Re: [boost] [test] [build] best practices for looking up data files from test executables

Subject: Re: [boost] [test] [build] best practices for looking up data files from test executables
From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-11-13 20:54:11

On 11/13/17 12:31 PM, Stefan Seefeld via Boost wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I'm trying to write a test that needs to access a data file. As I'm
> surely not the first wanting to use external data in my tests, I wonder
> whether there are established "best practices" or idioms when using
> Boost.Build and Boost.Test.
> 
> My first attempt was to compute the relative path using the test
> source's `__FILE__`, until I realized the path was invalid due to the
> build logic moving executables before running them. Then I considered
> using a command-line option to point at the data directory, but that
> seems quite involved when using boost::test (and BOOST_TEST_MODULE)...
> 
> Any suggestions for how to approach this ?

Hmm - I do this in serialization library.  My believe is that the tests 
are run while the current directory is set to the test directory.  So if 
you put a copy of your external data as file in your test directory, you 
should be able to just open it without including any prefix.

Robert Ramey

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> Stefan
>