Make MSTest respect [Conditional()] attribute?

Question

I'm using VS2010, I have the following method call:

[Conditional("DEBUG")]
public void VerboseLogging() { }

public void DoSomething() {
    VerboseLogging();
    Foo();
    Bar();
}

Then I have a unit test for the DoSomething method which checks that it emits proper logging.

[Conditional("DEBUG"), TestMethod()]
public void EnsureVerboseLog() {
    DoSomething();
    VerifyVerboseLoggingCalled(); // <-- fail in release builds since VerboseLogging() calls get eliminated.
}

It seems that MSTest only sees TestMethod and executes it (generating failed test) even though I've marked it with Conditional("DEBUG") and compile it in release mode.

So, is there a way to exclude certain tests depending on compilation constant other than #if?

Answer 1

The ConditionalAttribute does not affect whether or not a method is compiled into an application. It controls whether or not calls to the method are compiled into the application.

There is no call to EnsureVerboseLog in this sample. MSTest just sees a method in the assemlby with the TestMethod attribute and correctly executes it. In order to prevent MSTest from running the method you will need to do one of the following

1. Not compile it into your application (possible through #if's)
2. Not annotate it with the TestMethod attribute

Answer 2

So, is there a way to exclude certain tests depending on compilation constant other than #if?

Why ignore the obvious? it's readable, does exactly the wanted work, etc...

[TestMethod]
#if !DEBUG
[Ignore]
#endif
public void AnyTest()
{
    // Will invoke for developer and not in test-server!
}

HTH..

Answer 3

A work around is to set the Priority attribute to -1 to your method. Then run mstest with "minpriority:0" as an argument.

[TestMethod()]
[Priority(-1)]
public void Compute_Foo()
{
    This method will not be executed
}