MOxUnit is a lightweight unit test framework for Matlab and GNU Octave.

• Runs on both the Matlab and GNU Octave platforms.
• Uses object oriented TestCase, TestSuite and TestResult classes, allowing for user-defined extensions.
• Can be used directly with continuous integration services, such as Travis-ci and Shippable.
• Supports JUnit-like XML output for use with Shippable and other test results visualization approaches.
• Supports the generation of code coverage reports using MOCov
• Provides compatibility with Steve Eddin's Matlab xUnit test framework.
• Distributed under the MIT license, a permissive free software license.

• Using the shell (requires a Unix-like operating system such as GNU/Linux or Apple OSX):

  git clone https://github.com/MOxUnit/MOxUnit.git
  cd MOxUnit
  make install

  This will add the MOxUnit directory to the Matlab and/or GNU Octave searchpath. If both Matlab and GNU Octave are available on your machine, it will install MOxUnit for both.

• Manual installation:

  • Download the zip archive from the MOxUnit website.

  • Start Matlab or GNU Octave.

  • On the Matlab or GNU Octave prompt, cd to the MOxUnit root directory, then run:

    cd MOxUnit          % cd to MOxUnit subdirectory
    moxunit_set_path()  % add the current directory to the Matlab/GNU Octave path
    savepath            % save the path

• cd to the directory where the unit tests reside. For MOxUnit itself, the unit tests are in the directory tests.

• run the tests using moxunit_runtests. For example, running moxunit_runtests from MOxUnit's tests directory should give the following output:

  suite: 31 tests
  ...............................
  --------------------------------------------------
  
  OK
  ans =
  
       1
  

• moxunit_runtests, by default, gives non-verbose output and runs all tests in the current directory. This can be changed using the following arguments:

  • -verbose: show verbose output.
  • directory: run unit tests in directory directory.
  • file.m: run unit tests in file file.m.
  • -recursive: add files from directories recursively.
  • -logfile logfile.txt: store the output in file logfile.txt.
  • -junit_xml_file xmlfile: store JUnit-like XML output in file xmlfile.

• To test MOxUnit itself using a shell, run:

  make test
  

MOxUnit uses the Travis-ci service for continuous integration testing. This is achieved by setting up a .travis.yml configuration file. This file is also used by Shippable. As a result, the test suite is run automatically on both Travis-ci and Shippable every time it is pushed to the github repository, or when a pull request is made. If a test fails, or if all tests pass after a test failed before, the developers are notified by email.

To define unit tests, write a function with the following header:

function test_suite=my_test_of_abs
    initTestSuite;

Important: it is crucial that the output of the main function is called test_suite.

Then, define subfunctions whose name start with test_ or end with _test. These functions can use the following assert* functions:

• assertTrue(a): assert that a is true.
• assertFalse(a): assert that a is false.
• assertEqual(a,b): assert that a and b are equal.
• assertElementsAlmostEqual(a,b): assert that the floating point arrays a and b have the same size, and that corresponding elements are equal within some numeric tolerance.
• assertVectorsAlmostEqual(a,b): assert that floating point vectors a and b have the same size, and are equal within some numeric tolerance based on their vector norm.
• assertExceptionThrown(f,id): assert that calling f() throws an exception with identifier id. (To deal with cases where Matlab and GNU Octave throw errors with different identifiers, use moxunit_util_platform_is_octave).

As a special case, moxunit_throw_test_skipped_exception('reason') throws an exception that is caught when running the test; moxunit_run_tests will report that the test is skipped for reason reason.

For example, the following function defines three unit tests that tests some possible inputs from the builtin abs function:

function test_suite=my_test_of_abs
    initTestSuite

function test_abs_scalar
    assertTrue(abs(-1)==1)
    assertEqual(abs(-NaN),NaN);
    assertEqual(abs(-Inf),Inf);
    assertEqual(abs(0),0)
    assertElementsAlmostEqual(abs(-1e-13),0)

function test_abs_vector
    assertEqual(abs([-1 1 -3]),[1 1 3]);

function test_abs_exceptions
    % GNU Octave and Matlab use different error identifiers
    if moxunit_util_platform_is_octave()
        assertExceptionThrown(@()abs(struct),'');
    else
        assertExceptionThrown(@()abs(struct),...
                             'MATLAB:UndefinedFunction');
    end

Examples of unit tests are in MOxUnit's tests directory, which test some of MOxUnit's functions itself.

• Because GNU Octave 3.8 does not support classdef syntax, 'old-style' object-oriented syntax is used for the class definitions. For similar reasons, MOxUnit uses the lasterror function, even though its use in Matlab is discouraged.

• The object-oriented class structure was inspired by the Python unit test framework.
• The assert* function signatures are aimed to be compatible with Steve Eddin's Matlab xUnit test framework.

Currently MOxUnit does not support:

• Documentation tests (these would require evalc, which is not available on GNU Octave as of January 2014).
• Support for setup and teardown functions in TestCase classes.

Nikolaas N. Oosterhof, nikolaas dot oosterhof at unitn dot it

• Thanks to Scott Lowe and Thomas Feher for contributions.

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2015 Nikolaas N. Oosterhof

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

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