This document describes how to run tests directly from the command line. This document assumes that you already know how to create an Android app and write tests for your app. For more information on how to build tests for your app, see Test apps on Android.
When you build your app using the Gradle build system, the Android Gradle plugin lets you run tests from your Gradle project using the command line. For more fine-grained control, you can choose to run your tests through an Android Debug Bridge (adb) shell. This can be useful when running tests in a continuous integration environment.
To learn how to run automated instrumented tests from the command line using virtual devices that Gradle manages for you, see Scale your tests with Gradle Managed Devices.
Run tests with Gradle
The Android Gradle plugin lets you run tests from your Gradle project using the command line.
The table below summarizes how to run your tests with Gradle:
Unit test type | Command to run | Test result location |
---|---|---|
Local unit test |
Run the test task:
|
HTML test result files:path_to_your_project/module_name/build/reports/tests/
directory.
XML test result files: |
Instrumented unit test |
Run the connectedAndroidTest task:
|
HTML test result files:path_to_your_project/module_name/build/reports/androidTests/connected/
directory.
XML test result files: |
Gradle supports
task name abbreviations.
For example, you can initiate the connectedAndroidTest
task by
entering the following command:
./gradlew cAT
You can also choose to run the Gradle tasks check
and connectedCheck
. These
tasks run your local or instrumented tests, respectively, but
include other checks added by other Gradle plugins.
Run tests on a module
The test
and connectedAndroidTest
tasks run tests on each module in your
project. You can run tests on a specific module by
prefixing the test
or connectedAndroidTest
task with the module name and a
colon (:). For example, the following command runs instrumented tests for just
the mylibrary
module:
./gradlew mylibrary:connectedAndroidTest
Run tests on a build variant
The test
and connectedAndroidTest
tasks run tests on each
build variant in your project. You can target a
specific build variant using the following syntax:
- For local unit tests:
./gradlew testVariantNameUnitTest
- For instrumented tests:
./gradlew connectedVariantNameAndroidTest
Run specific test methods or classes
When running local unit tests, Gradle lets you target specific tests using
the --tests
flag. For example, the following command runs only the
sampleTestMethod
tests for the specified build variant. To learn more about
using the --tests
flag, read Gradle's documentation on
test filtering.
./gradlew testVariantNameUnitTest --tests '*.sampleTestMethod'
Run tests with adb
When you run tests from the command line with Android Debug Bridge (adb), there are more options for choosing the tests to run than with any other method. You can select individual test methods, filter tests according to a custom annotation, or specify testing options. Since the test run is controlled entirely from the command line, you can customize your testing with shell scripts in various ways.
To run a test from the command line, run adb shell
to start a command-line
shell on your device or emulator. Inside that shell you can interact with the
activity manager
using the am
command and use its instrument
subcommand to run your tests.
As a shortcut, you can start an adb shell, call am instrument
, and specify
command-line flags all on one input line. The shell opens on the device or
emulator, runs your tests, produces output, and then returns to the command line
on your computer.
To run a test with am instrument
:
- Build or rebuild your main application and test package.
- Install your test package and main application Android package files (APK files) to your current Android device or emulator.
At the command line, enter:
adb shell am instrument -w <test_package_name>/<runner_class>
Where
<test_package_name>
is the Android package name of your test application, and<runner_class>
is the name of the Android test runner class you are using. The Android package name is the value of the manifest element's package attribute in your test package's manifest file (AndroidManifest.xml
).The Android test runner class is usually
AndroidJUnitRunner
:adb shell am instrument -w com.android.example/androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner
Your test results appear in STDOUT
.
am instrument flags
To find a list of all the flags to use with the am instrument
command,
run adb shell am help
. Some important flags are described in the
following table:
Flag | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
-w
|
(none) |
Forces am instrument to wait until the instrumentation
terminates before terminating itself. This keeps the
shell open until the tests have finished. This flag is required to
see the results of your tests.
|
-r
|
(none) |
Outputs results in raw format. Use this flag when you want to
collect performance measurements so that they are not formatted as
test results. This flag is designed for use with the flag
-e perf true (documented in the
am instrument options) section.
