How do you run unit tests for a specific target framework in Visual Studio 2017/2019?

Question

I am really loving the new .csproj format. It is so much better than that dreaded (limited) project.json.

However, there is one thing that I am trying to work out. I have merged my (multiple) test projects into a single multi-targeted project.

<TargetFrameworks>netcoreapp1.0;net40;net35</TargetFrameworks> 

But, there doesn't seem to be any tooling in Test Explorer in Visual Studio to select the target framework - it always just runs the first one. I found a workaround - to add a <TargetFramework> element with a specific framework...

<TargetFramework>net35</TargetFramework> 

But, is there any way to select the target framework without resorting to hand-editing the MSBuild (.csproj) file? I am looking for some option in the GUI to do this - specifically so I don't have to remember to edit the .csproj file in order to switch frameworks before debugging a test or to remember to have to remove this line before the release.

Answer 1

I know that the question is about VS, but I find useful that when targeting multiple frameworks dotnet tests command will run tests for all frameworks in <TargetFrameworks> node:

> dotnet test ... Test run for [projectPath]\bin\Debug\netcoreapp1.1\XUnitTestProject.dll(.NETCoreApp,Version=v1.1) ... Test run for [projectPath]\bin\Debug\net461\XUnitTestProject.dll(.NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1) ... 

NCrunch can also recognize multiple targets and run tests for every target automatically:

Answer 2

Best option currently is to change the order of your target frameworks in the csproj.

<PropertyGroup>     <TargetFrameworks>netcoreapp2.1;net45;net46;net461;net462;net47</TargetFrameworks> </PropertyGroup> 

If wanting to debug unit tests for net45 framework, you'll need to change it to:

<PropertyGroup>     <TargetFrameworks>net45;net46;net461;net462;net47;netcoreapp2.1</TargetFrameworks> </PropertyGroup> 

The UI for doing this in Visual Studio would be relatively simple to implement but they have not done so as of this answer.