Comparing the MSTest and Nunit Frameworks

nnaderi — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:40:00 GMT

I haven't seen much information online comparing the similarities and differences between the Nunit and MSTest Frameworks. Here I will define the similarities and some of the differences. If there is anything else which you come upon, please do add it to the comments.

MSTest Attribute	NUnit Attribute	Purpose
[TestMethod]	[Test]	Indentifies of an individual unit test
[TestClass]	[TestFixture]	Identifies of a group of unit tests, all Tests, and Initializations/Clean Ups must appear after this declaration
[ClassInitialize]	[TestFixtureSetUp]	Identifies a method which should be called a single time prior to executing any test in the Test Class/Test Fixture
[ClassCleanup]	[TestFixtureTearDown]	Identifies a method in to be called a single time following the execution of the last test in a TestClass/TestFixture
[TestInitialize]	[SetUp]	Identifies a method to be executed each time before a TestMethod/Test is executed
[TestCleanUp]	[TearDown]	Identifies a method to be executed each time after a TestMethod/Test has executed
[AssemblyInitialize]	N/A	Identifies a method to be called a single time upon before running any tests in a Test Assembly
[AssemblyCleanUp]	N/A	Identifies a method to be called a single time upon after running all tests in a Test Assembly

The order of execution is similar in both frameworks, but there are some differences between the two:

In Nunit, tests are not executed in parallel. Rather, it appears that all tests execute on a single thread. In MSTest, each test is instantiated on a separate thread, this results the runs being interleaved. Therefore, if test A depends on test B for its success, it likely will fail as test B will likely start running as test A is running.
The time at which ClassCleanUp/TestFixtureTearDown executes is different between the two frameworks. In Nunit, TestFixtureTearDown is executed immediately following the completion of the last test in a TestFixture or after TearDown if the attribute exists for the test in question. In the Whidbey implementation of MsTest, ClassCleanUp executes at the end of a test run, before AssemblyCleanUp but not necessarily immediately after the last test in a TestClass has completed executing.
In Whidbey, support for test class inheritance was missing. In Nunit, it is fully supported. This will be rectified in Orcas.

I should also mentioned that in MsTest, TestContext exists for passing information about the test run. There is no equivalent in Nunit tests. This can serve as a handy tool for pulling information from datasources on the disk to the unit tests, as well as other uses. More can be read about it here.

Testmundo : Nunit

Comparing the MSTest and Nunit Frameworks