Running Tests
There are several ways to run your tests, depending on your needs. The most common way is to use one of the common IDEs,
such as Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code or Rider, or to use dotnet test from the command line. All of these use
different parts of the NUnit ecosystem to run your tests. The Microsoft tools use the NUnit3TestAdapter, whereas
Jetbrains Rider use the NUnit.Engine.
To start using NUnit with these tools, see the Installation section.
Also see the information on the NUnit3TestAdapter for more detailed information on how to use it and configure it.
In addition to these NUnit provides two special runners, the NUnit.Console and the NUnitLite runners, which are described below.
- The Console Runner,
nunit-console.exe, is used for batch execution. - The NUnitLite runner,
nunitlite-runner.exe, is a light weight runner originally used internally in the team, but can be used by anyone who wants to have a simple way of running tests from the command line.
Just for fun, to see how the different runners are being used, we can look at the nuget.org download statistics for
each of the runners, per Oct 2023:
| Runner | Downloads | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| NUnit3TestAdapter | 211.4 million | Used by Visual Studio, VS Code and dotnet test |
| NUnit.Console | 22.5 million | |
| NUnitLite | 4.6 million |
Other runners
The VSTest.Console is also a Microsoft runner, but it is less used now as dotnet test has taken over. It does use
the NUnit3TestAdapter as well.
The Azure Pipelines have some tasks for running tests, like
VSTest, which
also use the NUnit3TestAdapter under the hood.
Some information on the internal working
NUnit.Engine
All runners except NUnitLite use the NUnit.Engine, including Rider. It should not be used alone, as the different runners have different requirements for how the engine is used and which version is being used. See Compatibility of the Test Adapter with the Test Engine for some more detailed information on this.
NUnit Agent
When running tests in a separate process, the console and gui runners make use of the NUnit Agent program, nunit-agent.exe. Although not directly run by users, nunit-agent does load and execute tests and users need to be aware of it, especially when debugging is involved.
Additional Information
For additional general information on how tests are loaded and run, see