MSTEST0073: Prefer a constant for the '[ResourceLock]' resource key

Property	Value
Rule ID	MSTEST0073
Title	Prefer a constant for the '[ResourceLock]' resource key
Category	Usage
Fix is breaking or non-breaking	Non-breaking
Enabled by default	Yes
Default severity	Info
Introduced in version	4.4.0 (preview)
Is there a code fix	No

Important

ResourceLockAttribute is planned for MSTest 4.4 and is available only in preview builds until MSTest 4.4.0 is released.

Cause

A [ResourceLock] attribute passes its resource key as a bare string literal instead of referencing a shared constant.

Rule description

[ResourceLock] matches tests by exact, case-sensitive string equality of the resource key. A bare string literal fails open: a typo produces a different key, so the conflicting tests are no longer serialized and race silently instead of failing with a build error. Referencing a shared constant, such as a WellKnownResources member or your own const, makes typos a compile error and lets the compiler enforce that every test contending on the same resource uses the same key.

[ResourceLock("database")] // Violation: bare string literal.
[TestMethod]
public void ReadsSharedSchema() { }

How to fix violations

Reference a WellKnownResources member for process-global state, or declare and reference your own const string.

private const string Database = "database";

[ResourceLock(Database)]
[TestMethod]
public void ReadsSharedSchema() { }

When to suppress warnings

It's safe to suppress this warning if you intentionally use a literal resource key and are confident no other test in the assembly needs to coordinate on the same resource.

Suppress a warning

If you just want to suppress a single violation, add preprocessor directives to your source file to disable and then re-enable the rule.

#pragma warning disable MSTEST0073
// The code that's violating the rule is on this line.
#pragma warning restore MSTEST0073

To disable the rule for a file, folder, or project, set its severity to none in the configuration file.

[*.{cs,vb}]
dotnet_diagnostic.MSTEST0073.severity = none

For more information, see How to suppress code analysis warnings.

See also

• ResourceLockAttribute