Unit Tests

Unit testing for Move adds three new annotations to the Move source language:

#[test]
#[test_only], and
#[expected_failure].

They respectively mark a function as a test, mark a module or module member (use, function, or struct) as code to be included for testing only, and mark that a test is expected to fail. These annotations can be placed on a function with any visibility. Whenever a module or module member is annotated as #[test_only] or #[test], it will not be included in the compiled bytecode unless it is compiled for testing.

Testing Annotations: Their Meaning and Usage

Both the #[test] and #[expected_failure] annotations can be used either with or without arguments.

Without arguments, the #[test] annotation can only be placed on a function with no parameters. This annotation simply marks this function as a test to be run by the unit testing harness.

module 0x42::example {
  #[test] // OK
  fun this_is_a_test() { /* ... */ }
 
  #[test] // Will fail to compile since the test takes an argument
  fun this_is_not_correct(arg: signer) { /* ... */ }
}

Expected Failure

A test can also be annotated as an #[expected_failure]. This annotation marks that the test should is expected to raise an error.

You can ensure that a test is aborting with a specific abort <code> by annotating it with #[expected_failure(abort_code = <code>)], corresponding to the parameter to an abort statement (or failing assert! macro).

Instead of an abort_code, an expected_failure may specify program execution errors, such as arithmetic_error, major_status, vector_error, and out_of_gas. For more specificity, a minor_status may optionally be specified.

If the error is expected from a specific location, that may also be specified: #[expected_failure(abort_code = <code>, location = <loc>)]. If the test then fails with the right error but in a different module, the test will also fail. Note that <loc> can be Self(in the current module) or a qualified name, e.g. vector::std.

Only functions that have the #[test] annotation can also be annotated as an #[expected_failure].

module 0x42::example {
  #[test]
  #[expected_failure]
  public fun this_test_will_abort_and_pass() { abort 1 }
 
  #[test]
  #[expected_failure]
  public fun test_will_error_and_pass() { 1/0; }
 
  #[test]
  #[expected_failure(abort_code = 0, location = Self)]
  public fun test_will_error_and_fail() { 1/0; }
 
  #[test, expected_failure] // Can have multiple in one attribute. This test will pass.
  public fun this_other_test_will_abort_and_pass() { abort 1 }
 
  #[test]
  #[expected_failure(vector_error, minor_status = 1, location = Self)]
  fun borrow_out_of_range() { /* ... */ }
  #[test]
  #[expected_failure(abort_code = 26113, location = extensions::table)]
  fun test_destroy_fails() { /* ... */ }
}

Test parameters

With arguments, a test annotation takes the form #[test(<param_name_1> = <address>, ..., <param_name_n> = <address>)]. If a function is annotated in such a manner, the function’s parameters must be a permutation of the parameters <param_name_1>, ..., <param_name_n>, i.e., the order of these parameters as they occur in the function and their order in the test annotation do not have to be the same, but they must be able to be matched up with each other by name.

Only parameters with a type of signer are supported as test parameters. If a parameter other than signer is supplied, the test will result in an error when run.

module 0x42::example {
  #[test(arg = @0xC0FFEE)] // OK
  fun this_is_correct_now(arg: signer) { /* ... */ }
 
  #[test(wrong_arg_name = @0xC0FFEE)] // Not correct: arg name doesn't match
  fun this_is_incorrect(arg: signer) { /* ... */ }
 
  #[test(a = @0xC0FFEE, b = @0xCAFE)] // OK. We support multiple signer arguments, but you must always provide a value for that argument
  fun this_works(a: signer, b: signer) { /* ... */ }
 
  // somewhere a named address is declared
  #[test_only] // test-only named addresses are supported
  address TEST_NAMED_ADDR = @0x1;
  ...
  #[test(arg = @TEST_NAMED_ADDR)] // Named addresses are supported!
  fun this_is_correct_now(arg: signer) { /* ... */ }
}

Arbitrary code to support tests

A module and any of its members can be declared as test only. In such a case the item will only be included in the compiled Move bytecode when compiled in test mode. Additionally, when compiled outside of test mode, any non-test uses of a #[test_only] module will raise an error during compilation.

#[test_only] // test only attributes can be attached to modules
module 0x42::abc { /*... */ }
 
module 0x42::other {
  #[test_only] // test only attributes can be attached to named addresses
  address ADDR = @0x1;
 
  #[test_only] // .. to uses
  use 0x1::some_other_module;
 
  #[test_only] // .. to structs
  struct SomeStruct { /* ... */ }
 
  #[test_only] // .. and functions. Can only be called from test code, but not a test
  fun test_only_function(/* ... */) { /* ... */ }
}

Running Unit Tests

Unit tests for a Move package can be run with the aptos move test command. See package for more info.

