Running tests

To build and run all tests in a workspace¹, cd into the workspace and run:

cargo nextest run

This will produce output that looks like:

In the output above:

• Tests are marked PASS or FAIL, and the amount of wall-clock time each test takes is listed within square brackets. In the example above, test_list_tests passed and took 0.052 seconds to execute.

• Tests that take more than a specified amount of time are marked SLOW. The timeout is 60 seconds by default, and can be changed through configuration.

• The part of the test in purple is the test binary. A test binary is either:

  • a unit test binary built from tests inline within lib.rs. These test binaries are shown by nextest as just the crate name, without a :: separator inside them.
  • an integration test binary built from tests in the [[test]] section of Cargo.toml (typically tests in the tests directory.) These tests are shown by nextest in the format crate-name::bin-name².

  For more about unit and integration tests, see the documentation for cargo test.

• The part after the test binary is the test name, including the module the test is in. The final part of the test name is highlighted in bold blue text.

cargo nextest run supports all the options that cargo test does. For example, to only execute tests for a package called my-package:

cargo nextest run -p my-package

For a full list of options accepted by cargo nextest run, see cargo nextest run --help.

Filtering tests

To only run tests that match certain names:

cargo nextest run <test-name1> <test-name2>...

This is different from cargo test, where you have to specify a --, for example: cargo test -- <test-name1> <test-name2>....

--skip and --exact

Nextest does not support --skip and --exact directly; instead, it supports more powerful filter expressions which supersede these options.

Here are some examples:

Filtering by build platform

While cross-compiling code, some tests (e.g. proc-macro tests) may need to be run on the host platform. To filter tests based on the build platform they're for, nextest's filter expressions accept the platform() set with values target and host.

For example, to only run tests for the host platform:

cargo nextest run -E 'platform(host)'

Displaying live test output

By default, cargo nextest run will capture test output and only display it on failure. If you do not want to capture test output:

cargo nextest run --no-capture

In this mode, cargo-nextest will run tests serially so that output from different tests isn't interspersed. This is different from cargo test -- --nocapture, which will run tests in parallel.

Options and arguments

Build and run tests

Usage: cargo nextest run [OPTIONS] [FILTERS]... [-- <TEST-BINARY-ARGS>...]

Arguments:
  [FILTERS]...           Test name filter
  [TEST-BINARY-ARGS]...  Emulated cargo test binary arguments (partially supported)

Options:
      --manifest-path <PATH>  Path to Cargo.toml
  -P, --profile <PROFILE>     Nextest profile to use [env: NEXTEST_PROFILE=]
  -v, --verbose               Verbose output [env: NEXTEST_VERBOSE=]
      --color <WHEN>          Produce color output: auto, always, never [env: CARGO_TERM_COLOR=] [default: auto]
  -h, --help                  Print help information (use `--help` for more detail)

Runner options:
      --no-run                  Compile, but don't run tests
  -j, --test-threads <THREADS>  Number of tests to run simultaneously [possible values: integer or "num-cpus"] [default: from profile] [env: NEXTEST_TEST_THREADS=] [aliases: jobs]
      --retries <RETRIES>       Number of retries for failing tests [default: from profile] [env: NEXTEST_RETRIES=]
      --fail-fast               Cancel test run on the first failure
      --no-fail-fast            Run all tests regardless of failure
      --no-capture              Run tests serially and do not capture output

Cargo options:
      --lib                     Test only this package's library unit tests
      --bin <BIN>               Test only the specified binary
      --bins                    Test all binaries
      --example <EXAMPLE>       Test only the specified example
      --examples                Test all examples
      --test <TEST>             Test only the specified test target
      --tests                   Test all targets
      --bench <BENCH>           Test only the specified bench target
      --benches                 Test all benches
      --all-targets             Test all targets
  -p, --package <PACKAGES>      Package to test
      --workspace               Build all packages in the workspace
      --exclude <EXCLUDE>       Exclude packages from the test
      --all                     Alias for workspace (deprecated)
  -r, --release                 Build artifacts in release mode, with optimizations
      --cargo-profile <NAME>    Build artifacts with the specified Cargo profile
      --build-jobs <JOBS>       Number of build jobs to run
  -F, --features <FEATURES>     Space or comma separated list of features to activate
      --all-features            Activate all available features
      --no-default-features     Do not activate the `default` feature
      --target <TRIPLE>         Build for the target triple
      --target-dir <DIR>        Directory for all generated artifacts
      --ignore-rust-version     Ignore `rust-version` specification in packages
      --unit-graph              Output build graph in JSON (unstable)
      --future-incompat-report  Outputs a future incompatibility report at the end of the build
      --frozen                  Require Cargo.lock and cache are up to date
      --locked                  Require Cargo.lock is up to date
      --offline                 Run without accessing the network
      --config <KEY=VALUE>      Override a configuration value
  -Z <FLAG>                     Unstable (nightly-only) flags to Cargo, see 'cargo -Z help' for details

Filter options:
      --run-ignored <WHICH>       Run ignored tests [possible values: default, ignored-only, all]
      --partition <PARTITION>     Test partition, e.g. hash:1/2 or count:2/3
  -E, --filter-expr <EXPRESSION>  Test filter expression (see 
                                  <https://nexte.st/book/filter-expressions>)

Reporter options:
      --failure-output <WHEN>       Output stdout and stderr on failure [env: NEXTEST_FAILURE_OUTPUT=] [possible values: immediate, immediate-final, final, never]
      --success-output <WHEN>       Output stdout and stderr on success [env: NEXTEST_SUCCESS_OUTPUT=] [possible values: immediate, immediate-final, final, never]
      --status-level <LEVEL>        Test statuses to output [env: NEXTEST_STATUS_LEVEL=] [possible values: none, fail, retry, slow, leak, pass, skip, all]
      --final-status-level <LEVEL>  Test statuses to output at the end of the run [env: NEXTEST_FINAL_STATUS_LEVEL=] [possible values: none, fail, flaky, slow, skip, pass, all]
      --hide-progress-bar           Do not display the progress bar [env: NEXTEST_HIDE_PROGRESS_BAR=]

Reuse build options:
      --archive-file <PATH>       Path to nextest archive
      --archive-format <FORMAT>   Archive format [default: auto] [possible values: auto, tar-zst]
      --extract-to <DIR>          Destination directory to extract archive to [default: temporary directory]
      --extract-overwrite         Overwrite files in destination directory while extracting archive
      --persist-extract-tempdir   Persist temporary directory destination is extracted to
      --cargo-metadata <PATH>     Path to cargo metadata JSON
      --workspace-remap <PATH>    Remapping for the workspace root
      --binaries-metadata <PATH>  Path to binaries-metadata JSON
      --target-dir-remap <PATH>   Remapping for the target directory

Config options:
      --config-file <PATH>
          Config file [default: workspace-root/.config/nextest.toml]
      --tool-config-file <TOOL:ABS_PATH>
          Tool-specific config files