By sql_lall
TopCoder Member

1. Obtain the source, available from cppUnit's sourceforge download page. At the time of writing, the most recent stable version is 1.10.2
2. Unpack locally by unzipping and untarring the download.
3. Check configuration details available by reading the INSTALL-x file provided. Beware that some information provided about cygwin here is outdated and incorrect.
4. Generate makefiles by running ./configure.
5. Compile it all by calling make. This will output a lot of information to the console, and may include warnings, but hopefully no errors.
6. Test the installation with make check. Yes, you are testing testing code!
7. Install libraries and headers with make install.

class suiteOfTests : public CppUnit::TestFixture {
    /* snip */
public:
    void ageTest(){
        int age = ClassImTesting.getAge();

        // simple asserts
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT(age == 18);
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_MESSAGE("Must be 18", age == 18);

        // asserting equality:
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(age, 18);
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL_MESSAGE("Must be 18", age, 18);
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_DOUBLES_EQUAL(age * 1.0, 18.0, 1e-10);

        // exception asserts:
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_THROW( ClassImTesting->testAge(age - 1), WrongAgeException);
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_NO_THROW(  ClassImTesting->testAge(age), WrongAgeException);

        // inverse asserts:
        if(age != 18)
            CPPUNIT_FAIL("Must be 18");
        CPPUNIT_ASSERT_ASSERTION_FAIL( CPP_UNIT_ASSERT( age != 18 ));
    }

    void setUp(){...}    // used to set up the require preconditions
    void tearDown(){...} // called after tests are run, in order to clean up.
};
    

#include <cppunit/TestCase.h>
#include <cppunit/extensions/HelperMacros.h>

class suiteOfTests : public CppUnit::TestFixture {
    // generation macros, using the class and method names
    CPPUNIT_TEST_SUITE( suiteOfTests ); // use CPPUNIT_TEST_SUB_SUITE for subclasses,
                                        //    to call inherited tests
        CPPUNIT_TEST( ageTest );        // add each method name in a CPPUNIT_TEST call
        CPPUNIT_TEST( heightTest );     //        "                        "

    CPPUNIT_TEST_SUITE_END();           // generates the TestSuite* suite() method

    public:
    void ageTest(){...}
    void heightTest(){...}
    /* snip */
};
    

• Testing manually: Having written all these test cases, no doubt you'll be wanting to execute them at some stage. cppUnit provides a TestRunner class that you can add TestSuites to, as well as execute by calling its run(...) method.
• Testing using registry: It may not suprise you to learn that there is a more automated way of running tests, through use of macros found inside HelperMacros.h. As shown below, you can register your fixtures by putting their class name inside a CPPUNIT_TEST_SUITE_REGISTRATION macro. This will add the entire suite to a Factory registry, which can be obtained statically later and added to a TestRunner (see below).
• XML generation: The default output for cppUnit is to print to the console the suite results, as well as any errors encountered. As with other xUnit ports, cppUnit provides a simple way to also output all results to an XML file. It is constructed as in instance of XmlOutputter as shown below, and added to the TestRunner before the suites are run.
  Other forms of output are supported, such as GUI using MFC or Qt depending on compile environment. It is also possible to create your own custom output formatters, feel free to explore the cppUnit wiki's information about this.

#include <fstream>
#include <cppunit/TestCase.h>
#include <cppunit/XmlOutputter.h>
#include <cppunit/ui/text/TestRunner.h>
#include <cppunit/extensions/TestFactoryRegistry.h>

    // ...
    CPPUNIT_TEST_SUITE_REGISTRATION( suiteOfTests );

    // ...
    CppUnit::TestRunner runner; // creates a test executor

    // Specify XML output and inform the test runner of this format (optional)
    CppUnit::XmlOutputter* outputter =
            new CppUnit::XmlOutputter(&runner.result(), std::ofstream("result.xml"));
    runner.setOutputter(outputter);

    // use the suite factory, then execute all tests
    runner.addTest( CppUnit::TestFactoryRegistry::getRegistry().makeTest() );
    runner.run( "", false );

g++ $(cflags) -o testExec cppTester.cpp ..[any other .cpp / .o].. $(lflags)

• Documentation: http://cppunit.sourceforge.net/doc/lastest/index.html
• cppUnit wiki: http://cppunit.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/moin.cgi
• Code Project article: http://www.codeproject.com/library/Using_CPPUnit.asp