Re: [Boost-users] whitebox testing with boost unit test framework?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] whitebox testing with boost unit test framework?
From: Olaf Meeuwissen (olaf.meeuwissen_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-12-21 18:36:54

Chris Cleeland <chris.cleeland_at_[hidden]> writes:

> I'm using the boost unit test framework to implement unit tests for
> code.  I'm wondering if there is a best-practice for doing white-box
> testing/internal state inspection of types under test.  My hack right
> now is to strip out "protected" and "private" from the header, but I
> hold my nose as I do that.

I don't use private members in the header file and put a subclass in the
test implementation that makes the parent class' protected API public.

So you get, in the header, something like:

  class A {
  public:
    //
  protected:
    int i;
  };

and then in the test implementation file

  #include "A.hpp"

  class A_test : A {
  public:
    using i;
  };

so that in the tests you can access i without any problem.

Hope this helps,
-- 
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2           FLOSS Engineer -- AVASYS CORPORATION
FSF Associate Member #1962               Help support software freedom
                 http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=1962