rust-testing

SKILL.md

Rust Testing Patterns

Comprehensive Rust testing patterns for writing reliable, maintainable tests following TDD methodology.

When to Use

Writing new Rust functions, methods, or traits

Adding test coverage to existing code

Creating benchmarks for performance-critical code

Implementing property-based tests for input validation

Following TDD workflow in Rust projects

How It Works

Identify target code — Find the function, trait, or module to test

Write a test — Use #[test] in a #[cfg(test)] module, rstest for parameterized tests, or proptest for property-based tests

Mock dependencies — Use mockall to isolate the unit under test

Run tests (RED) — Verify the test fails with the expected error

Implement (GREEN) — Write minimal code to pass

Refactor — Improve while keeping tests green

Check coverage — Use cargo-llvm-cov, target 80%+

TDD Workflow for Rust

The RED-GREEN-REFACTOR Cycle

RED     → Write a failing test first
GREEN   → Write minimal code to pass the test
REFACTOR → Improve code while keeping tests green
REPEAT  → Continue with next requirement

Step-by-Step TDD in Rust

// RED: Write test first, use todo!() as placeholder
pub fn add(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32 { todo!() }

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;
    #[test]
    fn test_add() { assert_eq!(add(2, 3), 5); }
}
// cargo test → panics at 'not yet implemented'

// GREEN: Replace todo!() with minimal implementation
pub fn add(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32 { a + b }
// cargo test → PASS, then REFACTOR while keeping tests green

Unit Tests

Module-Level Test Organization

// src/user.rs
pub struct User {
    pub name: String,
    pub email: String,
}

impl User {
    pub fn new(name: impl Into<String>, email: impl Into<String>) -> Result<Self, String> {
        let email = email.into();
        if !email.contains('@') {
            return Err(format!("invalid email: {email}"));
        }
        Ok(Self { name: name.into(), email })
    }

    pub fn display_name(&self) -> &str {
        &self.name
    }
}

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;

    #[test]
    fn creates_user_with_valid_email() {
        let user = User::new("Alice", "alice@example.com").unwrap();
        assert_eq!(user.display_name(), "Alice");
        assert_eq!(user.email, "alice@example.com");
    }

    #[test]
    fn rejects_invalid_email() {
        let result = User::new("Bob", "not-an-email");
        assert!(result.is_err());
        assert!(result.unwrap_err().contains("invalid email"));
    }
}

Assertion Macros

assert_eq!(2 + 2, 4);                                    // Equality
assert_ne!(2 + 2, 5);                                    // Inequality
assert!(vec![1, 2, 3].contains(&2));                     // Boolean
assert_eq!(value, 42, "expected 42 but got {value}");    // Custom message
assert!((0.1_f64 + 0.2 - 0.3).abs() < f64::EPSILON);   // Float comparison

Error and Panic Testing

Testing Result Returns

#[test]
fn parse_returns_error_for_invalid_input() {
    let result = parse_config("}{invalid");
    assert!(result.is_err());

    // Assert specific error variant
    let err = result.unwrap_err();
    assert!(matches!(err, ConfigError::ParseError(_)));
}

#[test]
fn parse_succeeds_for_valid_input() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let config = parse_config(r#"{"port": 8080}"#)?;
    assert_eq!(config.port, 8080);
    Ok(()) // Test fails if any ? returns Err
}

Testing Panics

#[test]
#[should_panic]
fn panics_on_empty_input() {
    process(&[]);
}

#[test]
#[should_panic(expected = "index out of bounds")]
fn panics_with_specific_message() {
    let v: Vec<i32> = vec![];
    let _ = v[0];
}

Integration Tests

File Structure

my_crate/
├── src/
│   └── lib.rs
├── tests/              # Integration tests
│   ├── api_test.rs     # Each file is a separate test binary
│   ├── db_test.rs
│   └── common/         # Shared test utilities
│       └── mod.rs

Writing Integration Tests

// tests/api_test.rs
use my_crate::{App, Config};

#[test]
fn full_request_lifecycle() {
    let config = Config::test_default();
    let app = App::new(config);

    let response = app.handle_request("/health");
    assert_eq!(response.status, 200);
    assert_eq!(response.body, "OK");
}

Async Tests

With Tokio

#[tokio::test]
async fn fetches_data_successfully() {
    let client = TestClient::new().await;
    let result = client.get("/data").await;
    assert!(result.is_ok());
    assert_eq!(result.unwrap().items.len(), 3);
}

#[tokio::test]
async fn handles_timeout() {
    use std::time::Duration;
    let result = tokio::time::timeout(
        Duration::from_millis(100),
        slow_operation(),
    ).await;

    assert!(result.is_err(), "should have timed out");
}

Test Organization Patterns

Parameterized Tests with rstest

use rstest::{rstest, fixture};

#[rstest]
#[case("hello", 5)]
#[case("", 0)]
#[case("rust", 4)]
fn test_string_length(#[case] input: &str, #[case] expected: usize) {
    assert_eq!(input.len(), expected);
}

// Fixtures
#[fixture]
fn test_db() -> TestDb {
    TestDb::new_in_memory()
}

#[rstest]
fn test_insert(test_db: TestDb) {
    test_db.insert("key", "value");
    assert_eq!(test_db.get("key"), Some("value".into()));
}

Test Helpers

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;

    /// Creates a test user with sensible defaults.
    fn make_user(name: &str) -> User {
        User::new(name, &format!("{name}@test.com")).unwrap()
    }

    #[test]
    fn user_display() {
        let user = make_user("alice");
        assert_eq!(user.display_name(), "alice");
    }
}

