/ externals / catch / docs / configuration.md
configuration.md
  1  <a id="top"></a>
  2  # Compile-time configuration
  3  
  4  **Contents**<br>
  5  [Prefixing Catch macros](#prefixing-catch-macros)<br>
  6  [Terminal colour](#terminal-colour)<br>
  7  [Console width](#console-width)<br>
  8  [stdout](#stdout)<br>
  9  [Fallback stringifier](#fallback-stringifier)<br>
 10  [Default reporter](#default-reporter)<br>
 11  [Bazel support](#bazel-support)<br>
 12  [C++11 toggles](#c11-toggles)<br>
 13  [C++17 toggles](#c17-toggles)<br>
 14  [Other toggles](#other-toggles)<br>
 15  [Enabling stringification](#enabling-stringification)<br>
 16  [Disabling exceptions](#disabling-exceptions)<br>
 17  [Overriding Catch's debug break (`-b`)](#overriding-catchs-debug-break--b)<br>
 18  [Static analysis support](#static-analysis-support)<br>
 19  
 20  Catch2 is designed to "just work" as much as possible, and most of the
 21  configuration options below are changed automatically during compilation,
 22  according to the detected environment. However, this detection can also
 23  be overridden by users, using macros documented below, and/or CMake options
 24  with the same name.
 25  
 26  
 27  ## Prefixing Catch macros
 28  
 29      CATCH_CONFIG_PREFIX_ALL       // Prefix all macros with CATCH_
 30      CATCH_CONFIG_PREFIX_MESSAGES  // Prefix only INFO, UNSCOPED_INFO, WARN and CAPTURE
 31  
 32  To keep test code clean and uncluttered Catch uses short macro names (e.g. ```TEST_CASE``` and ```REQUIRE```). Occasionally these may conflict with identifiers from platform headers or the system under test. In this case the above identifier can be defined. This will cause all the Catch user macros to be prefixed with ```CATCH_``` (e.g. ```CATCH_TEST_CASE``` and ```CATCH_REQUIRE```).
 33  
 34  
 35  ## Terminal colour
 36  
 37      CATCH_CONFIG_COLOUR_WIN32     // Force enables compiling colouring impl based on Win32 console API
 38      CATCH_CONFIG_NO_COLOUR_WIN32  // Force disables ...
 39  
 40  Yes, Catch2 uses the british spelling of colour.
 41  
 42  Catch2 attempts to autodetect whether the Win32 console colouring API,
 43  `SetConsoleTextAttribute`, is available, and if it is available it compiles
 44  in a console colouring implementation that uses it.
 45  
 46  This option can be used to override Catch2's autodetection and force the
 47  compilation either ON or OFF.
 48  
 49  
 50  ## Console width
 51  
 52      CATCH_CONFIG_CONSOLE_WIDTH = x // where x is a number
 53  
 54  Catch formats output intended for the console to fit within a fixed number of characters. This is especially important as indentation is used extensively and uncontrolled line wraps break this.
 55  By default a console width of 80 is assumed but this can be controlled by defining the above identifier to be a different value.
 56  
 57  ## stdout
 58  
 59      CATCH_CONFIG_NOSTDOUT
 60  
 61  To support platforms that do not provide `std::cout`, `std::cerr` and
 62  `std::clog`, Catch does not use them directly, but rather calls
 63  `Catch::cout`, `Catch::cerr` and `Catch::clog`. You can replace their
 64  implementation by defining `CATCH_CONFIG_NOSTDOUT` and implementing
 65  them yourself, their signatures are:
 66  
 67      std::ostream& cout();
 68      std::ostream& cerr();
 69      std::ostream& clog();
 70  
 71  [You can see an example of replacing these functions here.](
 72  ../examples/231-Cfg-OutputStreams.cpp)
 73  
 74  
 75  ## Fallback stringifier
 76  
 77  By default, when Catch's stringification machinery has to stringify
 78  a type that does not specialize `StringMaker`, does not overload `operator<<`,
 79  is not an enumeration and is not a range, it uses `"{?}"`. This can be
 80  overridden by defining `CATCH_CONFIG_FALLBACK_STRINGIFIER` to name of a
 81  function that should perform the stringification instead.
