Unit testing C++ code using Java

Question

I have inherited a huge c++ codebase with some integration tests. This is a critical system which feeds data to a lot of downstream systems. As the tests are very unreliable our team is not able to push changes confidently.

We want to introduce some tests in the system but most of the developers have Java background. What options do we have ?

1) Learn C++

2) Use JNI : Not sure how easy that is

For the record: 1 is a subset of 2. You'll be learning C++ no matter what. — Chris Eberle, Dec 14 '11 at 05:35
3) since those are integration tests, maybe call the C++ code as a separate process, feed it test data and see what it outputs — Thilo, Dec 14 '11 at 05:36
Have you considered using JNA? Its slower than JNI, but you can call C++ method without writing any C++ code. — Peter Lawrey, Dec 14 '11 at 08:15

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '11 at 07:59

Using JNI adds another layer of complexity and still you will learn C++ - I wouldn't recommend it if you don't want to use C++.

Depending on what the C++ system does you can choose different testing strategies. In my experience I had a system which was responsible for data processing and all the data was sent via network. In this case the tests were done in python:

we checked the protocol
we checked the processed data validity given a certain input (also controlled in python)

My case was a lucky one since the communication was done via a network connection (we could literally use whatever language we wanted).

If you cannot use anything else but C++ I think you will have to do it in C++ (and not Java + JNI + C++).

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 14 '11 at 09:30

0

I would suggest you try JNA which doesn't require you to write C or C++ code. Its slower than JNI, but for tests that is unlikely to matter.

answered Dec 14 '11 at 09:30

Peter Lawrey

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Unit testing C++ code using Java

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