Nunit not calling setup once per text fixture

Question

I'm new to Nunit and am trying to run 2 Test Fixtures, A & B. Within each Fixture I have a unique Setup method for each. However, when I click "Run All" in the "Test Explorer" in Visual Studio, the test setup for Fixture A is called (it was executed first) and Setup for Fixture B is ignored. I also get the same behavior when running all tests via command line. Below is my code:

Fixture A

[TestFixture]
public class A
{      
        [SetUp]
        public void SetupTest()
        {
            // ...Setup for Fixture A
        }                

        [Test, Order(1)]
        public void TestForFixtureA()
        {
            // ...perform test
        }
}

Fixture B

[TestFixture]
public class B
{      
        [SetUp]
        public void SetupTest()
        {
            // ...Setup for Fixture B
        }                

        [Test]
        public void TestForFixtureB()
        {
            // ...perform test
        }
}

What is the correct way to get Setup methods to execute per Fixture?

Answer 1

You are using the incorrect attribute for setup at the test fixture level. The attribute you should be using is [SetUpFixture]. Information about this can be found in the nunit documentation

Here is a list of all the setup attributes and their usages taken from the documentation:

• SetUpAttribute is now used exclusively for per-test setup.

• TearDownAttribute is now used exclusively for per-test teardown.

• OneTimeSetUpAttribute is used for one-time setup per test-run. If you run n tests, this event will only occur once.

• OneTimeTearDownAttribute is used for one-time teardown per test-run. If you run n tests, this event will only occur once

• SetUpFixtureAttribute continues to be used as at before, but with changed method attributes.

This doesn't seem to explain the bizzare behaviour you are seeing, as setup should be ran per-test, but using the correct attributes couldn't hurt.

Answer 2

If you intend your setup to be run once per fixture, use [OneTimeSetUp]. But if you intend it to run once per test within the fixture, then [SetUp] is correct. We can't tell what you intend from the code.

Whichever one you use, the setups should all run. The only situation in which [OneTimeSetUp] will run but [SetUp] will not is when no individual tests are found within the fixture. Are all the tests being recognized?

I suggest you verify very clearly that the setup is not being run. The easiest way is to temporarily create some output from the setup method.