CTest

Configure a project for testing with CTest/CDash

Include this module in the top CMakeLists.txt file of a project to enable testing with CTest and dashboard submissions to CDash:

project(MyProject)
...
include(CTest)

The module automatically creates a BUILD_TESTING option that selects whether to enable testing support (ON by default). After including the module, use code like

if(BUILD_TESTING)
  # ... CMake code to create tests ...
endif()

to creating tests when testing is enabled.

To enable submissions to a CDash server, create a CTestConfig.cmake file at the top of the project with content such as

set(CTEST_PROJECT_NAME "MyProject")
set(CTEST_NIGHTLY_START_TIME "01:00:00 UTC")
set(CTEST_DROP_METHOD "http")
set(CTEST_DROP_SITE "my.cdash.org")
set(CTEST_DROP_LOCATION "/submit.php?project=MyProject")
set(CTEST_DROP_SITE_CDASH TRUE)

(the CDash server can provide the file to a project administrator who configures ‘MyProject’). Settings in the config file are shared by both this CTest module and the CTest command-line tool’s dashboard script mode (ctest -S).

While building a project for submission to CDash, CTest scans the build output for errors and warnings and reports them with surrounding context from the build log. This generic approach works for all build tools, but does not give details about the command invocation that produced a given problem. One may get more detailed reports by adding

set(CTEST_USE_LAUNCHERS 1)

to the CTestConfig.cmake file. When this option is enabled, the CTest module tells CMake’s Makefile generators to invoke every command in the generated build system through a CTest launcher program. (Currently the CTEST_USE_LAUNCHERS option is ignored on non-Makefile generators.) During a manual build each launcher transparently runs the command it wraps. During a CTest-driven build for submission to CDash each launcher reports detailed information when its command fails or warns. (Setting CTEST_USE_LAUNCHERS in CTestConfig.cmake is convenient, but also adds the launcher overhead even for manual builds. One may instead set it in a CTest dashboard script and add it to the CMake cache for the build tree.)