Running tests from output directory

On dotnet cli 1.1.0 (928f77c4bc3f49d892459992fb6e1d5542cb5e86), I’m trying to do the following:

dotnet new xunit
dotnet restore
dotnet publish
dotnet test

The sample project builds successfully, and I can run the sample test, with the following project file:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.1</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk" Version="15.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="xunit" Version="2.2.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="xunit.runner.visualstudio" Version="2.2.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Now I want to redirect the output (binaries and obj file) to a custom folder other than the project folder, so I modify the project file to add this:

    <RepositoryRoot>..</RepositoryRoot>
    <ProjectName>MyProject</ProjectName>
    <OutputPath>$(RepositoryRoot)\Binaries\$(Configuration)\$(ProjectName)</OutputPath>
    <BaseIntermediateOutputPath>$(RepositoryRoot)\Binaries\Obj\$(ProjectName)\</BaseIntermediateOutputPath>
    <IntermediateOutputPath>$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)$(Configuration)\</IntermediateOutputPath>

And I run the same commands. I see the following directories created:

1. Binaries\Obj\MyProject

• Contains nuget generated props/targets/json files

1. Binaries\Obj\MyProject\Debug\netcoreapp1.1\

• Contains obj files and binaries

1. Binaries\Debug\MyProject\netcoreapp1.1\

• Contains just the binary and its pdb

1. Binaries\Debug\MyProject\ netcoreapp1.1\publish\

• Contains the binary, its pdb, and dependencies (mainly xunit binaries and testhost)

The problem now is that if I try and run dotnet test, I get the following error:

Could not find testhost.dll for source MyProject.dll. Make sure test project has a nuget reference of package "microsoft.testplatform.testhost"

I’m guessing it is because the test runner is trying to run the tests from the binary in the output directory, not the publish directory, which doesn’t have the required dependencies.

What is the proper properties to set to redirect tests to be run from there? is there a certain flag missing?

[livarcocc]

If you are trying to run tests out of a published dll, dotnet vstest in the command you should use.

Something like

dotnet publish -o outputdir
dotnet vstest outputdir/your.dll

[brah-mcdude]

#codito @livarcocc thanks for the info. Will follow the issue mentioned above. In the meantime, I hand authored a script that copies the binaries appropriately.

could you please share your script.