Unit testing impossible for frameworks including Unity themselves

What kind of issue is this?

• [X ] PlatformIO Core. If you’ve found a bug, please provide an information below.

You can erase any parts of this template not applicable to your Issue.

---

Configuration

Operating system: Windows 10 x64

PlatformIO Version (platformio --version): version 5.2.0a6

Description of problem

The PlatformIO “test” procedure is such that PlatformIO adds its own Unity library to the build.

https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/blob/834c7b0defe39ff998cd9dc856657aeb837c86ca/platformio/builder/tools/piomisc.py#L353-L361

this however directly conflicts with any framework which already has Unity compiled into it. Such is the case with the https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-mbed in which the precompiled mbed-os library (libmbed.a) has the Unity object files.

Thus it is impossible to e.g. run unit tests with a board = nano33ble framework = arduino configuration without modifications.

Refer to the community topic here

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a new Arduino Nano 33 BLE project
2. Add test\main.cpp from below
3. Run the “Test” project task

Actual Results

A bazillion linker errors due a conflict with .pio\build\nano33ble\libUnityTestLib.a and .platformio\packages\framework-arduino-mbed\variants\ARDUINO_NANO33BLE\libs\libmbed.a

c:/users/max/.platformio/packages/toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi@1.80201.190214/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe: C:\Users\Max\.platformio\packages\framework-arduino-mbed\variants\ARDUINO_NANO33BLE\libs\libmbed.a(unity.o): in function `UnityBegin':
unity.c:(.text.UnityBegin+0x0): multiple definition of `UnityBegin'; .pio\build\nano33ble\libUnityTestLib.a(unity.c.o):unity.c:(.text.UnityBegin+0x0): first defined here
c:/users/max/.platformio/packages/toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi@1.80201.190214/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe: C:\Users\Max\.platformio\packages\framework-arduino-mbed\variants\ARDUINO_NANO33BLE\libs\libmbed.a(unity.o): in function `UnityEnd':
unity.c:(.text.UnityEnd+0x0): multiple definition of `UnityEnd'; .pio\build\nano33ble\libUnityTestLib.a(unity.c.o):unity.c:(.text.UnityEnd+0x0): first defined here
c:/users/max/.platformio/packages/toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi@1.80201.190214/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe: C:\Users\Max\.platformio\packages\framework-arduino-mbed\variants\ARDUINO_NANO33BLE\libs\libmbed.a(unity.o):(.rodata.UnityStrErr64+0x0): multiple definition of `UnityStrErr64'; .pio\build\nano33ble\libUnityTestLib.a(unity.c.o):(.rodata.UnityStrErr64+0x0): first defined here
c:/users/max/.platformio/packages/toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi@1.80201.190214/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe: C:\Users\Max\.platformio\packages\framework-arduino-mbed\variants\ARDUINO_NANO33BLE\libs\libmbed.a(unity.o):(.rodata.UnityStrErrDouble+0x0): multiple definition of `UnityStrErrDouble'; .pio\build\nano33ble\libUnityTestLib.a(unity.c.o):(.rodata.UnityStrErrDouble+0x0): first defined here
c:/users/max/.platformio/packages/toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi@1.80201.190214/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe: C:\Users\Max\.platformio\packages\framework-arduino-mbed\variants\ARDUINO_NANO33BLE\libs\libmbed.a(unity.o):(.rodata.UnityStrErrFloat+0x0): multiple definition of `UnityStrErrFloat'; .pio\build\nano33ble\libUnityTestLib.a(unity.c.o):(.rodata.UnityStrErrFloat+0x0): first defined here
c:/users/max/.platformio/packages/toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi@1.80201.190214/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe: warning: size of symbol `Unity' changed from 132 in .pio\build\nano33ble\libUnityTestLib.a(unity.c.o) to 160 in C:\Users\Max\.platformio\packages\framework-arduino-mbed\variants\ARDUINO_NANO33BLE\libs\libmbed.a(unity.o)
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
*** [.pio\build\nano33ble\firmware.elf] Error 1

Expected Results

Running unit tests is possible

If problems with PlatformIO Build System:

The content of platformio.ini:

[env:nano33ble]
platform = nordicnrf52
board = nano33ble
framework = arduino

Source file to reproduce issue: test\main.cpp

#include <Arduino.h>
#include <unity.h>

void simple_test(void) {
    TEST_ASSERT_EQUAL(33, 33);
}

void setup() {
    delay(2000);

    UNITY_BEGIN();
    RUN_TEST(simple_test);
    UNITY_END();
}

void loop() {
    delay(1000);
}

Additional info

[maxgerhardt]

Unable to reproduce.

$ pio test --without-uploading --without-testing -vvv
Collected 1 tests (test_blink)

Processing test_blink in nano33ble environment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Building...
CONFIGURATION: https://docs.platformio.org/page/boards/nordicnrf52/nano33ble.html
PLATFORM: Nordic nRF52 (9.4.0) > Arduino Nano 33 BLE
HARDWARE: NRF52840 64MHz, 256KB RAM, 960KB Flash
DEBUG: Current (blackmagic) External (blackmagic, cmsis-dap, jlink)
PACKAGES: 
 - framework-arduino-mbed @ 3.1.1 
 - tool-sreccat @ 1.164.0 (1.64) 
 - toolchain-gccarmnoneeabi @ 1.80201.181220 (8.2.1)
LDF: Library Dependency Finder -> https://bit.ly/configure-pio-ldf
LDF Modes: Finder ~ chain, Compatibility ~ soft
Found 37 compatible libraries
Scanning dependencies...
No dependencies
Building in test mode
MethodWrapper(["checkprogsize"], [".pio/build/nano33ble/firmware.elf"])
Advanced Memory Usage is available via "PlatformIO Home > Project Inspect"
RAM:   [==        ]  16.2% (used 42576 bytes from 262144 bytes)
Flash: [=         ]   8.2% (used 81012 bytes from 983040 bytes)

Core: 6.1.5a4, Nordic nRF52: 9.4.0.

Grab the project file, unpack it, and run the same above as me in the CLI. Does it still show an error?

unity_tests.zip

[dudeperf3ct]

Removing .pio folder seemed to do the trick. Thanks! It works in my project as well. I have the same content as mentioned in the documentation for both platformio.ini and test folder. I use 2 libraries TFLite and TinyMLx for running ML models on Arduino.

Is it possible to perform the unit testing for TFLite library using platformIO? A sample unit test can be found here or here for reference.

I wonder if GoogleTest Runner can be of help in this case.