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MSTEST0086: Remove redundant test method attribute

Property Value
Rule ID MSTEST0086
Title Remove redundant test method attribute
Category Usage
Fix is breaking or non-breaking Non-breaking
Enabled by default Yes
Default severity Info
Introduced in version 4.5.0
Is there a code fix Yes, for C# only

Cause

A test method declares an MSTest attribute whose effective behavior is already supplied by its containing test class or a base test class.

Rule description

Duplicate attributes make the effective test policy harder to understand and maintain. The rule reports method-level conditions, retry settings, isolation settings, metadata, deployment items, or dependencies only when the class-level configuration already provides equivalent or more restrictive behavior.

The rule covers OSCondition, ArchitectureCondition, CICondition, DoNotParallelize, ResourceLock, Retry, Ignore, TestCategory, TestProperty, DeploymentItem, and DependsOn.

For OSCondition, ArchitectureCondition, CICondition, Retry, Ignore, and DependsOn, the rule reports redundant attributes only on methods declared in sealed test classes. These class-level attributes aren't inherited, so removing a method-level attribute from an unsealed class could change how an inherited test runs in a derived class.

For DoNotParallelize, ResourceLock, TestCategory, TestProperty, and DeploymentItem, the rule also considers attributes on base classes. The rule doesn't report MemberCondition, ExecutableCondition, or custom attributes.

[TestClass, DoNotParallelize]
public class Tests
{
    [TestMethod, DoNotParallelize] // Violation
    public void Test() { }
}

How to fix violations

Remove the redundant method-level attribute. Keep an attribute on the method when it changes or narrows the class-level behavior.

[TestClass, DoNotParallelize]
public class Tests
{
    [TestMethod] public void Test() { }
}

A C# code fix removes the redundant attribute. Visual Basic reports the diagnostic but doesn't provide an automatic fix.

When to suppress warnings

Suppress the rule when the duplicate attribute intentionally documents a local policy and that documentation value outweighs the maintenance cost.

Suppress a warning

#pragma warning disable MSTEST0086
// The code that's violating the rule is on this line.
#pragma warning restore MSTEST0086

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

[*.{cs,vb}]
dotnet_diagnostic.MSTEST0086.severity = none

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

See also

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