bash-testing

Bash Testing

Testing frameworks and patterns for shell scripts, focusing on shunit2 and shellspec.

Framework Selection

Framework	Strengths	Best For
shunit2	xUnit style, simple, portable	Unit tests, function testing
shellspec	BDD style, modern, extensive	Behavior specs, full projects

shunit2

Installation

# Download directly
curl -L https://github.com/kward/shunit2/raw/master/shunit2 -o shunit2

# Or via package manager
apt install shunit2
brew install shunit2

Basic Test Structure

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Source the script being tested
source ./my_script.sh

# Test functions start with test
test_addition() {
    result=$(add 2 3)
    assertEquals "2 + 3 should equal 5" "5" "$result"
}

test_string_output() {
    result=$(greet "World")
    assertEquals "Hello, World" "$result"
}

test_file_creation() {
    create_temp_file
    assertTrue "Temp file should exist" "[ -f /tmp/testfile ]"
}

test_exit_code() {
    validate_input "valid"
    assertEquals "Should return 0 for valid input" 0 $?
}

# Setup and teardown
oneTimeSetUp() {
    # Run once before all tests
    export TEST_DIR=$(mktemp -d)
}

oneTimeTearDown() {
    # Run once after all tests
    rm -rf "$TEST_DIR"
}

setUp() {
    # Run before each test
    cd "$TEST_DIR"
}

tearDown() {
    # Run after each test
    rm -f "$TEST_DIR"/*
}

# Load shunit2
source shunit2

shunit2 Assertions

# Equality
assertEquals [message] expected actual
assertNotEquals [message] unexpected actual

# Null/Empty
assertNull [message] value
assertNotNull [message] value

# Boolean/Status
assertTrue [message] condition
assertFalse [message] condition

# Same reference (string comparison)
assertSame [message] expected actual
assertNotSame [message] unexpected actual

# Contains (in string)
assertContains [message] container content

# Exit status
assertEquals 0 $?