[Bug] Re-open dbt unit test does not work without external package

[sangee14]

Is this a new bug in dbt-core?

• I believe this is a new bug in dbt-core
• I have searched the existing issues, and I could not find an existing issue for this bug

Current Behavior

I am trying to implement dbt unit tests without using any of the external package being installed. But the native dbt unit tests does not work and while executing it using the command dbt test --select test_name , it just not picking up the test and executing it. It says, the selection criterion does not match any node.

Expected Behavior

The test should be get picked up and executed successfully against the model using the dbt test command

Steps To Reproduce

# tests/test_properties.yml

unit_tests:
  - name: current_student_view_data
    description: "stores students data"
    model: curr_raw_student_view
    given:
    - input: ref('hub_raw_student')
      rows:
        - {student_users_pk: '83E71047', student_id: '3063542d005f'}
 
    - input: ref('sat_raw_student_details')
      rows:
        - {student_users_pk: '83E71047', student_id: '3063542d005f', email: '[email protected]', first_name: 'Hello1', last_name: 'Guest'}
   
    expect:
      rows:
        - {student_id: '3063542d005f', email: '[email protected]', first_name: 'Hello1', last_name: 'Guest'}

Run: dbt test --select current_student_view_data
Outcome:

root@**********:/usr/app/dbt# dbt test --select current_ajo_view_data
06:54:23  Running with dbt=1.7.3
06:54:24  Registered adapter: snowflake=1.7.1
06:54:34  Found 67 models, 1 snapshot, 5 tests, 87 sources, 0 exposures, 0 metrics, 1017 macros, 0 groups, 0 semantic models
06:54:34  The selection criterion 'current_student_view_data' does not match any nodes
06:54:34
06:54:34  Nothing to do. Try checking your model configs and model specification args

Relevant log output

root@**********:/usr/app/dbt# dbt test --select current_ajo_view_data
06:54:23  Running with dbt=1.7.3
06:54:24  Registered adapter: snowflake=1.7.1
06:54:34  Found 67 models, 1 snapshot, 5 tests, 87 sources, 0 exposures, 0 metrics, 1017 macros, 0 groups, 0 semantic models
06:54:34  The selection criterion 'current_student_view_data' does not match any nodes
06:54:34
06:54:34  Nothing to do. Try checking your model configs and model specification args

Environment

- OS: Windows 10
- Python:
- dbt-core:1.8.9
- dbt-snowflake: 1.8.3

Which database adapter are you using with dbt?

snowflake

Additional Context

No response

[gshank]

--select without specifying what you're selecting, implies "model". You don't have a "current_student_view_data" model. Try using the model name "curr_raw_student_view", or use a selector that specifies the unit test in some way.

[dbeatty10]

@sangee14 Could you move your YAML file containing your unit test(s) from the tests directory into the models directory and try your command again?

More detail

When you execute dbt list, you should get a row like this:

unit_test:my_project.current_student_view_data

But if you don't see that when you run dbt list, it means that dbt isn't picking up your YAML file that has your unit tests. I think that is what is happening here.

After moving it to the models directory, then I think you will get output like this:

$ dbt list                               
00:11:42  Running with dbt=1.8.8

my_project.curr_raw_student_view
unit_test:my_project.current_student_view_data

$ dbt test --select current_student_view_data               
00:12:14  Running with dbt=1.8.8
00:12:14  Found 1 model, 410 macros, 1 unit test
00:12:14  
00:12:14  1 of 1 START unit_test curr_raw_student_view::current_student_view_data ........ [RUN]
00:12:14  1 of 1 PASS curr_raw_student_view::current_student_view_data ................... [PASS in 0.16s]
00:12:15  
00:12:15  Finished running 1 unit test in 0 hours 0 minutes and 0.33 seconds (0.33s).
00:12:15  
00:12:15  Completed successfully
00:12:15  
00:12:15  Done. PASS=1 WARN=0 ERROR=0 SKIP=0 TOTAL=1

Follow-up feature request

I've opened this feature request to allow unit tests to be defined in the tests directory in addition to the models directory: #11093