When running tests, every test will either PASS, FAIL, or TIMEOUT. If a test case fails, the location of the failure along with the function name that caused the failure will be reported if possible. You can see an example of this below.

A test will be marked as timing out if it exceeds the maximum number of instructions that can be executed for any single test. This bound can be changed using the options below, and its default value is set to 100000 instructions. Additionally, while the result of a test is always deterministic, tests are run in parallel by default, so the ordering of test results in a test run is non-deterministic unless running with only one thread (see OPTIONS below).

There are also a number of options that can be passed to the unit testing binary to fine-tune testing and to help debug failing tests. These can be found using the help flag:

Terminal

$ aptos move test -h

Example

A simple module using some of the unit testing features is shown in the following example:

First create an empty package inside an empty directory:

Terminal

$ aptos move init --name TestExample

Next add the following to the Move.toml:

[dependencies]
MoveStdlib = { git = "https://github.com/aptos-labs/aptos-core.git", subdir="aptos-move/framework/move-stdlib", rev = "main", addr_subst = { "std" = "0x1" } }

Next add the following module under the sources directory:

// filename: sources/my_module.move
module 0x1::my_module {
 
  struct MyCoin has key { value: u64 }
 
  public fun make_sure_non_zero_coin(coin: MyCoin): MyCoin {
    assert!(coin.value > 0, 0);
    coin
  }
 
  public fun has_coin(addr: address): bool {
    exists<MyCoin>(addr)
  }
 
  #[test]
  fun make_sure_non_zero_coin_passes() {
    let coin = MyCoin { value: 1 };
    let MyCoin { value: _ } = make_sure_non_zero_coin(coin);
  }
 
  #[test]
  // Or #[expected_failure] if we don't care about the abort code
  #[expected_failure(abort_code = 0, location = Self)]
  fun make_sure_zero_coin_fails() {
    let coin = MyCoin { value: 0 };
    let MyCoin { value: _ } = make_sure_non_zero_coin(coin);
  }
 
  #[test_only] // test only helper function
  fun publish_coin(account: &signer) {
    move_to(account, MyCoin { value: 1 })
  }
 
  #[test(a = @0x1, b = @0x2)]
  fun test_has_coin(a: signer, b: signer) {
    publish_coin(&a);
    publish_coin(&b);
    assert!(has_coin(@0x1), 0);
    assert!(has_coin(@0x2), 1);
    assert!(!has_coin(@0x3), 1);
  }
}

Running Tests

You can then run these tests with the aptos move test command:

Terminal

$ aptos move test
BUILDING MoveStdlib
BUILDING TestExample
Running Move unit tests
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::make_sure_non_zero_coin_passes
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::make_sure_zero_coin_fails
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::test_has_coin
Test result: OK. Total tests: 3; passed: 3; failed: 0

Using Test Flags

`-f <str>` or `--filter <str>`

This will only run tests whose fully qualified name contains <str>. For example if we wanted to only run tests with "zero_coin" in their name:

Terminal

$ aptos move test -f zero_coin
CACHED MoveStdlib
BUILDING TestExample
Running Move unit tests
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::make_sure_non_zero_coin_passes
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::make_sure_zero_coin_fails
Test result: OK. Total tests: 2; passed: 2; failed: 0

`--coverage`

This will compute code being covered by test cases and generate coverage summary.

Terminal

$ aptos move test --coverage
INCLUDING DEPENDENCY AptosFramework
INCLUDING DEPENDENCY AptosStdlib
INCLUDING DEPENDENCY MoveStdlib
BUILDING TestExample
Running Move unit tests
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::make_sure_non_zero_coin_passes
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::make_sure_zero_coin_fails
[ PASS    ] 0x1::my_module::test_has_coin
Test result: OK. Total tests: 3; passed: 3; failed: 0
+-------------------------+
| Move Coverage Summary   |
+-------------------------+
Module 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001::my_module
>>> % Module coverage: 100.00
+-------------------------+
| % Move Coverage: 100.00  |
+-------------------------+
Please use `aptos move coverage -h` for more detailed source or bytecode test coverage of this package

Then by running aptos move coverage, we can get more detailed coverage information. These can be found using the help flag:

Terminal

$ aptos move coverage -h

Package Upgrades Global Storage Structure

Unit Tests

Testing Annotations: Their Meaning and Usage

Expected Failure

Test parameters

Arbitrary code to support tests

Running Unit Tests

Example

Running Tests

Using Test Flags

-f <str> or --filter <str>

--coverage

`-f <str>` or `--filter <str>`

`--coverage`