NUnit runner overview

The NUnit runner is a lightweight and portable alternative to VSTest for running tests in all contexts (for example, continuous integration (CI) pipelines, CLI, Visual Studio Test Explorer, and VS Code Text Explorer). The NUnit runner is embedded directly in your NUnit test projects, and there are no other app dependencies, such as vstest.console or dotnet test, needed to run your tests.

The NUnit runner is open source, and builds on a Microsoft.Testing.Platform library. You can find Microsoft.Testing.Platform code in microsoft/testfx GitHub repository. The NUnit runner comes bundled with NUnit 5.0.0-beta.2 or newer.

Enable NUnit runner in a NUnit project

You can enable NUnit runner by adding the EnableNUnitRunner property and setting OutputType to Exe in your project file. You also need to ensure that you're using NUnit 5.0.0-beta.2 or newer.

Consider the following example project file:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <!-- Enable the NUnit runner, this is an opt-in feature -->
    <EnableNUnitRunner>true</EnableNUnitRunner>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>

    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>

    <IsPackable>false</IsPackable>
    <IsTestProject>true</IsTestProject>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk" Version="17.9.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="NUnit" Version="4.1.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="NUnit.Analyzers" Version="4.2.0">
      <IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>
      <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
    </PackageReference>
    <PackageReference Include="NUnit3TestAdapter" Version="5.0.0-beta.2" />

    <!--
      Coverlet collector isn't compatible with NUnit runner, you can
      either switch to Microsoft CodeCoverage (as shown below),
      or switch to be using coverlet global tool
      https://github.com/coverlet-coverage/coverlet#net-global-tool-guide-suffers-from-possible-known-issue
    -->
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Testing.Extensions.CodeCoverage"
                      Version="17.10.1" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Configurations and filters

.runsettings

The NUnit runner supports the runsettings through the command-line option --settings. The following commands show examples.

Using dotnet run:

dotnet run --project Contoso.MyTests -- --settings config.runsettings

Using dotnet exec:

dotnet exec Contoso.MyTests.dll --settings config.runsettings

-or-

dotnet Contoso.MyTests.dll --settings config.runsettings

Using the executable:

Contoso.MyTests.exe --settings config.runsettings

Tests filter

You can provide the tests filter seamlessly using the command line option --filter. The following commands show some examples.

Using dotnet run:

dotnet run --project Contoso.MyTests -- --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1|TestCategory=CategoryA"

Using dotnet exec:

dotnet exec Contoso.MyTests.dll --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1|TestCategory=CategoryA"

-or-

dotnet Contoso.MyTests.dll --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1|TestCategory=CategoryA"

Using the executable:

Contoso.MyTests.exe --filter "FullyQualifiedName~UnitTest1|TestCategory=CategoryA"