How do you print in a Go test using the "testing" package? - testing

Question

I'm running a test in Go with a statement to print something (i.e. for debugging of tests) but it's not printing anything.
func TestPrintSomething(t *testing.T) {
fmt.Println("Say hi")
}
When I run go test on this file, this is the output:
ok command-line-arguments 0.004s
The only way to really get it to print, as far as I know, is to print it via t.Error(), like so:
func TestPrintSomethingAgain(t *testing.T) {
t.Error("Say hi")
}
Which outputs this:
Say hi
--- FAIL: TestPrintSomethingAgain (0.00 seconds)
foo_test.go:35: Say hi
FAIL
FAIL command-line-arguments 0.003s
gom: exit status 1
I've Googled and looked through the manual but didn't find anything.

Answer 1

The structs testing.T and testing.B both have a .Log and .Logf method that sound to be what you are looking for. .Log and .Logf are similar to fmt.Print and fmt.Printf respectively.
See more details here: http://golang.org/pkg/testing/#pkg-index
fmt.X print statements do work inside tests, but you will find their output is probably not on screen where you expect to find it and, hence, why you should use the logging methods in testing.
If, as in your case, you want to see the logs for tests that are not failing, you have to provide go test the -v flag (v for verbosity). More details on testing flags can be found here: https://golang.org/cmd/go/#hdr-Testing_flags

Answer 2

For example,
package verbose
import (
"fmt"
"testing"
)
func TestPrintSomething(t *testing.T) {
fmt.Println("Say hi")
t.Log("Say bye")
}
go test -v
=== RUN TestPrintSomething
Say hi
--- PASS: TestPrintSomething (0.00 seconds)
v_test.go:10: Say bye
PASS
ok so/v 0.002s
Command go
Description of testing flags
-v
Verbose output: log all tests as they are run. Also print all
text from Log and Logf calls even if the test succeeds.
Package testing
func (*T) Log
func (c *T) Log(args ...interface{})
Log formats its arguments using default formatting, analogous to Println, and records the text in the error log. For tests, the text will be printed only if the test fails or the -test.v flag is set. For benchmarks, the text is always printed to avoid having performance depend on the value of the -test.v flag.

Answer 3

t.Log() will not show up until after the test is complete, so if you're trying to debug a test that is hanging or performing badly it seems you need to use fmt.
Yes: that was the case up to Go 1.13 (August 2019) included.
And that was followed in golang.org issue 24929
Consider the following (silly) automated tests:
func TestFoo(t *testing.T) {
t.Parallel()
for i := 0; i < 15; i++ {
t.Logf("%d", i)
time.Sleep(3 * time.Second)
}
}
func TestBar(t *testing.T) {
t.Parallel()
for i := 0; i < 15; i++ {
t.Logf("%d", i)
time.Sleep(2 * time.Second)
}
}
func TestBaz(t *testing.T) {
t.Parallel()
for i := 0; i < 15; i++ {
t.Logf("%d", i)
time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
}
}
If I run go test -v, I get no log output until all of TestFoo is done, then no output until all of TestBar is done, and again no more output until all of TestBaz is done.
This is fine if the tests are working, but if there is some sort of bug, there are a few cases where buffering log output is problematic:
When iterating locally, I want to be able to make a change, run my tests, see what's happening in the logs immediately to understand what's going on, hit CTRL+C to shut the test down early if necessary, make another change, re-run the tests, and so on.
If TestFoo is slow (e.g., it's an integration test), I get no log output until the very end of the test. This significantly slows down iteration.
If TestFoo has a bug that causes it to hang and never complete, I'd get no log output whatsoever. In these cases, t.Log and t.Logf are of no use at all.
This makes debugging very difficult.
Moreover, not only do I get no log output, but if the test hangs too long, either the Go test timeout kills the test after 10 minutes, or if I increase that timeout, many CI servers will also kill off tests if there is no log output after a certain amount of time (e.g., 10 minutes in CircleCI).
So now my tests are killed and I have nothing in the logs to tell me what happened.
But for (possibly) Go 1.14 (Q1 2020): CL 127120
testing: stream log output in verbose mode
The output now is:
=== RUN TestFoo
=== PAUSE TestFoo
=== RUN TestBar
=== PAUSE TestBar
=== RUN TestBaz
=== PAUSE TestBaz
=== CONT TestFoo
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 0
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 0
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 0
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 1
main_test.go:30: 2
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 1
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 1
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 3
main_test.go:30: 4
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 2
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 5
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 2
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 3
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 6
main_test.go:30: 7
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 4
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 8
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 3
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 9
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 5
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 10
main_test.go:30: 11
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 4
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 6
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 12
main_test.go:30: 13
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 7
=== CONT TestBaz
main_test.go:30: 14
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 5
--- PASS: TestBaz (15.01s)
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 8
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 6
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 9
main_test.go:21: 10
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 7
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 11
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 8
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 12
main_test.go:21: 13
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 9
=== CONT TestBar
main_test.go:21: 14
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 10
--- PASS: TestBar (30.01s)
=== CONT TestFoo
main_test.go:12: 11
main_test.go:12: 12
main_test.go:12: 13
main_test.go:12: 14
--- PASS: TestFoo (45.02s)
PASS
ok command-line-arguments 45.022s
It is indeed in Go 1.14, as Dave Cheney attests in "go test -v streaming output":
In Go 1.14, go test -v will stream t.Log output as it happens, rather than hoarding it til the end of the test run.
Under Go 1.14 the fmt.Println and t.Log lines are interleaved, rather than waiting for the test to complete, demonstrating that test output is streamed when go test -v is used.
Advantage, according to Dave:
This is a great quality of life improvement for integration style tests that often retry for long periods when the test is failing.
Streaming t.Log output will help Gophers debug those test failures without having to wait until the entire test times out to receive their output.

