Console Tests

• Introduction
• Success / Failure Expectations
• Input / Output Expectations
• Console Events

Introduction

In addition to simplifying HTTP testing, Laravel provides a simple API for testing your application's custom console commands.

Success / Failure Expectations

To get started, let's explore how to make assertions regarding an Artisan command's exit code. To accomplish this, we will use the artisan method to invoke an Artisan command from our test. Then, we will use the assertExitCode method to assert that the command completed with a given exit code:

test('console command', function () {
    $this->artisan('inspire')->assertExitCode(0);
});

/**
 * Test a console command.
 */
public function test_console_command(): void
{
    $this->artisan('inspire')->assertExitCode(0);
}

You may use the assertNotExitCode method to assert that the command did not exit with a given exit code:

$this->artisan('inspire')->assertNotExitCode(1);

Of course, all terminal commands typically exit with a status code of 0 when they are successful and a non-zero exit code when they are not successful. Therefore, for convenience, you may utilize the assertSuccessful and assertFailed assertions to assert that a given command exited with a successful exit code or not:

$this->artisan('inspire')->assertSuccessful();
 
$this->artisan('inspire')->assertFailed();

Input / Output Expectations

Laravel allows you to easily "mock" user input for your console commands using the expectsQuestion method. In addition, you may specify the exit code and text that you expect to be output by the console command using the assertExitCode and expectsOutput methods. For example, consider the following console command:

Artisan::command('question', function () {
    $name = $this->ask('What is your name?');
 
    $language = $this->choice('Which language do you prefer?', [
        'PHP',
        'Ruby',
        'Python',
    ]);
 
    $this->line('Your name is '.$name.' and you prefer '.$language.'.');
});

You may test this command with the following test:

test('console command', function () {
    $this->artisan('question')
         ->expectsQuestion('What is your name?', 'Taylor Otwell')
         ->expectsQuestion('Which language do you prefer?', 'PHP')
         ->expectsOutput('Your name is Taylor Otwell and you prefer PHP.')
         ->doesntExpectOutput('Your name is Taylor Otwell and you prefer Ruby.')
         ->assertExitCode(0);
});

/**
 * Test a console command.
 */
public function test_console_command(): void
{
    $this->artisan('question')
         ->expectsQuestion('What is your name?', 'Taylor Otwell')
         ->expectsQuestion('Which language do you prefer?', 'PHP')
         ->expectsOutput('Your name is Taylor Otwell and you prefer PHP.')
         ->doesntExpectOutput('Your name is Taylor Otwell and you prefer Ruby.')
         ->assertExitCode(0);
}

If you are utilizing the search or multisearch functions provided by Laravel Prompts, you may use the expectsSearch assertion to mock the user's input, search results, and selection:

test('console command', function () {
    $this->artisan('example')
         ->expectsSearch('What is your name?', search: 'Tay', answers: [
            'Taylor Otwell',
            'Taylor Swift',
            'Darian Taylor'
         ], answer: 'Taylor Otwell')
         ->assertExitCode(0);
});

/**
 * Test a console command.
 */
public function test_console_command(): void
{
    $this->artisan('example')
         ->expectsSearch('What is your name?', search: 'Tay', answers: [
            'Taylor Otwell',
            'Taylor Swift',
            'Darian Taylor'
         ], answer: 'Taylor Otwell')
         ->assertExitCode(0);
}

You may also assert that a console command does not generate any output using the doesntExpectOutput method:

test('console command', function () {
    $this->artisan('example')
         ->doesntExpectOutput()
         ->assertExitCode(0);
});

/**
 * Test a console command.
 */
public function test_console_command(): void
{
    $this->artisan('example')
            ->doesntExpectOutput()
            ->assertExitCode(0);
}

The expectsOutputToContain and doesntExpectOutputToContain methods may be used to make assertions against a portion of the output:

test('console command', function () {
    $this->artisan('example')
         ->expectsOutputToContain('Taylor')
         ->assertExitCode(0);
});

/**
 * Test a console command.
 */
public function test_console_command(): void
{
    $this->artisan('example')
            ->expectsOutputToContain('Taylor')
            ->assertExitCode(0);
}

Confirmation Expectations

When writing a command which expects confirmation in the form of a "yes" or "no" answer, you may utilize the expectsConfirmation method:

$this->artisan('module:import')
    ->expectsConfirmation('Do you really wish to run this command?', 'no')
    ->assertExitCode(1);

Table Expectations

If your command displays a table of information using Artisan's table method, it can be cumbersome to write output expectations for the entire table. Instead, you may use the expectsTable method. This method accepts the table's headers as its first argument and the table's data as its second argument:

$this->artisan('users:all')
    ->expectsTable([
        'ID',
        'Email',
    ], [
        [1, '[email protected]'],
        [2, '[email protected]'],
    ]);

Console Events

By default, the Illuminate\Console\Events\CommandStarting and Illuminate\Console\Events\CommandFinished events are not dispatched while running your application's tests. However, you can enable these events for a given test class by adding the Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithConsoleEvents trait to the class:

<?php
 
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithConsoleEvents;
 
uses(WithConsoleEvents::class);
 
// ...

<?php
 
namespace Tests\Feature;
 
use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\WithConsoleEvents;
use Tests\TestCase;
 
class ConsoleEventTest extends TestCase
{
    use WithConsoleEvents;
 
    // ...
}