How to reuse test code in imported package? [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Can I create shared test utilities in go? 1 answer

Here is my directory hierarchy:

/
|-- main.go // package main, an HTTP server which accepts request and calls C/U APIs in pkg1 to finish certain task
|-- main_test.go // wants to call veryfyTaskNumber in pkg1_test
|-- pkg1 // package pkg1, CRUD APIs with Retrieve&Delete unexported for safety
    |-- pkg1_test.go // contains a function verifyTaskNumber(*testing.T, taskName string, expectedNo int) which calls internal Retrieve function in pkg1

I have some utility functions for tests only in pkg1_test.go. main.go imports pkg1. Now I want to use these functions in my main_test.go. After searching I found two possible solutions, but both of them have some drawbacks:

• Move these functions into pkg1.go. However these functions might be contained in binaries generated by go build.
• Move these functions into a separate testutility package, then import it in *_test.go manually. The problem is that these functions use some internal methods in pkg1.

So I was wondering whether there is a better solution to this problem.

Answer 1

If you use this function in *_test.go file throughout the project it's a good idea to move it to a utils package and import this package in your *_test.go. Moreover since this util package is used only for testing purposes I suggest to save the output of the internal function of pkg1 in a support file and load it when you call the support package's function which should use the private function of pkg1.