DMD D2: Unittest in static lib

[Don]

Ettienne Gilbert wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am experienced in C++ but still a relative D newbie...
> 
> I am building a static lib containing a bunch of functions that I often
> re-use. I will use these in other exe/dll projects by linking to the lib [and
> specifying the necessary Import paths..].
> 
> Everything is working ok when I test the concept, but the problem is I cannot
> get any unit-tests to run in the lib [even though the compiler "-unittest"
> option is passed to DMD compiler and it compiles fine].
> 
> I guess the problem is the lib does not have a main(..) function and is not
> meant to run as "a standalone". I've therefore created a separate Console
> application [and linked to the debug version of the lib], in an attempt to
> trigger the unit-tests in the lib - but to no avail.
> 
> I can of course do the actual unit-tests inside this Console test application,
> but that kinda defeats the purpose of keeping the unit-tests with the actual
> code! I would really prefer to keep the unit-tests in the modules of the lib,
> and not the test-app module.
> 
> I have even  - in desperation [did not really think it would work] - tried to
> pass "--main" as an argument to the compiler [described by Andrei in "The D
> Programming Language" in $5.1 on p133], in the hope that I can fool the
> compiler to create a exe, rather than a lib for the debug version of the lib.
> But DMD2.047 does seem to like this compiler switch!
> 
> How does one get unit-tests that are inside modules in a lib to run?
> 
> Thanks,
> Ettienne
> 

AFAIK you need to create a module which is just void main(){} which 
imports all the modules in your lib. See dmd/src/phobos/unittest.d for 
how it's done in Phobos.