On Target Unit Testing: Get Unity Testing Framework

Unit testing is a method of testing individual units of source code before or during construction. The document introduces the Unity unit testing framework for C, which is lightweight and can be used for in-target testing of embedded C applications. Key requirements for the framework are that it uses C, is not library-based, supports output redirection over serial port, and works with a single toolchain for development and testing. The document provides steps to set up Unity in the Keil uVision IDE for a STM32 project, including getting the Unity files, including headers, building a simple test, and creating a test runner to display results in the IDE terminal window. This allows achieving on-target unit testing in the same project used for

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On Target Unit Testing: Get Unity Testing Framework

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On Target Unit Testing

Overview
One of the main requirement for effective firmware development is moving test
before construction than after construction.

Unit testing is a method by which individual units of source code are tested before or
during construction. Test Driven Development advocates writing test code before application
code, thus bringing all the concepts of structured testing to the average programmer (rather
than being seen as a separate activity).

C is the dominant programming language for embedded systems, but most of the
unit testing framework are written in Java or C++. The majority of leading framework prove
problematic when looking at testing in the context of an embedded application.

Of course it is possible to test a C program using a C++ test framework, but this isn’t
always suitable due to the change of programming paradigm or due to a lack of complier
support.

The goal of this document is to introduce the C unit testing framework and using it to
do on target unit testing using Keil and STM32 as platform.

Requirements

 Using C for unit test instead of C++.

 Not library based and simple to use.
 Embeddable – supports redirection of output over serial port.
 Works with system having small SRAM.
 Works with all commercial cross compilers.
 OS independent – not Linux centric
 Single toolchain for development and unit testing – eliminates the barrier of
having to ‘context switch’ to another tool and way of thinking in order to test
their code.

Testing Framework
Unity is an open source lightweight test harness that can be used for in-target testing of an
embedded C application.

Setting up Unity in Keil uVision for STM32

Get Unity Testing Framework

1. Clone unity from github - https://github.com/ThrowTheSwitch/Unity

2. Preferably have in a common place for your workspace. (C:\Unity) The simple
path makes life easier.
3. Following files will be found in C:\Unity\src
a. unity.c
b. unity.h
c. unity_internals.h
4. Create a group in Keil project (used example project from
https://github.com/vigneswaranj/KeilRetargetExample in this documentation) and
add unity.c from c:\unity\src.

5. Include unity.h path to the Keil project options ->C/C++ -> Include paths.

6. If the Keil project is built now it will give link errors. Ignore warnings for this
example.

7. Now we need to build a simple test. Create test.c and add this to the test group in
project as shown below.
8. Note we need to create (empty) setup and teardown functions as the unity
framework expects these functions (without them it will fail to link).
9. Now a simple test runner has to be created to run the test. Unity uses
setjmp/longjmp to manage the tests, so we need to include setjmp.h from the C
standard library.
10. By default the reporting mechanism of unity uses the function putchar from
stdio.h. Since we redirected this already in our project we will get the results from
Debug printf view in keil.

11. Include header test.c which has the prototype for the test function.
12. Unity requires you to define a function called runTest that takes a function pointer
as a parameter. The TEST_PROTECT macro wraps the use of setjmp/longjmp to
manage test that fail or are aborted.
13. Now the project is ready to run unity test. The output from the unity test will now
be displayed in the terminal I/O window.

Result
We achieved most of our requirements, the same project can be tested in the target
microcontroller by adding addition hardware initialization.