# Glue Unit Test Bootstrap > Glue Unit Test Bootstrap - Skill: `vchelaru/glue-unit-test-bootstrap` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vchelaru/glue-unit-test-bootstrap` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vchelaru/glue-unit-test-bootstrap/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: vchelaru (https://skillmd.com/u/vchelaru) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vchelaru/glue-unit-test-bootstrap --- # Glue Unit Test Bootstrap `GlueCommands.Self`/`GlueState.Self` aren't usable out of the box in a plain xunit host — Glue.exe's real startup (`Program.cs`/`MainGlueWindow.cs`) does several one-time registrations first. Any test that drives production code through those statics (not just calling a pure static method directly) needs: ```csharp GlueUnitTests.TestSupport.GlueTestBootstrap.EnsureInitialized(); ``` Call it in the test's constructor. It's idempotent (safe to call every test, cheap after the first call). Skipping it is what produces the NRE chain: DI container not built, legacy `EditorObjects.IoC.Container` locator not registered, `ProjectManager.CodeProjectHelper` null, `FileWatchManager` not initialized. None of this is faked — `GlueTestBootstrap` runs the same production init calls Glue.exe makes, just outside a live WinForms app. See its doc comment at `FRBDK/Glue/Tests/GlueUnitTests/TestSupport/GlueTestBootstrap.cs` for exactly what it registers. `RegisterPluginForTesting` adds a plugin to both `mPluginContainers` *and* `ImportedPlugins`. Those back different dispatch paths: `CallPluginMethod` walks the containers, but every `ReactTo*` event enumerates `ImportedPlugins`. A plugin in only the first answers direct calls and is never notified of anything — which reads as "the plugin ran and chose to do nothing," not as a wiring bug. ## Sibling seams Also process-wide static state a test may need to control alongside the bootstrap: - **`TaskManager.SynchronousMode`** — set `true` to run `TaskManager.Self.Add`/`AddAsync` inline instead of on the background thread. See `GlueUnitTests/Tasks/TaskManagerSynchronousModeTests.cs`. - **`TaskManager.UiThreadMarshaller`** — swap in an inline `IUiThreadMarshaller` to avoid needing a real WinForms message loop for `DoOnUiThread`/`OnUiThread` calls. - **`TestVisualStudioProjectFactory`** (`GlueUnitTests/TestSupport/TestVisualStudioProjectFactory.cs`) — builds a real (not fake) `VisualStudioProject` from a minimal non-SDK `.csproj`, for tests that need `GlueState.CurrentMainProject` to be non-null. - **`ObjectFinder.Self.GlueProject`** — assign a `GlueProjectSave` for anything reaching `ObjectFinder` lookups (`GetEntitySaveUnqualified`, `GetAllReferencedFiles`). - **`GlueState.Self.Current*` setters work headless.** Selection is by model object, so `CurrentNamedObjectSave = nos` takes effect as long as `nos` is in `ObjectFinder.Self.GlueProject` (an object in no element reads as nothing selected). It really dispatches `ReactToItemsSelected` to registered plugins: set `PluginManager.HandleExceptions = false` in such a test, or a throwing handler is swallowed and the plugin silently disabled for the rest of the run. A plugin that builds its WPF view on selection must gate the view on `GlueGui.ShowGui` (off in the bootstrap); see `MainCollisionPlugin.TryHandleSelectedCollidable`. Every one of these is process-wide, which is why the whole assembly runs non-parallel — see `GlueUnitTests/AssemblyInfo.cs`. So cross-class interleaving isn't a hazard, but leakage still is: a test which assigns one of these must restore it (`IDisposable`/`try-finally`), or it silently changes the setup of whatever runs next. The failure mode is a test that passes under `--filter` and fails in the full run. ## Loading a whole real project (gold projects) `GoldProject`/`GoldProjectCompileTests` (`GlueUnitTests/TestSupport`, `GlueUnitTests/Projects`) drive a checked-in sample through the real `ProjectLoader.LoadProject`, regenerate, and build. That is the only way to cover generators that ask *another* plugin something at generation time. Needs `GlueTestBootstrap.EnsureGameProjectPluginsRegistered()` and `[StaFact]`. Two non-obvious requirements: - **Delete `*.Generated.cs` first.