 82  
 83  All types that do not provide `StringMaker` specialization or `operator<<`
 84  overload will be sent to this function (this includes enums and ranges).
 85  The provided function must return `std::string` and must accept any type,
 86  e.g. via overloading.
 87  
 88  _Note that if the provided function does not handle a type and this type
 89  requires to be stringified, the compilation will fail._
 90  
 91  
 92  ## Default reporter
 93  
 94  Catch's default reporter can be changed by defining macro
 95  `CATCH_CONFIG_DEFAULT_REPORTER` to string literal naming the desired
 96  default reporter.
 97  
 98  This means that defining `CATCH_CONFIG_DEFAULT_REPORTER` to `"console"`
 99  is equivalent with the out-of-the-box experience.
100  
101  
102  ## Bazel support
103  
104  Compiling Catch2 with `CATCH_CONFIG_BAZEL_SUPPORT` force-enables Catch2's
105  support for Bazel's environment variables (normally Catch2 looks for
106  `BAZEL_TEST=1` env var first).
107  
108  This can be useful if you are using older versions of Bazel, that do not
109  yet have `BAZEL_TEST` env var support.
110  
111  > `CATCH_CONFIG_BAZEL_SUPPORT` was [introduced](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/pull/2399) in Catch2 3.0.1.
112  
113  > `CATCH_CONFIG_BAZEL_SUPPORT` was [deprecated](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/pull/2459) in Catch2 3.1.0.
114  
115  
116  ## C++11 toggles
117  
118      CATCH_CONFIG_CPP11_TO_STRING // Use `std::to_string`
119  
120  Because we support platforms whose standard library does not contain
121  `std::to_string`, it is possible to force Catch to use a workaround
122  based on `std::stringstream`. On platforms other than Android,
123  the default is to use `std::to_string`. On Android, the default is to
124  use the `stringstream` workaround. As always, it is possible to override
125  Catch's selection, by defining either `CATCH_CONFIG_CPP11_TO_STRING` or
126  `CATCH_CONFIG_NO_CPP11_TO_STRING`.
127  
128  
129  ## C++17 toggles
130  
131      CATCH_CONFIG_CPP17_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTIONS  // Override std::uncaught_exceptions (instead of std::uncaught_exception) support detection
132      CATCH_CONFIG_CPP17_STRING_VIEW          // Override std::string_view support detection (Catch provides a StringMaker specialization by default)
133      CATCH_CONFIG_CPP17_VARIANT              // Override std::variant support detection (checked by CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_VARIANT_STRINGMAKER)
134      CATCH_CONFIG_CPP17_OPTIONAL             // Override std::optional support detection (checked by CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_OPTIONAL_STRINGMAKER)
135      CATCH_CONFIG_CPP17_BYTE                 // Override std::byte support detection (Catch provides a StringMaker specialization by default)
136  
137  > `CATCH_CONFIG_CPP17_STRING_VIEW` was [introduced](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/issues/1376) in Catch2 2.4.1.
138  
139  Catch contains basic compiler/standard detection and attempts to use
140  some C++17 features whenever appropriate. This automatic detection
141  can be manually overridden in both directions, that is, a feature
142  can be enabled by defining the macro in the table above, and disabled
143  by using `_NO_` in the macro, e.g. `CATCH_CONFIG_NO_CPP17_UNCAUGHT_EXCEPTIONS`.
