dotnet test/run have inconsistent CWD

From @yoshiya8 on Monday, 27 August 2018 15:10:42

Steps to reproduce

Create a .NET core app that simply prints out the current directory from the environment and a .NET core XUNIT test case that does the same:

using System;
namespace DotnetRun
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args) => Console.WriteLine($"CWD: [{Environment.CurrentDirectory}]");
    }
}

and

using System;
using Xunit;
using Xunit.Abstractions;
namespace DotnetTest
{
    public class UnitTest1
    {
        private readonly ITestOutputHelper output;
        public UnitTest1(ITestOutputHelper output) => this.output = output;
        [Fact]
        public void Test1() => output.WriteLine($"CWD: [{Environment.CurrentDirectory}]");
    }
}

1. Run the app: dotnet run
2. Note the output of the app.
3. Run the unit test with logging to capture the output: dotnet test --logger "trx;LogFileName=C:\some\path\Results.trx"
4. Get the output from the unit test: Select-String -Path C:\some\path\Results.trx -Pattern "<StdOut>"

Expected behavior

The current directory for each run would be the current directory of the shell that launched the dotnet command.

Actual behavior

The current directory of the dotnet run is as expected. However, the current directory of the dotnet test is the directory of the .dll file (“$pwd\bin\Debug\netcorapp2.0”)

Copied from original issue: dotnet/cli#9896

[PhilT]

It’s a shame this has been closed. I still think this issue is valid.

When users call System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() they expect to get the current directory. In other words the one that was current when executing the command, dotnet test. This is neither the output directory nor the source directory. It tends to be the solution directory. It’s inconsistent with run and inconsistent with expected behaviour of GetCurrentDirectory().

Also, regarding the code, sourceDirectory is not correct either as I believe it’s actually the proj directory which, by default is copied to the output dir anyway which is why CWD ends up being the output dir.

If you want a specific scenario, mine is that I have 2 ways to run my tests. dotnet test for CI and dotnet run tests which gives prettier output for local dev work. The tests rely on some data in the project but I can’t rely on GetCurrentDirectory() if I want the CI dotnet test to work.

Please consider reopening this. Thanks.

[andradf]

I just came across this too. While the argument that the test environment shouldn’t impact the tests is completely valid for unit tests, for integration tests and bechmarking it is just the opposite. We often want to run the same set of tests with different environment configurations.