Is there a C# mstest equivalent of system property in Java?

Question

I would like to be able to pass a system argument - "host" to the MStest suite. To create automated jobs for continuous integration, I want to be able to specify the host as a parameter so the tests are run on that specific host. I couldn't find any such option with mstest. In Java, -Dhost="localhost" would work which can be specified as a parameter for the running VM. Is there a similar way in MStest for C#?

Answer 1

There is not an equivalent to the Java system properties that you mention. Here are a couple of ideas on how to approximate what you are looking for:

[1]

Visual Studio test support does include Test Run Configurations (renamed Test Settings in Visual Studio 2010). This is a file that specifies many settings that control aspects of the test run. For example, you can deploy additional files alongside your test, or run a "setup" batch script before your test run begins.

If you have a finite set of hosts, you could have a separate test run config/test settings for each host. Each config/settings would deploy a file that contains the name of a different host. You could then read in that file as part of your unit test setup, perhaps from your [TestInitialize] method. A bit hokey, but maybe it would do what you want.

[2]

You could set a system environment variable (e.g., "TESTHOST") before running the test, and then read that environment variable from your tests. You could wrap all of this up in a simple program or batch script that accepts an argument to set the environment variable, invoke mstest, and unset the environment variable afterwards. For example, this StackOverflow post may give you some ideas on how you might do something like this using PowerShell.

Answer 2

I don't believe there is an exact equivalent. Instead, try leveraging .NET configuration files:

Add an application configuration file (App.config) to your MSTest project. Add your "system" properties as keys in the appSettings section. Reference these values in your tests using the ConfigurationManager.AppSettings collection.