conan test

$ conan test [-h] [-tbf TEST_BUILD_FOLDER] [-b [BUILD]] [-e ENV]
             [-o OPTIONS] [-pr PROFILE] [-r REMOTE] [-s SETTINGS] [-u]
             path reference

Test a package consuming it from a conanfile.py with a test() method. This command installs the conanfile dependencies (including the tested package), calls a ‘conan build’ to build test apps and finally executes the test() method. The testing recipe does not require name or version, neither definition of package() or package_info() methods. The package to be tested must exist in the local cache or in any configured remote.

positional arguments:
  path                  Path to the "testing" folder containing a conanfile.py
                        or to a recipe file with test() methode.g. conan
                        test_package/conanfile.py pkg/version@user/channel
  reference             pkg/version@user/channel of the package to be tested

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -tbf TEST_BUILD_FOLDER, --test-build-folder TEST_BUILD_FOLDER
                        Working directory of the build process.
  -b [BUILD], --build [BUILD]
                        Optional, use it to choose if you want to build from
                        sources: --build Build all from sources, do not use
                        binary packages. --build=never Never build, use binary
                        packages or fail if a binary package is not found.
                        --build=missing Build from code if a binary package is
                        not found. --build=outdated Build from code if the
                        binary is not built with the current recipe or when
                        missing binary package. --build=[pattern] Build always
                        these packages from source, but never build the
                        others. Allows multiple --build parameters. 'pattern'
                        is a fnmatch file pattern of a package name. Default
                        behavior: If you don't specify anything, it will be
                        similar to '--build=never', but package recipes can
                        override it with their 'build_policy' attribute in the
                        conanfile.py.
  -e ENV, --env ENV     Environment variables that will be set during the
                        package build, -e CXX=/usr/bin/clang++
  -o OPTIONS, --options OPTIONS
                        Define options values, e.g., -o Pkg:with_qt=true
  -pr PROFILE, --profile PROFILE
                        Apply the specified profile to the install command
  -r REMOTE, --remote REMOTE
                        Look in the specified remote server
  -s SETTINGS, --settings SETTINGS
                        Settings to build the package, overwriting the
                        defaults. e.g., -s compiler=gcc
  -u, --update          Check updates exist from upstream remotes

This command is util for testing existing packages, that have been previously built (with conan create, for example). conan create will automatically run this test if a test_package folder is found besides the conanfile.py, or if the --test-folder argument is provided to conan create.

Example:

$ conan new Hello/0.1 -s -t
$ mv test_package test_package2
$ conan create . user/testing
# doesn't automatically run test, it has been renamed
# now run test
$ conan test test_package2 Hello/0.1@user/testing

The test package folder, could be elsewhere, or could be even applied to different versions of the package.