** Glue doesn't rewrite a file whose content is unchanged, so otherwise "codegen produced this" and "codegen never ran" are indistinguishable. - **`*.Generated.cs` is gitignored repo-wide**, and the samples are checked in without it. A clean `git diff` after regenerating proves nothing, and no sample builds until Glue regenerates it. Assert nothing about these files *existing beforehand* — your working copy has them from earlier runs and a fresh CI clone does not. Before pushing, `find Samples -name "*.Generated.cs" -delete` and re-run, or CI is the first thing to see the real starting state. ## Landmine — a WinForms sync context plus SynchronousMode deadlocks the run with no timeout WinForms installs a `WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext` on a thread the moment the first control is created there — `FakeMainGlueWindow`'s `PropertyGrid`, a `MenuStrip`, a plugin toolbar. Continuations then post back to it and only run while a message loop pumps, which no test host does. Combined with `TaskManager.SynchronousMode` (whose `RunSynchronously` blocks the caller on the awaited task), the first plugin that awaits during a load hangs forever: one blocked thread, no child process, nothing executing, and no timeout anywhere. `GlueTestBootstrap` sets `WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext.AutoInstall = false`; don't undo it, and don't diagnose this shape as a slow build. A stack dump (`dotnet-stack report -p `, real Windows PID) showing exactly one blocked thread and nothing else running is the signature. ## Landmine — do NOT give `PluginManager` a `MenuStrip` `GlueGui.Initialize(menuStrip)` is needed (`PluginBase.AddMenuItemTo` reads `GlueGui.MenuStrip.Items`). `PluginManager.ShareMenuStripReference` is the opposite: `PluginCommand` marshals every plugin call through `mMenuStrip.Invoke` whenever `mMenuStrip` is non-null, so with no message loop the calls silently never run and `CallPluginMethod` returns null. Leaving PluginManager's null keeps its "no live menu strip means run inline" guard doing the right thing. ## Landmine — code generation swallows its own exceptions `GenerateAllCodeSync` calls the `async Task CodeWriter.GenerateCode` **without awaiting it**, so an exception during one element's generation is captured into a discarded Task and lost. The symptom is an empty `.Generated.cs` (the placeholder from `CreateGeneratedFileIfNecessary`) for that one element, no error anywhere, and every later step for it — its factory, its project entry — silently skipped. To see the real exception, `await CodeWriter.GenerateCode(element)` directly. `ErrorRecordingPlugin` subscribes to Glue's error *and* output channels so a partial regeneration fails a test rather than passing quietly. ## Landmine — `MSBUILD_EXE_PATH` must be set before the *first* MSBuild evaluation in the process `Microsoft.Build` caches its toolset on first use, so setting the variable later has no effect. A test that evaluates a bare non-SDK project first (`TestVisualStudioProjectFactory`) fixes the toolset for the whole run, and a later real-project load then fails with `The SDK 'Microsoft.NET.SDK.WorkloadAutoImportPropsLocator' specified could not be found` — while passing when run alone. Call `GlueTestBootstrap.EnsureMsBuildEnvironmentVariable()` before anything touches MSBuild. ## Landmine — calling a real plugin method for the first time can pop a real dialog on the developer's desktop `IMainGlueWindow`/`IUiThreadMarshaller` only cover calls that were already routed through `MainGlueWindow.Self`/`TaskManager`. A plugin method you're calling directly for the first time (bypassing `PluginManager.CallPluginMethod`'s silent no-op to get real coverage — see `REFACTORING.md`'s Collision/Gum entries) may still contain its own unseamed `MessageBox.Show(...)