Execute tests and analyze results

Different ways to run, debug, or cover unit tests

There are following ways to run, debug, or cover unit tests:

• Use one of the ways to execute tests in the current document.

• Use one of the ways to execute tests in the project/solution.

• If there are existing unit test sessions, you can run, debug, or cover some or all tests in a session:

  • Select tests that you want to execute in the session tab of the Unit Tests window and click Run Unit Tests Ctrl+;, R/ Debug Unit Tests Ctrl+;, D on the toolbar.

  • To run all tests in the session, click Run Current Session Ctrl+;, Y on the toolbar or alternatively, choose Tests | Run Current Session from the main menu.

  • To keep automatically starting and running selected tests until one of the tests fails, choose Run Selected Tests Until Failure from the session's context menu, or Tests | Run Selected Tests Until Failure from the main menu.

As tests are running in a unit test session, the Stop Execution button becomes active. You can click this button to abort execution of the tests. You can run multiple unit test sessions simultaneously. However, when you debug tests, only one test session can be executed at a time.

If necessary, you can always repeat execution or coverage analysis of the tests that you executed last by clicking Repeat Previous Run on the toolbar, pressing Ctrl+;, T or choosing Tests | Repeat Previous Run in the menu.

You can also re-run tests that failed by pressing Ctrl+;, F or choosing Tests | Rerun Failed Tests in the menu.

Run configurations for test sessions

JetBrains Rider automatically creates a new run configuration for each test session. The created run configuration stays synchronized with the corresponding session until you close the session in the Unit Tests window.

Analyze execution results and output

When the execution is over, the results are visualized in the Unit Tests window.

The output pane (which you can place on the right or on the bottom using the Toggle output position button on the toolbar) displays output of the selected test. If the test is failed, JetBrains Rider also adds short information on the failure and/or displays the stack trace of an exception. You can use clickable links in the output pane to navigate directly to types and methods involved with the failure.

By default, JetBrains Rider wraps long lines in the output according to the current width of the output area. If necessary, you choose not to wrap long lines by clearing the Wrap long lines in Unit Test Session output checkbox on the Build, Execution, Deployment | Unit Testing page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

Use the Group by selector on the toolbar to change grouping of the tests — you can either choose one of the predefined grouping modes in the upper part of the selector, such as Test Hierarchy, Project Structure, and so on, or use the lower part of the selector to choose a custom set of grouping properties.

On the status bar, you can see the total number of tests in the session as well as number of tests in different states:

By default, tests in all states are shown, but you can click the corresponding icons to filter tests by their state.

Status of each test in the Unit Test Sessions window is displayed with one of the following icons:

The same icons are used to display status of grouping items (classes, projects, and so on)

The icons are also used on each session's tab to display the overall execution result of the sessions.

The corresponding icons above the test session tree show how many tests are in each of the states. The icon shows the total number of tests in the session.

Using these icons, you can filter the tree so that only tests in the corresponding status are displayed.

When your focus is in the Unit Tests window, you can use simplified shortcuts for unit testing actions. For example, you can use Ctrl+D instead of Ctrl+;, D for debugging selected tests. Here is the full list of extra shortcuts that work in the Unit Tests window:

• Shift+Enter — Run Selected Tests

• Ctrl+D — Debug Selected Tests

• Ctrl+Y — Run Current Session

• Alt+Shift+Insert — Create New Session

• Ctrl+Alt+Insert — Append Selected Tests to Session

• Delete — Remove Selected Tests

• Ctrl+L — Run All Tests from Solution

Customize execution process

By default, JetBrains Rider uses unit test project settings to define which .NET Framework version and processor architecture should be used when executing tests.

When tests in your project use (sometimes indirectly or implicitly) an assembly based on CLR2 and your project already targets CLR4, errors may occur during test execution. You can avoid such situation, by specifying explicitly what CLR (.NET Framework) should be used. To do so, use the Default .NET Framework version selector on the Build, Execution, Deployment | Unit Testing page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S. This preference affects tests running under NUnit, XUnit and MSpec test frameworks. It has no effect on tests running under MSTest yet.

You can also change the platform architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) using the Default platform architecture selector on that options page.

If necessary, you can override these settings for specific unit test session using the Session Options selector on the toolbar.

Study execution log

Unit Tests window includes test execution log that lets you separate problems related to test execution process from unit tests results.

You will normally need to check execution log if some of your tests have the 'Inconclusive' state after execution, which could be a sign of an error occurring in the test runner.

To open the execution log, click Session Options on the toolbar and choose Diagnostics | Show Last Launch Log or Diagnostics | Show Last Runner Log.