Property-Based Testing with proptest

Basic Property Tests

use proptest::prelude::*;

proptest! {
    #[test]
    fn encode_decode_roundtrip(input in ".*") {
        let encoded = encode(&input);
        let decoded = decode(&encoded).unwrap();
        assert_eq!(input, decoded);
    }

    #[test]
    fn sort_preserves_length(mut vec in prop::collection::vec(any::<i32>(), 0..100)) {
        let original_len = vec.len();
        vec.sort();
        assert_eq!(vec.len(), original_len);
    }

    #[test]
    fn sort_produces_ordered_output(mut vec in prop::collection::vec(any::<i32>(), 0..100)) {
        vec.sort();
        for window in vec.windows(2) {
            assert!(window[0] <= window[1]);
        }
    }
}

Custom Strategies

use proptest::prelude::*;

fn valid_email() -> impl Strategy<Value = String> {
    ("[a-z]{1,10}", "[a-z]{1,5}")
        .prop_map(|(user, domain)| format!("{user}@{domain}.com"))
}

proptest! {
    #[test]
    fn accepts_valid_emails(email in valid_email()) {
        assert!(User::new("Test", &email).is_ok());
    }
}

Mocking with mockall

Trait-Based Mocking

use mockall::{automock, predicate::eq};

#[automock]
trait UserRepository {
    fn find_by_id(&self, id: u64) -> Option<User>;
    fn save(&self, user: &User) -> Result<(), StorageError>;
}

#[test]
fn service_returns_user_when_found() {
    let mut mock = MockUserRepository::new();
    mock.expect_find_by_id()
        .with(eq(42))
        .times(1)
        .returning(|_| Some(User { id: 42, name: "Alice".into() }));

    let service = UserService::new(Box::new(mock));
    let user = service.get_user(42).unwrap();
    assert_eq!(user.name, "Alice");
}

#[test]
fn service_returns_none_when_not_found() {
    let mut mock = MockUserRepository::new();
    mock.expect_find_by_id()
        .returning(|_| None);

    let service = UserService::new(Box::new(mock));
    assert!(service.get_user(99).is_none());
}

Doc Tests

Executable Documentation

/// Adds two numbers together.
///
/// # Examples
///
/// ```
/// use my_crate::add;
///
/// assert_eq!(add(2, 3), 5);
/// assert_eq!(add(-1, 1), 0);
/// ```
pub fn add(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32 {
    a + b
}

/// Parses a config string.
///
/// # Errors
///
/// Returns `Err` if the input is not valid TOML.
///
/// ```no_run
/// use my_crate::parse_config;
///
/// let config = parse_config(r#"port = 8080"#).unwrap();
/// assert_eq!(config.port, 8080);
/// ```
///
/// ```no_run
/// use my_crate::parse_config;
///
/// assert!(parse_config("}{invalid").is_err());
/// ```
pub fn parse_config(input: &str) -> Result<Config, ParseError> {
    todo!()
}

Benchmarking with Criterion

# Cargo.toml
[dev-dependencies]
criterion = { version = "0.5", features = ["html_reports"] }

[[bench]]
name = "benchmark"
harness = false

// benches/benchmark.rs
use criterion::{black_box, criterion_group, criterion_main, Criterion};

fn fibonacci(n: u64) -> u64 {
    match n {
        0 | 1 => n,
        _ => fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2),
    }
}

fn bench_fibonacci(c: &mut Criterion) {
    c.bench_function("fib 20", |b| b.iter(|| fibonacci(black_box(20))));
}

criterion_group!(benches, bench_fibonacci);
criterion_main!(benches);

Test Coverage

Running Coverage

# Install: cargo install cargo-llvm-cov (or use taiki-e/install-action in CI)
cargo llvm-cov                    # Summary
cargo llvm-cov --html             # HTML report
cargo llvm-cov --lcov > lcov.info # LCOV format for CI
cargo llvm-cov --fail-under-lines 80  # Fail if below threshold

Coverage Targets

Code Type
Target

Critical business logic
100%

Public API
90%+

General code
80%+

Generated / FFI bindings
Exclude

Testing Commands

cargo test                        # Run all tests
cargo test -- --nocapture         # Show println output
cargo test test_name              # Run tests matching pattern
cargo test --lib                  # Unit tests only
cargo test --test api_test        # Integration tests only
cargo test --doc                  # Doc tests only
cargo test --no-fail-fast         # Don't stop on first failure
cargo test -- --ignored           # Run ignored tests

Best Practices

DO:

Write tests FIRST (TDD)

Use #[cfg(test)] modules for unit tests

Test behavior, not implementation

Use descriptive test names that explain the scenario

Prefer assert_eq! over assert! for better error messages

Use ? in tests that return Result for cleaner error output

Keep tests independent — no shared mutable state

DON'T:

Use #[should_panic] when you can test Result::is_err() instead

Mock everything — prefer integration tests when feasible

Ignore flaky tests — fix or quarantine them

Use sleep() in tests — use channels, barriers, or tokio::time::pause()

Skip error path testing

CI Integration

# GitHub Actions
test:
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
      with:
        components: clippy, rustfmt

    - name: Check formatting
      run: cargo fmt --check

    - name: Clippy
      run: cargo clippy -- -D warnings

    - name: Run tests
      run: cargo test

    - uses: taiki-e/install-action@cargo-llvm-cov

    - name: Coverage
      run: cargo llvm-cov --fail-under-lines 80

Remember: Tests are documentation. They show how your code is meant to be used. Write them clearly and keep them up to date.