` on some branch (e.g. an "already exists, overwrite?" check). That call blocks the test thread on a real, visible modal dialog on the *developer's actual desktop* — not something `GlueTestBootstrap` catches, and not obvious from reading the test in isolation. Before exercising a plugin method's real logic for the first time: skim it (and what it calls) for `MessageBox.Show`/similar dialog calls, and design the test to never take that branch (fresh unique temp directory per test, `askToOverwrite`/equivalent flags set to avoid the prompt, call the method at most once per test run rather than twice to probe an idempotency branch). If you ever see an unexpected pause or the user reports a popup, stop immediately, confirm no process is still blocked waiting on it, and fix the test to avoid the branch rather than building a dialog seam just to unblock one test. ## Landmine — a warm `obj`/`bin` can report a stale test as green, or a real compile error as passing `dotnet test` after an edit does an *incremental* build: MSBuild decides per-file whether to recompile, and in practice a `git stash`/`git rebase`/repeated edit-and-rerun cycle can leave it not recompiling a file you just changed — the run reports the *previous* binary's result, not the current source's. This produced a green "317/317" locally on issue #2016's PR while the actual pushed source had two `CS0103` compile errors (missing `using`s) that only CI's from-scratch build caught, plus masked a real regression (a broadened `FakeFindManager` behavior that broke two unrelated tests) for the same reason. Before reporting "full suite green" as a claim someone will act on (a PR description, a "tests pass" verdict, this file), rebuild from scratch at least once: `rm -rf FRBDK/Glue/Tests/GlueUnitTests/obj FRBDK/Glue/Tests/GlueUnitTests/bin` then `dotnet test` without `--no-build`. `--no-build`/`--no-restore` reruns are fine for fast iteration *between* clean checkpoints, not as the last thing before trusting the result. ## Landmine — `dotnet test` on the bare csproj fails with `MSB3073`/`*Undefined*` paths Running `dotnet test FRBDK/Glue/Tests/GlueUnitTests/GlueUnitTests.csproj` directly fails building `OfficialPlugins.csproj`'s `PostBuild` target: it copies its output using `$(SolutionDir)Glue\bin\Debug\Plugins\...`, and `SolutionDir` is a solution-scoped MSBuild property that's simply undefined when you build/test a project file directly (no `.sln` in the invocation) — same failure would hit any of the plugin projects with a similar post-build copy step, not just OfficialPlugins. Fix: pass `SolutionDir` explicitly, pointed at `FRBDK/Glue/` (the directory containing `Glue with All.sln`, since the copy path is `$(SolutionDir)Glue\...`), with a trailing backslash: ``` dotnet test FRBDK/Glue/Tests/GlueUnitTests/GlueUnitTests.csproj -p:SolutionDir="\FRBDK\Glue\\" ``` ## What a healthy run costs — anything far past this is a hang, not slowness Rough orders of magnitude on a warm dev machine, so "is it stuck or just slow?" is answerable without guessing. All with `--no-build` after a successful build: | Run | Tests | On a CI runner | | --- | --- | --- | | Warm incremental build of `GlueUnitTests.csproj` | | ~40s (a real build is most of a full run's wall clock) | | `--filter "Category!=BuildSmoke&Category!=LiveGame"` | 827 | ~100s | | `--filter "Category=LiveGame"` | 17 | ~210s | | `--filter "Category=BuildSmoke"` | 69 | ~570s | BuildSmoke is slow by nature - every test copies a sample project to a temp directory and loads it through a real headless editor, and `AssemblyInfo.cs` disables parallelization assembly-wide because Glue's singletons are shared. A dev machine beats these numbers, so treat them as the ceiling rather than a target. Wall clock alone will not tell you a run is wedged. The signature is the child `dotnet build` having already exited while `testhost` is still alive - that is the pipe hang below, not work in progress. ## Landmine — every nested `dotnet` call must go through `NestedDotnetCli` BuildSmoke tests shell out to real `dotnet build`/`dotnet run`. The obvious way to write that — redirect both streams, `StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()`, `WaitForExit()` — hangs for 10–15 minutes instead of failing, because `dotnet build` starts MSBuild worker nodes with `/nodeReuse:true` that outlive it while holding the inherited stdout pipe open, so `ReadToEnd()` never sees EOF. It is intermittent by nature: only the run that *starts* the nodes inherits the handles, so