Go test
go test is the Go command that builds and runs tests for specified packages and can also execute benchmarks and report coverage.
Go in Action, Second Edition
go test -cover is the Go test command mode that runs package tests and reports the percentage of statements they execute.
- How it is used
- Runs package tests with standardized Go tooling and reports statement coverage when invoked with `-cover`.
- How deep it goes
- Explains test discovery, execution, output, selection, and coverage reporting, including a worked coverage-driven bug fix.
- Examples
- Uses a passing logged test and a calculator recovery test that fails despite reaching 100% statement coverage.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it to run or select tests, inspect coverage, and investigate an uncovered calculator behavior.
Learn Go with Pocket-Sized Projects
The Go test framework is the standard framework that discovers, executes, and reports Go package tests.
- How it is used
- Runs package tests during development so changes can be checked against expected output and function results.
- How deep it goes
- Shows the command, output checks, testing.T failures, and parallel execution, but does not show how to detect the suspected race.
- Examples
- Uses a printed greeting, a string-returning greeting function, and parallel writes to one cache index.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it to rerun tests, verify Example output, and see failures reported with testing.T.
Read how Learn Go with Pocket-Sized Projects explains go test →
Go in Practice, Second Edition
go test is a Go command that compiles and runs tests for Go packages.
- How it is used
- Runs package tests to catch regressions, inspect coverage, and measure benchmark performance.
- How deep it goes
- Shows test naming and failure reporting, then gives commands for coverage profiles and benchmark selection without detailing runner internals.
- Examples
- Uses a failing string-reversal test, a coverage run over simple functions, and Bubble Sort benchmarks at several input sizes.
- What you can do after
- Practice/perform package testing, generate a coverage view, and run selected Go benchmarks.
Go by Example
go test is the Go command that builds and runs tests for Go packages.
- How it is used
- Runs, benchmarks, profiles, and manages Go package tests as part of the development workflow.
- How deep it goes
- Explains compilation, result caching, verbose output, and shuffle seeds, but defers detailed benchmark and profiling procedures.
- Examples
- Uses the url package with TestParse and TestURLString, plus cached, verbose, shuffled, and seed-reproduced command output.
- What you can do after
- Operate go test to run, inspect, rerun, shuffle, and reproduce Go package tests from the module directory.
Related concepts
- benchmarkused by · A benchmark is a defined task, dataset, workload, procedure, or reference measure used to assess or compare performance or capability under specified criteria or conditions.
- race conditionmeasures · A race condition is a concurrency defect in which program behavior or results depend on the relative timing or ordering of interacting operations.
- testing packageuses · The testing package is Go’s standard-library package for defining, running, and reporting automated tests and benchmarks.
- code coveragemeasures · Code coverage measures the extent to which a test suite exercises a program’s code elements, execution paths, or behaviors.
- regular expressionuses · A formal pattern notation that describes sets of strings and enables text to be matched, searched, extracted, or transformed.
- testuses · A test is a procedure or check that evaluates behavior using specified inputs or evidence against expected results or criteria.
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