|
-e
|
<test_options>
|
Provides testing options as key-value pairs. The
am instrument tool passes these to the specified
instrumentation class using its
onCreate()
method. You can specify multiple occurrences of
-e <test_options> . The keys and values are
described in the
am instrument options section. You can
only use these key-value pairs with
AndroidJUnitRunner
or with InstrumentationTestRunner
and its subclasses. Using them with any other class has no effect.
|
--no-hidden-api-checks
|
(none) | Disables restrictions on the use of hidden APIs. For more information on what hidden APIs are and how this can affect your app, read Restrictions on non-SDK interfaces. |
am instrument options
The am instrument
tool passes testing options to
AndroidJUnitRunner
or InstrumentationTestRunner
in the form of key-value pairs, using the -e
flag, with this syntax:
-e <key> <value>
Some keys accept multiple values. You specify multiple values in a
comma-separated list. For example, this invocation of
AndroidJUnitRunner
provides multiple values for the package
key:
adb shell am instrument -w -e package com.android.test.package1,com.android.test.package2 \
> com.android.test/androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner
The following table lists the key-value pairs you can use with your test runner:
Key | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
package
|
<Java_package_name>
|
The fully qualified Java package name for one of the packages in the test application. Any test case class that uses this package name is executed. Notice that this is not an Android package name; a test package has a single Android package name but may have several Java packages within it. |
class |
<class_name> |
The fully qualified Java class name for one of the test case classes. Only this test case class is executed. |
<class_name>#method name |
A fully qualified test case class name and one of its methods. Only this method is executed. Note the hash mark (#) between the class name and the method name. | |
func |
true |
Runs all test classes that extend
InstrumentationTestCase .
|
unit |
true |
Runs all test classes that do not extend either
InstrumentationTestCase or
PerformanceTestCase .
|
size |
[small | medium | large ]
|
Runs a test method annotated by size. The annotations are
@SmallTest , @MediumTest , and
@LargeTest .
|
perf |
true |
Runs all test classes that implement
PerformanceTestCase .
When you use this option, specify the -r flag for
am instrument so that the output is kept in raw format
and not reformatted as test results.
|
debug |
true |
Runs tests in debug mode. |
log |
true |
Loads and logs all specified tests but doesn't run them. The test
information appears in STDOUT . Use this to verify
combinations of other filters and test specifications.
|
emma |
true |
Runs an EMMA code coverage analysis and writes the output to
/data/<app_package>/coverage.ec on the device. To
override the file location, use the coverageFile key
that is described in the following entry.
Note: This option requires an EMMA-instrumented
build of the test application, which you can generate with the
|
coverageFile |
<filename> |
Overrides the default location of the EMMA coverage file on the
device. Specify this value as a path and filename in UNIX format.
The default filename is described in the entry for the
emma key.
|
When using the -e
flag, be aware of the following:
am instrument
invokesonCreate(Bundle)
with aBundle
containing the key-value pairs.- The
package
key takes precedence over theclass
key. If you specify a package and then separately specify a class within that package, Android runs all the tests in the package and ignores the class key. - The
func
key andunit
key are mutually exclusive.
Usage examples
The following sections provide examples of using am instrument
to run tests.
They are based on the following structure:
- The test package has the Android package name
com.android.demo.app.tests
. - Two instrumented test classes:
TestClass1
, which contains the test methodtestMethod1
.TestClass2
, which contains test methodstestMethod2
andtestMethod3
.
- The test runner is
AndroidJUnitRunner
.
Run the entire test package
To run all of the test classes in the test package, enter:
adb shell am instrument -w com.android.demo.app.tests/androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner
Run all tests in a test case class
To run all of the tests in the class TestClass1
, enter:
adb shell am instrument -w \
> -e class com.android.demo.app.tests.TestClass1 \
> com.android.demo.app.tests/androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner
Select a subset of tests
To run all of the tests in the TestClass1
class and the testMethod3
method in TestClass2
,
enter:
adb shell am instrument -w \
> -e class com.android.demo.app.tests.TestClass1,com.android.demo.app.tests.TestClass2#testMethod3 \
> com.android.demo.app.tests/androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner
You can find more use cases in the
AndroidJUnitRunner
API reference.