For instrumented builds, LCOV HTML reports, and Qt Creator coverage configuration, see Measuring code coverage. For the complete IDE build/run configuration set, see Configure all build variants in Qt Creator. The Coverage configuration uses coverage_report.sh after its instrumented build; the script takes the source and build directories as its two arguments.

Open the repository's root dbc.pro in Qt Creator. It contains core (a static C++17 library) and tests (the dbc_tests QtTest executable). Core is built first; tests link its archive rather than compiling its implementation again. Qt Core and Qt Test development packages are required for tests only. The optional model tests also link QtGui, which is provided by Qt base development packages. The adapter library itself still links only QtCore.

Build from the repository root with the installed Qt 6.8.2:

mkdir build
cd build
qmake6 ../dbc.pro
make -j
make check

Or run ./tests/dbc_tests directly. Parser, decoder, lifetime, validation, and additional coverage suites run, and the executable returns nonzero when any suite fails. Decoder cases appear as individual QtTest data rows; parser checks are grouped into named test slots. Checks also run in release builds.

To build tests separately against an existing core build:

mkdir /tmp/dbc-tests-build
cd /tmp/dbc-tests-build
qmake6 /absolute/path/to/dbc/tests/tests.pro \
  DBC_CORE_BUILD_DIR=/absolute/path/to/build/core
make
make check

parser_tests.pri and decoder_tests.pri include the original test sources; tests.pro also includes dbc_coverage_test.cpp, dbc_lifetime_test.cpp, and dbc_validation_test.cpp. ../core/core.pri supplies the library include path and linkage.

Decoder coverage

Coverage includes Motorola bit numbering within and across bytes, unaligned signals, signed values, scaling, 64-bit extraction, signed/unsigned boundary values (including INT64_MIN, INT64_MAX, and UINT64_MAX), numeric output, invalid lengths, insufficient payloads, and Intel regression cases. Frame validity means the definition was found; frame status reports unknown frames, short payloads, and signal errors. Tests exercise empty/short/exact/long payloads, ignored trailing bytes, signals outside declared DLC, invalid enum metadata and overflowing start bits rejected at construction, and preservation of successful signals on partial payloads. Physical conversion checks cover NaN/Inf parameters rejected at construction, multiplication/addition overflow, finite limits, signed/unsigned raw retention, and raw selector activation after physical conversion failure.

Parser coverage

Structured diagnostic tests cover severity, code, supplied path, and physical line numbers for skipped syntax and immediate/deferred errors; warnings preceding an error are retained, and failed parses return an empty database. Common headers and namespace symbol lists stay quiet. Tests also check file-open errors, fresh parse sessions, and compatibility with the legacy throwing API. The diagnostic audit also covers 15 unsupported-statement variants, all namespace termination forms, CRLF and missing final newlines, relative paths with spaces, first-error stopping, deferred diagnostic ordering, duplicate definitions/values, selector ranges, overlaps, and preservation of supported decoding and metadata. On Linux, reading a directory exercises the distinct FileReadError path.

Parser tests cover standard and extended CAN IDs, whitespace, payload storage boundaries, missing fields, malformed and overflowing numbers, reserved ID bits, error paths and line numbers, and integration with signals and comments. Duplicate definitions are rejected at their source lines, including equivalent extended ID encodings and repeated signal names within a frame. Standard and extended frames may share a numeric ID, and separate frames may reuse signal names. Signal tests cover complete syntax and numeric validation, scientific notation, finite physical parameters and ordered ranges, spaces and tabs, receiver lists, unsupported multiplexing, and Intel/Motorola declared-payload boundaries. Value-description tests cover full VAL_ syntax, whitespace, escaped quotes, empty text, exact integer boundaries, duplicate keys within and across statements, deferred and normalized frame references, missing targets, error locations, raw lookup with scaling, unknown/invalid values, and both database builders. Temporary DBC fixtures are created in the system temporary directory and removed automatically.

Dispatch tests also verify exact keyword matching, handler construction and reuse, unknown statements, and independent parsing sessions, including recovery after errors.

Tree and optional model tests

tree_node_test.cpp is a standalone C++17 executable without Qt; see the root README for its compiler command. It checks parents, sibling positions, null children, bounds, and unique_ptr transfer.

Enable CONFIG+=dbc_qt in the root qmake invocation to build dbc_qt and dbc_model_tests alongside existing tests. Qt 6.8.2 is required. make check runs all suites. Model tests parse a temporary DBC fixture and use QAbstractItemModelTester, verify navigation across columns, invalid/foreign indexes, metadata and exact VAL_ integers, and persistent-index invalidation when reloading or clearing the tree. Their QGuiApplication registers graphical metatypes used by QAbstractItemModelTester, avoiding the invalid QPixmap type warning in Qt 6.8.2. The test executable defaults to QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen when the variable is unset or empty, so no display server is needed. An explicit platform setting is preserved.

Basic multiplexing coverage includes selector declarations after branches, Intel/Motorola branch overlap, signed active values and VAL_ lookup, unconditional signals, inactive branches, missing selector/branch payloads, exact UINT64_MAX selector matching, malformed runtime selectors, source locations, and rejection of invalid markers, selector references/ranges, overlaps, and SG_MUL_VAL_.

Additional regression coverage

dbc_coverage_test.cpp runs as part of dbc_tests. It covers signed boundaries below 64 bits, deterministic extraction comparisons for both byte orders across lengths 1–64, frame lookup failures, exact decode statuses, construction rejection of malformed runtime multiplexing, PGN boundaries, comment handling, file formatting, metadata copying and source lifetime, physical conversion, and TypeFactory registration/creation. Direct resolver tests construct ambiguous databases through the public metadata API, verify source locations, and check that ambiguous targets receive no values.

All QtTest targets use Qt 6.8.2 and QVERIFY_THROWS_EXCEPTION. Exception tests explicitly discard nodiscard results when only the exception is being checked. The standalone tree test requires only a C++17 compiler.

Definition lifetime and reload coverage

dbc_lifetime_test.cpp checks retained definitions and value-description strings across reload, clear, and destruction; independently saved signal results; copied/moved results and database copies; owning lookup handles; and release of the old snapshot after its final owner is removed. Compile-time checks enforce const access to runtime metadata. Reload fixtures change ordering, frame names, scaling, units, and descriptions, remove definitions, and rename signals.

Key tests check equality and hashing, standard/extended separation, the same signal name in different frames, and missing lookups. Constructor tests reject duplicate runtime keys, including manually supplied parsed metadata. Failed reload leaves the active database intact; empty reload clears it. Invalid/unknown results and insufficient payloads retain their documented ownership and status behavior. Inactive branches and unavailable selectors also retain definitions across reload.

Database validation coverage

dbc_validation_test.cpp checks direct construction and manually assembled DbcDatabase input to DbcDecodeBuilder: standard/extended CAN ID limits, encoded/reserved ID bits, duplicate keys, lengths 0/1–64/65/UINT32_MAX, Intel/Motorola payload boundaries and overflowing start bits, invalid enums, NaN and both infinities in every numeric parameter, and reversed physical ranges. Selector tests include missing, duplicate, and signed selectors, branch ranges, UINT64_MAX selection, mixed-order overlaps, and exclusive branches sharing bits. Valid definitions cover the full byte-count storage range, including zero-byte frames without signals and 255-byte frames. Existing extraction tests cover lengths 1–64. Snapshot tests mutate retained frame, signal, and description aliases after rvalue construction, and verify unchanged lookups and metadata. Failed constructor/builder replacement preserves the active snapshot; clear removes its index while saved handles remain alive.