PHPUnit : Fatal error handling

php error-handling phpunit fatal-error
Matthieu Napoli picture Matthieu Napoli · Oct 1, 2010 · Viewed 8.6k times · Source

I use PHPUnit for unit tests, but when a fatal error is triggered, the script dies and I have no correct PHPUnit output.

I'd like that the PHPUnit output stays correctly formated, because it is read by a plugin for Eclipse. Actually the fatal error stops PHPUnit and in Eclipse the plugin can't interpret anything (because the PHPUnit script had an error, instead of handling it).

Thanks

Answer

cweiske picture cweiske · Oct 1, 2010

You need to use PHPUnit's process isolation features - start each test suite in a new process.

phpunit --process-isolation ...

This is the only way to make sure fatal errors don't break your phpunit output.

Execution time

Process isolation multiplies your test run time, because for each single test, a new PHP instance is started, the bootstrap is executed etc.

To amend this situation, you may choose to run full test cases in a separate process (@runTestsInSeparateProcesses), or only single ones that are known to fatal out sometimes (@runInSeparateProcess).

Related questions

How do I get PHP errors to display?

I have checked my PHP ini file (php.ini) and display_errors is set and also error reporting is E_ALL. I have restarted my Apache webserver. I have even put these lines at the top of my script, and …

Read More
Where does PHP store the error log? (php5, apache, fastcgi, cpanel)

I am on shared hosting and have Cpanel, Apache, PHP is run by fastcgi. Where does PHP store the error log? Is there any other way I can find the error log on shared hosting environment instead of having to …

Read More
How can I get useful error messages in PHP?

Quite often I will try and run a PHP script and just get a blank screen back. No error message; just an empty screen. The cause might have been a simple syntax error (wrong bracket, missing semicolon), or a failed …

Read More