Can you test SetUp success/failure in Google Test?

Question

Is there a way to check that SetUp code has actually worked properly in GTest fixtures, so that the whole fixture or test-application can be marked as failed rather than get weird test results and/or have to explicitly check this in each test?

Answer 1

If you put your fixture setup code into a SetUp method, and it fails and issues a fatal failure (ASSERT_XXX or FAIL macros), Google Test will not run your test body. So all you have to write is

class MyTestCase : public testing::Test {
 protected:
  bool InitMyTestData() { ... }

  virtual void SetUp() {
    ASSERT_TRUE(InitMyTestData());
  }
};

TEST_F(MyTestCase, Foo) { ... }

Then MyTestCase.Foo will not execute if InitMyTestData() returns false. If you already have nonfatal assertions in your setup code (i.e., EXPECT_XXX or ADD_FAILURE), you can generate a fatal assertion from them by writing ASSERT_FALSE(HasFailure()); You can find more info on failure detection in the Google Test Advanced Guide wiki page.