144  
145  
146  ## Other toggles
147  
148      CATCH_CONFIG_COUNTER                    // Use __COUNTER__ to generate unique names for test cases
149      CATCH_CONFIG_WINDOWS_SEH                // Enable SEH handling on Windows
150      CATCH_CONFIG_FAST_COMPILE               // Sacrifices some (rather minor) features for compilation speed
151      CATCH_CONFIG_POSIX_SIGNALS              // Enable handling POSIX signals
152      CATCH_CONFIG_WINDOWS_CRTDBG             // Enable leak checking using Windows's CRT Debug Heap
153      CATCH_CONFIG_DISABLE_STRINGIFICATION    // Disable stringifying the original expression
154      CATCH_CONFIG_DISABLE                    // Disables assertions and test case registration
155      CATCH_CONFIG_WCHAR                      // Enables use of wchart_t
156      CATCH_CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL_REDIRECT      // Enables the new (experimental) way of capturing stdout/stderr
157      CATCH_CONFIG_USE_ASYNC                  // Force parallel statistical processing of samples during benchmarking
158      CATCH_CONFIG_ANDROID_LOGWRITE           // Use android's logging system for debug output
159      CATCH_CONFIG_GLOBAL_NEXTAFTER           // Use nextafter{,f,l} instead of std::nextafter
160      CATCH_CONFIG_GETENV                     // System has a working `getenv`
161  
162  > [`CATCH_CONFIG_ANDROID_LOGWRITE`](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/issues/1743) and [`CATCH_CONFIG_GLOBAL_NEXTAFTER`](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/pull/1739) were introduced in Catch2 2.10.0
163  
164  > `CATCH_CONFIG_GETENV` was [introduced](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/pull/2562) in Catch2 3.2.0
165  
166  Currently Catch enables `CATCH_CONFIG_WINDOWS_SEH` only when compiled with MSVC, because some versions of MinGW do not have the necessary Win32 API support.
167  
168  `CATCH_CONFIG_POSIX_SIGNALS` is on by default, except when Catch is compiled under `Cygwin`, where it is disabled by default (but can be force-enabled by defining `CATCH_CONFIG_POSIX_SIGNALS`).
169  
170  `CATCH_CONFIG_GETENV` is on by default, except when Catch2 is compiled for
171  platforms that lacks working `std::getenv` (currently Windows UWP and
172  Playstation).
173  
174  `CATCH_CONFIG_WINDOWS_CRTDBG` is off by default. If enabled, Windows's
175  CRT is used to check for memory leaks, and displays them after the tests
176  finish running. This option only works when linking against the default
177  main, and must be defined for the whole library build.
178  
179  `CATCH_CONFIG_WCHAR` is on by default, but can be disabled. Currently
180  it is only used in support for DJGPP cross-compiler.
181  
182  With the exception of `CATCH_CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL_REDIRECT`,
183  these toggles can be disabled by using `_NO_` form of the toggle,
184  e.g. `CATCH_CONFIG_NO_WINDOWS_SEH`.
185  
186  ### `CATCH_CONFIG_FAST_COMPILE`
187  This compile-time flag speeds up compilation of assertion macros by ~20%,
188  by disabling the generation of assertion-local try-catch blocks for
189  non-exception family of assertion macros ({`REQUIRE`,`CHECK`}{``,`_FALSE`, `_THAT`}).
190  This disables translation of exceptions thrown under these assertions, but
191  should not lead to false negatives.
192  
193  `CATCH_CONFIG_FAST_COMPILE` has to be either defined, or not defined,
194  in all translation units that are linked into single test binary.
195  
196  ### `CATCH_CONFIG_DISABLE_STRINGIFICATION`
197  This toggle enables a workaround for VS 2017 bug. For details see [known limitations](limitations.md#visual-studio-2017----raw-string-literal-in-assert-fails-to-compile).
198  
199  ### `CATCH_CONFIG_DISABLE`
200  This toggle removes most of Catch from given file. This means that `TEST_CASE`s are not registered and assertions are turned into no-ops. Useful for keeping tests within implementation files (ie for functions with internal linkage), instead of in external files.
