Skip to content

JUnit test reports

Introduced in GitLab 11.2. Requires GitLab Runner 11.2 and above.

Overview

It is very common that a CI/CD pipeline contains a test job that will verify your code. If the tests fail, the pipeline fails and users get notified. The person that works on the merge request will have to check the job logs and see where the tests failed so that they can fix them.

You can configure your job to use JUnit test reports, and GitLab will display a report on the merge request so that it's easier and faster to identify the failure without having to check the entire log.

If you don't use Merge Requests but still want to see the JUnit output without searching through job logs, the full JUnit test reports are available in the pipeline detail view.

Use cases

Consider the following workflow:

  1. Your master branch is rock solid, your project is using GitLab CI/CD and your pipelines indicate that there isn't anything broken.
  2. Someone from your team submits a merge request, a test fails and the pipeline gets the known red icon. To investigate more, you have to go through the job logs to figure out the cause of the failed test, which usually contain thousands of lines.
  3. You configure the JUnit test reports and immediately GitLab collects and exposes them in the merge request. No more searching in the job logs.
  4. Your development and debugging workflow becomes easier, faster and efficient.

How it works

First, GitLab Runner uploads all JUnit XML files as artifacts to GitLab. Then, when you visit a merge request, GitLab starts comparing the head and base branch's JUnit test reports, where:

  • The base branch is the target branch (usually master).
  • The head branch is the source branch (the latest pipeline in each merge request).

The reports panel has a summary showing how many tests failed, how many had errors and how many were fixed. If no comparison can be done because data for the base branch is not available, the panel will just show the list of failed tests for head.

There are four types of results:

  1. Newly failed tests: Test cases which passed on base branch and failed on head branch
  2. Newly encountered errors: Test cases which passed on base branch and failed due to a test error on head branch
  3. Existing failures: Test cases which failed on base branch and failed on head branch
  4. Resolved failures: Test cases which failed on base branch and passed on head branch

Each entry in the panel will show the test name and its type from the list above. Clicking on the test name will open a modal window with details of its execution time and the error output.

Test Reports Widget

How to set it up

NOTE: Note: For a list of supported languages on JUnit tests, check the Wikipedia article.

To enable the JUnit reports in merge requests, you need to add artifacts:reports:junit in .gitlab-ci.yml, and specify the path(s) of the generated test reports.

In the following examples, the job in the test stage runs and GitLab collects the JUnit test report from each job. After each job is executed, the XML reports are stored in GitLab as artifacts and their results are shown in the merge request widget.

NOTE: Note: If you also want the ability to browse JUnit output files, include the artifacts:paths keyword. An example of this is shown in the Ruby example below.

Ruby example

Use the following job in .gitlab-ci.yml. This includes the artifacts:paths keyword to provide a link to the JUnit output file.

## Use https://github.com/sj26/rspec_junit_formatter to generate a JUnit report with rspec
ruby:
  stage: test
  script:
    - bundle install
    - bundle exec rspec --format progress --format RspecJunitFormatter --out rspec.xml
  artifacts:
    paths:
      - rspec.xml
    reports:
      junit: rspec.xml

Go example

Use the following job in .gitlab-ci.yml:

## Use https://github.com/jstemmer/go-junit-report to generate a JUnit report with go
golang:
  stage: test
  script:
    - go get -u github.com/jstemmer/go-junit-report
    - go test -v 2>&1 | go-junit-report > report.xml
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: report.xml

Java examples

There are a few tools that can produce JUnit reports in Java.

Gradle

In the following example, gradle is used to generate the test reports. If there are multiple test tasks defined, gradle will generate multiple directories under build/test-results/. In that case, you can leverage glob matching by defining the following path: build/test-results/test/**/TEST-*.xml:

java:
  stage: test
  script:
    - gradle test
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: build/test-results/test/**/TEST-*.xml

Maven

For parsing Surefire and Failsafe test reports, use the following job in .gitlab-ci.yml:

java:
  stage: test
  script:
    - mvn verify
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit:
        - target/surefire-reports/TEST-*.xml
        - target/failsafe-reports/TEST-*.xml

Python example

This example uses pytest with the --junitxml=report.xml flag to format the output for JUnit:

pytest:
  stage: test
  script:
    - pytest --junitxml=report.xml
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: report.xml

C/C++ example

There are a few tools that can produce JUnit reports in C/C++.

GoogleTest

In the following example, gtest is used to generate the test reports. If there are multiple gtest executables created for different architectures (x86, x64 or arm), you will be required to run each test providing a unique filename. The results will then be aggregated together.

cpp:
  stage: test
  script:
    - gtest.exe --gtest_output="xml:report.xml"
  artifacts:
    reports:
      junit: report.xml

.Net example

The JunitXML.TestLogger NuGet package can generate test reports for .Net Framework and .Net Core applications. The following example expects a solution in the root folder of the repository, with one or more project files in sub-folders. One result file is produced per test project, and each file is placed in a new artifacts folder. This example includes optional formatting arguments, which improve the readability of test data in the test widget. A full .Net Core example is available.

## Source code and documentation are here: https://github.com/spekt/junit.testlogger/

Test:
  stage: test
  script:
    - 'dotnet test --test-adapter-path:. --logger:"junit;LogFilePath=..\artifacts\{assembly}-test-result.xml;MethodFormat=Class;FailureBodyFormat=Verbose"'
  artifacts:
    when: always
    paths:
      - ./**/*test-result.xml
    reports:
      junit:
        - ./**/*test-result.xml

Limitations

Currently, the following tools might not work because their XML formats are unsupported in GitLab.

Case Tool Issue
<testcase> does not have classname attribute ESlint, sass-lint https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/issues/50964

Viewing JUnit test reports on GitLab

Introduced in GitLab 12.5.

If JUnit XML files are generated and uploaded as part of a pipeline, these reports can be viewed inside the pipelines details page. The Tests tab on this page will display a list of test suites and cases reported from the XML file.

Test Reports Widget

You can view all the known test suites and click on each of these to see further details, including the cases that makeup the suite. Cases are ordered by status, with failed showing at the top, skipped next and successful cases last.

You can also retrieve the reports via the GitLab API.

Enabling the feature

This feature comes with the :junit_pipeline_view feature flag disabled by default. This feature is disabled due to some performance issues with very large data sets. When the performance is improved, the feature will be enabled by default.

To enable this feature, ask a GitLab administrator with Rails console access to run the following command:

Feature.enable(:junit_pipeline_view)

Viewing JUnit screenshots on GitLab

Introduced in GitLab 13.0.

If JUnit XML files contain an attachment tag, GitLab parses the attachment.

Upload your screenshots as artifacts to GitLab. The attachment tag must contain the absolute path to the screenshots you uploaded.

<testcase time="1.00" name="Test">
  <system-out>[[ATTACHMENT|/absolute/path/to/some/file]]</system-out>
</testcase>

When this issue is complete, the attached file will be visible on the pipeline details page.

Enabling the feature

This feature comes with the :junit_pipeline_screenshots_view feature flag disabled by default.

To enable this feature, ask a GitLab administrator with Rails console access to run the following command:

Feature.enable(:junit_pipeline_screenshots_view)