Answer 4

For testing sometimes I do
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stdout, "hello")
Also, you can print to:
fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "hello")

Answer 5

t.Log and t.Logf do print out in your test but can often be missed as it prints on the same line as your test. What I do is Log them in a way that makes them stand out, ie
t.Run("FindIntercomUserAndReturnID should find an intercom user", func(t *testing.T) {
id, err := ic.FindIntercomUserAndReturnID("test3#test.com")
assert.Nil(t, err)
assert.NotNil(t, id)
t.Logf("\n\nid: %v\n\n", *id)
})
which prints it to the terminal as,
=== RUN TestIntercom
=== RUN TestIntercom/FindIntercomUserAndReturnID_should_find_an_intercom_user
TestIntercom/FindIntercomUserAndReturnID_should_find_an_intercom_user: intercom_test.go:34:
id: 5ea8caed05a4862c0d712008
--- PASS: TestIntercom (1.45s)
--- PASS: TestIntercom/FindIntercomUserAndReturnID_should_find_an_intercom_user (1.45s)
PASS
ok github.com/RuNpiXelruN/third-party-delete-service 1.470s

Answer 6

WARNING: The answers here do not apply when testing multiple packages at once.
The answers from #VonC and #voidlogic are fantastic, but I wanted to bring the following thread to attention in case someone is running a permutation of go test -v ./...: https://github.com/golang/go/issues/46959
The issue lies in implementation nuances/difficulties related to running tests from multiple packages.
For example, running go test -v -count=1 -run TestOnlyOneInstanceOfThisTestExists ./multiple/packages/exist/below/... will only print logs after the test completes.
However, running go test -v -count=1 -run TestOnlyOneInstanceOfThisTestExists ./this/path/points/to/one/package/only/... will stream the output as expected.

Answer 7

In case your using testing.M and associated setup/teardown; -v is valid here as well.
package g
import (
"os"
"fmt"
"testing"
)
func TestSomething(t *testing.T) {
t.Skip("later")
}
func setup() {
fmt.Println("setting up")
}
func teardown() {
fmt.Println("tearing down")
}
func TestMain(m *testing.M) {
setup()
result := m.Run()
teardown()
os.Exit(result)
}
$ go test -v g_test.go
setting up
=== RUN TestSomething
g_test.go:10: later
--- SKIP: TestSomething (0.00s)
PASS
tearing down
ok command-line-arguments 0.002s

Answer 8

The *_test.go file is a Go source like the others, you can initialize a new logger every time if you need to dump complex data structure, here an example:
// initZapLog is delegated to initialize a new 'log manager'
func initZapLog() *zap.Logger {
config := zap.NewDevelopmentConfig()
config.EncoderConfig.EncodeLevel = zapcore.CapitalColorLevelEncoder
config.EncoderConfig.TimeKey = "timestamp"
config.EncoderConfig.EncodeTime = zapcore.ISO8601TimeEncoder
logger, _ := config.Build()
return logger
}
Then, every time, in every test:
func TestCreateDB(t *testing.T) {
loggerMgr := initZapLog()
// Make logger avaible everywhere
zap.ReplaceGlobals(loggerMgr)
defer loggerMgr.Sync() // flushes buffer, if any
logger := loggerMgr.Sugar()
logger.Debug("START")
conf := initConf()
/* Your test here
if false {
t.Fail()
}*/
}