Question

I’m new to Xcode (and Macs in general) and am trying to port some of my code base over to run on both OS X and iOS. I have a large set of unit tests written against the Google C++ Testing Framework (Google Test). I successfully compiled the framework and I can run some tests, but I’m unsure how to view the colorized output from within Xcode.

I’m used to hitting “Run” in Visual Studio and immediately seeing a console window (with colors) letting me know at a glance if the tests passed or failed.

I’ve managed to set up a “Run Script” “Build Phase” but that seems to only output to the Log Navigator which obliterates the colors and even the fixed-width output making it very difficult to see at a glance if the tests pass. I also can’t find a way to display the log after running the tests. When I do this nothing appears in the “All Output” window.

I’ve played around with XcodeColors but that doesn’t seem to work with scripts that use the ANSI color codes.

At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if this simply can’t be done within Xcode. That would be ideal, but if it isn’t, is it possible to create a “Run Script” that will run the tests in an independent Terminal window? Colors work fine there.

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Here are links to a tool that colorizes the text in the Log window. It’s free and the source is in github so you can figure out how it works. The first link says that it just uses simple ANSI codes to do the job.

http://deepitpro.com/en/articles/XcodeColors/info
https://github.com/robbiehanson/XcodeColors#readme

To kick off the execution from within Xcode, you will probably need to add a new target to your project. To add a Target, click on your project and then there is an Add Target button on the bottom of the screen. I don’t know exactly what you’re executing but here are my best guesses based on your question:

• MacOSX/Application/Cocoa-AppleScript or Command Line Tool – Create a simple script or program that will execute your units tests.
• MacOSX/Other/External Build System – Allows for execution of an external “make” program with args.

Once you have a way to execute your unit tests, you just need to figure out how to route the output from the unit tests to the Log window. If you can edit the Google Test project and make it use NSLog(), that would seem to be the easiest solution. You could create your own logging method, perform the ANSI colorization, and then send the final text to NSLog().

ADDED: OK. Interesting findings… Read all before starting. Here’s what to do:

Start AppleScript Editor. This is in LaunchPad. Paste the following script into it:

tell application "Terminal"
    activate
    do script "<your commands>" in window 1
end tell

You can repeat the “do script” line as needed. Use this to execute your unit tests. In Script Editor, do Save As…/File Format=Script and save it to a safe location for now like your Documents directory. This will create a file like “UnitTests.scpt”.

Now go to your iOS project. Select the project at the top-left. Select the Build Phases tab top-middle. Click the Add Build Phase button on the bottom right. Here’s the interesting part.

Leave Shell as is (“/bin/sh”). Add one line:

osascript ~/Documents/UnitTests.scpt

That will execute the script after every build.

But here’s the interesting part I found. Click on Build Settings (top-middle). Make sure All is selected (not Basic). Scroll down the list to find Unit Testing. Open Test Host. Hit the + next to Debug. You can also put the above osascript command here. You might be able to execute your unit tests here and if you can, the output will likely show up in the Log! Let me know what happens.