How to make google-test classes friends with my classes?

Question

I heard there is a possibility to enable google-test TestCase classes friends to my classes, thus enabling tests to access my private/protected members.

How to accomplish that?

Answer 1

Try this (straight from Google Test docs...):

FRIEND_TEST(TestCaseName, TestName);

For example:

// foo.h
#include <gtest/gtest_prod.h>

// Defines FRIEND_TEST.
class Foo {
  ...
 private:
  FRIEND_TEST(FooTest, BarReturnsZeroOnNull);
  int Bar(void* x);
};

// foo_test.cc
...
TEST(FooTest, BarReturnsZeroOnNull) {
  Foo foo;
  EXPECT_EQ(0, foo.Bar(NULL));
  // Uses Foo's private member Bar().
}

Answer 2

I know this is old but I was searching for the same answer today. "gtest_prod.h" just introduces a simple macro to reference test classes.

#define FRIEND_TEST(test_case_name, test_name)\
friend class test_case_name##_##test_name##_Test

So FRIEND_TEST(FooTest, BarReturnsZeroOnNull); is equivalent to:

friend class FooTest_BarReturnsZeroOnNull_Test;

This works because each test is its own class as mentioned in the previous answer.

Answer 3

A far better strategy is to not allow friend tests among your unit tests.

Allowing friend tests accessing private members will lead to a code base that is hard to maintain. Tests that break whenever a component's inner implementation details are refactored is not what you want. If extra effort is instead put into getting a design where components can be tested through their public interface, you will get tests that only need updating whenever the public interface of a component is updated.

Tests relying on gtest/gtest_prod.h should be seen as a sign of poor design.

Answer 4

When your tested class and your test class are in a different namespace (e.g. your tests are in the global namespace), you may need to forward-declare your test class and to add your namespace prefix in FRIEND_TEST:

// foo.h
#include <gtest/gtest_prod.h>

class FooTest_BarReturnsZeroOnNull_Test;

// Defines FRIEND_TEST.
class my_namespace::Foo {
  ...
 private:
  FRIEND_TEST(::FooTest, BarReturnsZeroOnNull);
  int Bar(void* x);
};

// foo_test.cc
using namespace my_namespace;

...
TEST(FooTest, BarReturnsZeroOnNull) {
  Foo foo;
  EXPECT_EQ(0, foo.Bar(NULL));
  // Uses Foo's private member Bar().
}

I know that friend unit tests (or the friendliness in C++ in general) and white-box testing are a controversial subject, but when you work on complex, scientific algorithms, each step of which you need to test and validate, but that you don't want to expose in public (or even protected) interfaces, friend tests appear to me as a simple and pragmatic solution, especially in a test-driven development approach. It is always possible to refactor the code later (or to completely remove white-box tests) if it's against one's religion to use friendliness or white-box testing.