I have a todo CLI app with the following structure

tree .
.
|-- cmd
|   `-- todo
|       |-- main.go
|       `-- main_test.go
|-- go.mod
|-- todo.go
|-- todo.json
`-- todo_test.go

In the main.go, I have a function called expand, it expand range string like in the cut command When I call the expand function from main_test.go, I get the following error

cmd/todo/main_test.go:141:12: undefined: expand
FAIL  PACKAGE_URI/todo/cmd/todo [build failed]
FAIL

I tried to change the function visibility, but this doesn’t help either. I replicated the dir structure on a dummy project, and it did work!!

codeberg.org repo

edit: Add repo uri

  • karlhungus@lemmy.ca
    2·
    5 days ago

    Your specific question is answered here: https://www.sobyte.net/post/2023-04/go-test-path-main/.

    Well, here’s the problem! This _testmain.go is the main package of the test executable generated by go test, and it now imports a “main” package, which is not allowed in Go.

    Generally this is easily solved by moving the code you are testing to a package for example pkg/todo.go and pkg/todo_test.go or utility or whatever.

    Finally if you look at that link i sent they recommend not testing main in exactly the way you are testing it. One negative of the way you are testing it is you aren’t really unit testing – every time you run main_test you compile main, this is a little unusual.