
Because C hasn't been a subset of C++ since C99, there are plenty of case where trying to do C in C++ is awkward or just not possible with standard C++:

First, you'd have to wrap your header inclusions in `extern "C"` to disable mangling, then you would have to make sure you static_cast all your pointers where normally `void*` conversions would have done its job.

Furthermore, all interfaces relying on designated initializers and compound literals are broken unless you decide to compile in nonstandard GNU C++.

And there are more incompatibilities, such as using `static` or `const` in array parameter declarations or using VLA in macros which are not recognized by C++.

It's all about using the right tool for the right job, ultimately.

Did you check out Greg Banks' Novaprova?
Actually, I didn't know about it until now! The project uses a similar approach to mine, by parsing the DIE tree produced by dwarf, which means that it won't work if you're not compiling with -g.

It also uses some very platform specific stuff, so windows & os x are out, too.

Very well made nonetheless.

I think he's got OSX running now, but as you say -- it relies on some platform-specific stuff.

Good to see C test frameworks doing some innovative stuff!

Darwin support is functional today, I'm just waiting for the 3.11 Valgrind release, which fixes a bug which is a showstopper for NovaProva.