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MSTEST0080: Use CICondition attribute instead of environment checks

Property Value
Rule ID MSTEST0080
Title Use CICondition attribute instead of environment checks
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 Yes, for C# only

Cause

A test method's first statement null-checks the result of Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CI") and then either returns early or calls Assert.Inconclusive, instead of using the [CICondition] attribute.

Rule description

Test methods that null-check the CI environment variable and then early return or call Assert.Inconclusive should use the [CICondition] attribute instead. The attribute recognizes every continuous integration provider MSTest knows about, and it reports the test as skipped rather than passed, which an early return doesn't.

[TestMethod]
public void TestMethod()
{
    if (Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CI") is null) return; // Violation
}

The analyzer is deliberately limited to the general-use CI variable that every major provider sets. A guard on a provider-specific variable, such as TF_BUILD, means "skip on Azure Pipelines", while [CICondition] means "skip on any CI", so the analyzer doesn't suggest replacing a provider-specific check.

How to fix violations

Replace the environment-variable check with the [CICondition] attribute.

[TestMethod]
[CICondition(ConditionMode.Include)]
public void TestMethod() { }

A C# code fix replaces the guard with the attribute for you. Visual Basic code has this diagnostic but doesn't have an automatic fix; apply the attribute by hand.

When to suppress warnings

You might suppress this warning if your environment check is more complex than a simple first-statement null check, or if you need conditional logic that [CICondition] can't express.

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 MSTEST0080
// The code that's violating the rule is on this line.
#pragma warning restore MSTEST0080

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

[*.{cs,vb}]
dotnet_diagnostic.MSTEST0080.severity = none

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

See also

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