Testing subsurface: Right now to test subsurface you need to have the 'cmake' executable to compile the source code of the tests and run them. 1 - create a folder 'build-tests' on the project root directory 2 - run cmake ( cmake .. ) 3 - compile the software by invocking make 4 - run the tests by invocking make test (optional 5) if the tests are failing, a better way to see what's happening is to run ctest -V , this way the tests will still fail, but more verbosically - easyer to track them down. to create a new test, just implement copy the one provided by example in the tests folder and add the last three lines of the CMakeLists.txt file adapted to your test. To create a new test you can do one of the following (information provided by Tomaz on IRC): 1) Create a new private slot on an already created test class 2) Implement the test there, and compare the expected result with the correct result with QCOMPARE: void testRedCeiling(); testRedCeiling() { load_dive("../dive/testDive.xml"); calculated_ceiling(); QCOMPARE( dive->ceiling->color(), QColor("red")); } 3) Run the test case and see result $ make test If the color is not QColor("red"), when you run the test you will get a failure. Then you run a command to get a more verbose output and see in which part the test fails. $ ctest -V 4) Fix the test case 5) Look at the existing test cases if you run into trouble or need more ideas. E.g. running following command will show the first test cases written for unit conversions: $ git show 019edd065fd1eefd5f705c42bce23255bb5e20ac Also the Qt documentation is good source for more information: http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/qtest.html http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5/qtest.html 6) To create a new test class, copy the last three lines of the CMake, and duplicate it with the new class / file. Each "test" can have N test cases on it (each private slot counts as one test) and is executable. When one runs make, these test cases are compiled and when running "make test" they will be executed. Of course, the test cases can be run manually as well. There are three main test macros that we use, but of course many more are available (check the Qt documentation): QCOMPARE(value, expected) QVERIFY(boolean) QVERIFY2(boolean, "error message on fail") If expecting a test case to fail, use QEXPECT_FAIL("", "This test case fails, as it is not yet fully implemented", Continue); To link libraries, use the following macro: TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(TestCaseName ${QT_LIBRARIES} subsurface_corelib)