CMake Macro Reference: boost_test_run

The boost_test_run macro creates a Boost regression test that will be build and executed. If the test can be built, executed, and exits with a return code of zero, it will be considered to have passed.

boost_test_run(testname 
               [source1 source2 ...]
               [ARGS arg1 arg2... ]
               [COMPILE_FLAGS compileflags]
               [LINK_FLAGS linkflags]
               [LINK_LIBS linklibs]
               [DEPENDS libdepend1 libdepend2 ...])

testname is the name of the test. source1, source2, etc. are the source files that will be built and linked into the test executable. If no source files are provided, the file "testname.cpp" will be used instead.

There are several optional arguments to control how the regression test is built and executed:

ARGS

Provides additional arguments that will be passed to the test executable when it is run.

COMPILE_FLAGS

Provides additional compilation flags that will be used when building this test. For example, one might want to add "-DBOOST_SIGNALS_ASSERT=1" to turn on assertions within the library.

LINK_FLAGS

Provides additional flags that will be passed to the linker when linking the test excecutable. This option should not be used to link in additional libraries; see LINK_LIBS and DEPENDS.

LINK_LIBS

Provides additional libraries against which the test executable will be linked. For example, one might provide "expat" as options to LINK_LIBS, to state that this executable should be linked against the external "expat" library. Use LINK_LIBS for libraries external to Boost; for Boost libraries, use DEPENDS.

DEPENDS

States that this test executable depends on and links against another Boost library. The argument to DEPENDS should be the name of a particular variant of a Boost library, e.g., boost_signals-static.

Example

The following invocation of boost_test_run creates an executable signal_test, which links against the static boost_signals library, and executes the test as part of regression testing.

boost_test_run(signal_test DEPENDS boost_signals-static)

This example is from ​libs/signals/test/CMakeLists.txt.

Where Defined

This macro is defined in the Boost Testing module in ​tools/build/CMake/BoostTesting.cmake

TODO

• Improve handling of DEPENDS, so that we can specify just the

library's abstract target (e.g., "boost_signals"), and possibly some features required for building the test (e.g., MULTI_THREADED, STATIC). The test macros should then pick the best library variant available to meet those features and the current build variant (Debug or Release).