KmTest

Kernel-mode C++ unit testing framework in BDD-style

• Introduction
  • Features
  • Requirements
• Usage
  • Creating a test project
  • Main function
  • Writing tests
    • BDD-style test
    • Traditional test
    • Require clauses
  • Running tests
    • Test output
• Samples
• License
• Acknowledgment
• Version history

Introduction

There is a lack of unit testing frameworks that work in OS kernel. This library closes that gap and is targeted for Windows driver developers.

Features

• designed for testing kernel-mode code
• can run in user mode (for testing mode-independent code)
• header-only
• easy to use
• BDD-style approach for writing unit tests (as well as a traditional one)
• code sharing between steps in scenario

Requirements

• Windows XP and higher
• Visual Studio 2010 and higher

Usage

Creating a test project

Create an empty driver project and do the following:

• add a path to kmtest/inlcude into the project include paths
• add #include <kmtest/kmtest.h> into your new cpp/h files (if you have precompiled headers it is a good place to add this include there)

This is a sample precompiled header:

#pragma once
#include <ntddk.h>
#include <kmtest/kmtest.h>

Main function

DriverEntry or main is automatically created by the library, so you don't need to write it.

A driver object and a registry path can be accessed via kmtest::g_driverObject and kmtest::g_registryPath.

Writing tests

You can write tests cases in 2 styles:

• BDD-style (using GIVEN-WHEN-THEN clauses)
• traditional

BDD-style test

BDD-style tests requires more efforts in writing but they are superior in maintaining than traditional tests. The basic test structure is shown below (for more advanced usage read about code sharing):

SCENARIO("Addition operation")
{
    GIVEN("x = 2")
    {
        int x = 2;

        WHEN("y = 3")
        {
            int y = 3;

            THEN("the sum will be 5")
            {
                REQUIRE(Calculator::add(x, y) == 5);
            }
        }
    }
}

Where:

• SCENARIO,GIVEN,WHEN,THEN are used to describe the test
• REQUIRE is used for assertions (can be placed in any block)

Code sharing

A great feature of BDD-style tests is that a SCENARIO can have several GIVEN clauses, a GIVEN can have several WHEN clauses, a WHEN can have several THEN clauses. KmTest framework will run all combinations as independed test cases. The sample below will produce 2 test cases (2+3=5 and 2+0=2):

SCENARIO("Addition operation")
{
    GIVEN("x = 2")
    {
        int x = 2;

        WHEN("y = 3")
        {
            int y = 3;

            THEN("the sum will be 5")
            {
                REQUIRE(Calculator::add(x, y) == 5);
            }
        }

        WHEN("y = 0")
        {
            int y = 0;

            THEN("the sum will be 2")
            {
                REQUIRE(Calculator::add(x, y) == 2);
            }
        }
    }
}    

That's not all. Setup/cleanup code can be shared as well. It is demonstrated by the following example:

SCENARIO("Addition operation")
{
    // <== Here you can write a shared setup code for SCENARIO.

    GIVEN("x = 2")
    {
        int x = 2; // <== Here you can write a shared setup code for GIVEN.

        WHEN("y = 3")
        {
            int y = 3; // <== Here you can write a shared setup code for WHEN.

            THEN("the sum will be 5")
            {
                REQUIRE(Calculator::add(x, y) == 5);
            }

            // <== Here you can write a shared cleanup code for WHEN.
        }

        // <== Here you can write a shared cleanup code for GIVEN.
    }

    // <== Here you can write a shared cleanup code for SCENARIO.
}

Traditional test

A traditional test is shown below and is represented by a BDD-style test without GIVEN-WHEN-THEN clauses:

// A minimal scenario for those who do not want to write GIVEN-WHEN-THEN clauses.
SCENARIO("Multiplication operation")
{
    REQUIRE(6 == Calculator::mul(2, 3));
    REQUIRE(-30 == Calculator::mul(-10, 3));
    REQUIRE(6 == Calculator::mul(-2, -3));
    REQUIRE(0 == Calculator::mul(0, 3));
}

Where:

• SCENARIO is used to describe the test
• REQUIRE is used for assertions

Require clauses

Requires clauses are used for assertions. There are several of them:

Clause	Expression return type	Expression expected value
REQUIRE(expression)	bool	true
REQUIRE_NT_SUCCESS(expression)	NTSTATUS	NT_SUCCESS(status)
REQUIRE_NT_FAILURE(expression)	NTSTATUS	!NT_SUCCESS(status)

Running tests

Running KmTest based tests means starting a driver. It is highly recommended to do this inside a virtual machine. Any assertion failure will trigger a kernel debugger breakpoint or a BSOD if there is no debugger.

Refer to samples/CalcTest/CalcTest.cmd for how to start a driver from the command line.

Test output

KmTest writes messages to the debug output. It can be viewed by WinDbg, DbgView or similar tools. A sample test output is demonstrated below:

**************************************************
* KMTEST BEGIN
**************************************************
--------------------------------------------------
SCENARIO: Addition operation
--------------------------------------------------
GIVEN: x = 2
  WHEN: y = 3
    THEN: the sum will be 5
GIVEN: x = 2
  WHEN: y = 0
    THEN: the sum will be 2
GIVEN: x = 2
  WHEN: y = -2
    THEN: the sum will be 0
GIVEN: x = -2
  WHEN: y = 3
    THEN: the sum will be 1
GIVEN: x = -2
  WHEN: y = -1
    THEN: the sum will be -3
 
ASSERTIONS PASSED: 5
 
--------------------------------------------------
SCENARIO: Multiplication operation
--------------------------------------------------
 
ASSERTIONS PASSED: 4
 
--------------------------------------------------
SCENARIO: Subtraction operation
--------------------------------------------------
GIVEN: x = 8
  WHEN: y = 3
    THEN: the difference will be 5
GIVEN: x = 8
  WHEN: y = 0
    THEN: the difference will be 8
GIVEN: x = 8
  WHEN: y = -2
    THEN: the difference will be 10
GIVEN: x = -3
  WHEN: y = 2
    THEN: the difference will be -5
GIVEN: x = -3
  WHEN: y = -1
    THEN: the difference will be -2
 
ASSERTIONS PASSED: 5
 
**************************************************
* KMTEST END (scenarios: 3, assertions: 14)
**************************************************

Samples

There is a samples folder that demonstrates usage of KmTest unit testing framework. To compile it you need Visual Studio 2015 and WDK10.

License

KmTest is licensed under the MPL version 2.0. You can freely use it in your commercial or opensource software.

Acknowledgment

Thanks to Phil Nash and his Catch C++ test framework for BDD-style inspiration.

Version history

Version 0.9.1 (26 May 2022)

• New: Add ability to run in user space #2
• New: Save DriverEntry arguments #4
• New: Add macro REQUIRE_SUCCESS and REQUIRE_FAILURE #5
• Fix: Cannot convert const char [] to PVOID #6

Version 0.9.0 (18 Jan 2017)

• Initial public release