201  
202  This feature is considered experimental and might change at any point.
203  
204  _Inspired by Doctest's `DOCTEST_CONFIG_DISABLE`_
205  
206  
207  ## Enabling stringification
208  
209  By default, Catch does not stringify some types from the standard library. This is done to avoid dragging in various standard library headers by default. However, Catch does contain these and can be configured to provide them, using these macros:
210  
211      CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_PAIR_STRINGMAKER     // Provide StringMaker specialization for std::pair
212      CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_TUPLE_STRINGMAKER    // Provide StringMaker specialization for std::tuple
213      CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_VARIANT_STRINGMAKER  // Provide StringMaker specialization for std::variant, std::monostate (on C++17)
214      CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_OPTIONAL_STRINGMAKER // Provide StringMaker specialization for std::optional (on C++17)
215      CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_ALL_STRINGMAKERS     // Defines all of the above
216  
217  > `CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_VARIANT_STRINGMAKER` was [introduced](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/issues/1380) in Catch2 2.4.1.
218  
219  > `CATCH_CONFIG_ENABLE_OPTIONAL_STRINGMAKER` was [introduced](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/issues/1510) in Catch2 2.6.0.
220  
221  ## Disabling exceptions
222  
223  > Introduced in Catch2 2.4.0.
224  
225  By default, Catch2 uses exceptions to signal errors and to abort tests
226  when an assertion from the `REQUIRE` family of assertions fails. We also
227  provide an experimental support for disabling exceptions. Catch2 should
228  automatically detect when it is compiled with exceptions disabled, but
229  it can be forced to compile without exceptions by defining
230  
231      CATCH_CONFIG_DISABLE_EXCEPTIONS
232  
233  Note that when using Catch2 without exceptions, there are 2 major
234  limitations:
235  
236  1) If there is an error that would normally be signalled by an exception,
237  the exception's message will instead be written to `Catch::cerr` and
238  `std::terminate` will be called.
239  2) If an assertion from the `REQUIRE` family of macros fails,
240  `std::terminate` will be called after the active reporter returns.
241  
242  
243  There is also a customization point for the exact behaviour of what
244  happens instead of exception being thrown. To use it, define
245  
246      CATCH_CONFIG_DISABLE_EXCEPTIONS_CUSTOM_HANDLER
247  
248  and provide a definition for this function:
249  
250  ```cpp
251  namespace Catch {
252      [[noreturn]]
253      void throw_exception(std::exception const&);
254  }
255  ```
256  
257  ## Overriding Catch's debug break (`-b`)
258  
259  > [Introduced](https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/pull/1846) in Catch2 2.11.2.
260  
261  You can override Catch2's break-into-debugger code by defining the
262  `CATCH_BREAK_INTO_DEBUGGER()` macro. This can be used if e.g. Catch2 does
263  not know your platform, or your platform is misdetected.
264  
265  The macro will be used as is, that is, `CATCH_BREAK_INTO_DEBUGGER();`
266  must compile and must break into debugger.
267  
268  
269  ## Static analysis support
270  
271  > Introduced in Catch2 3.4.0.
272  
273  Some parts of Catch2, e.g. `SECTION`s, can be hard for static analysis
274  tools to reason about. Catch2 can change its internals to help static
275  analysis tools reason about the tests.
276  
277  Catch2 automatically detects some static analysis tools (initial
278  implementation checks for clang-tidy and Coverity), but you can override
279  its detection (in either direction) via
280  
281  ```
282  CATCH_CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL_STATIC_ANALYSIS_SUPPORT     // force enables static analysis help
283  CATCH_CONFIG_NO_EXPERIMENTAL_STATIC_ANALYSIS_SUPPORT  // force disables static analysis help
284  ```
285  
286  _As the name suggests, this is currently experimental, and thus we provide
287  no backwards compatibility guarantees._
288  
289  **DO NOT ENABLE THIS FOR BUILDS YOU INTEND TO RUN.** The changed internals
290  are not meant to be runnable, only "scannable".
291  
292  
293  
294  ---
295  
296  [Home](Readme.md#top)