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Unit testing code with a file system dependency

Asked 2008-09-24T18:46:56.943
163

I am writing a component that, given a ZIP file, needs to:

  1. Unzip the file.
  2. Find a specific dll among the unzipped files.
  3. Load that dll through reflection and invoke a method on it.

I'd like to unit test this component.

I'm tempted to write code that deals directly with the file system:

void DoIt()
{
   Zip.Unzip(theZipFile, "C:\\foo\\Unzipped");
   System.IO.File myDll = File.Open("C:\\foo\\Unzipped\\SuperSecret.bar");
   myDll.InvokeSomeSpecialMethod();
}

But folks often say, "Don't write unit tests that rely on the file system, database, network, etc."

If I were to write this in a unit-test friendly way, I suppose it would look like this:

void DoIt(IZipper zipper, IFileSystem fileSystem, IDllRunner runner)
{
   string path = zipper.Unzip(theZipFile);
   IFakeFile file = fileSystem.Open(path);
   runner.Run(file);
}

Yay! Now it's testable; I can feed in test doubles (mocks) to the DoIt method. But at what cost? I've now had to define 3 new interfaces just to make this testable. And what, exactly, am I testing? I'm testing that my DoIt function properly interacts with its dependencies. It doesn't test that the zip file was unzipped properly, etc.

It doesn't feel like I'm testing functionality anymore. It feels like I'm just testing class interactions.

My question is this: what's the proper way to unit test something that is dependent on the file system?

edit I'm using .NET, but the concept could apply Java or native code too.

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2 Answers

8

There's nothing wrong with hitting the file system, just consider it an integration test rather than a unit test. I'd swap the hard coded path with a relative path and create a TestData subfolder to contain the zips for the unit tests.

If your integration tests take too long to run then separate them out so they aren't running as often as your quick unit tests.

I agree, sometimes I think interaction based testing can cause too much coupling and often ends up not providing enough value. You really want to test unzipping the file here not just verify you are calling the right methods.

answered 2008-09-24T18:57:31.693
6

One way would be to write the unzip method to take InputStreams. Then the unit test could construct such an InputStream from a byte array using ByteArrayInputStream. The contents of that byte array could be a constant in the unit test code.

answered 2008-09-24T18:49:49.010

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