the same test hangs once and passes on an immediate retry. `GlueUnitTests/TestSupport/NestedDotnetCli.cs` is the only sanctioned way to spawn one — it disables the persistent build servers, pumps both streams concurrently, and kills the entire child tree on timeout. `NestedDotnetCliTests` fails the build if a redirected `Process.Start` reappears anywhere in the assembly. See GitHub issue #1969. A timeout passed to `Run` covers cold start too — the CLI, MSBuild evaluation and any process the build itself spawns can eat tens of seconds on a CI runner before the command does the thing being measured. A budget sized against a warm dev machine is therefore mostly startup on a cold one, and expires before the test's premise is even true. When the budget is meant to bound something *after* that warm-up, pass a `StartupGate` (see `NestedDotnetCli.Run`): it waits untimed until the gate opens and only then starts the clock. See GitHub issue #1992. ## Landmine — Shouldly's string `ShouldContain` ignores case `someString.ShouldContain("Expected")` passes against `"expected"`; Shouldly defaults string containment to `Case.Insensitive`. A test asserting that a path or generated line keeps its capitalization must pass `Case.Sensitive`, or it stays green while the code lower-cases. ## Standing rule — clear stragglers after an *interrupted* run A `dotnet test`/`dotnet build` that is cancelled or killed mid-flight leaves its tree (`dotnet`, MSBuild nodes, `VBCSCompiler`, `testhost`) behind; a run that completes normally now cleans up after itself. So this is a response to an interruption, not a ritual before every command: ```powershell Get-Process testhost,vstest.console,MSBuild,VBCSCompiler -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force ``` Never end a turn (report status, stop) while a `dotnet test`/`dotnet build` is still running detached in the background — wait for it synchronously, or explicitly confirm it finished/kill it first. A background run left alive across a stop/resume cycle is how the count climbs into the dozens over a long session. ## Landmine — an orphaned `testhost` locks the output DLLs, and the next run looks like a hang A cancelled or timed-out `dotnet test` can leave `testhost.exe` alive holding `GlueUnitTests/bin/.../*.dll` open. The next run then can't copy dependencies into `bin`, and fails with `MSB3021`/`MSB3027` naming the holder (`The file is locked by: "testhost (PID)"`). The trap is that the *build* stalls through its 10 retries × 1s per file while producing no test output — piped through a `grep`, that buffers to nothing and reads as a hung test suite rather than a locked file. Before diagnosing a slow or silent run as a test problem, clear the holders: ```powershell Get-Process testhost,vstest.console,MSBuild -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force ``` Then re-run with `--no-build` when nothing was recompiled since the last successful build — it skips the copy step the lock blocks, and the full non-BuildSmoke suite finishes in seconds. ## Landmine — a broad `FullyQualifiedName~` filter silently sweeps in `Category=BuildSmoke` tests and thrashes the machine `GumRuntimeMemberContractTests`, `GumGeneratedCodeCompilesTests`, and the `*CreationSmokeTests` classes are tagged `[Trait("Category", "BuildSmoke")]` because they shell out to real `dotnet build`/`dotnet test` child processes (building the whole engine or a scaffolded project) instead of just exercising codegen in-memory. `pr-tests.yml` deliberately runs them as their own step, `Category=LiveGame` as another, and everything else with `--filter "Category!=BuildSmoke&Category!=LiveGame"`. `Category=LiveGame` behaves the same way and costs more: each of those tests builds and launches a real game process (see [glue-live-game-testing](../glue-live-game-testing/SKILL.md)). A filter like `--filter "FullyQualifiedName~GumPlugin"` does not know about that split — it matches BuildSmoke tests in the same namespace right along with the fast ones. Run several of those together and each spawns its own nested `dotnet`/`testhost`/`VBCSCompiler` tree; a handful of them running serially is enough to make the machine crawl and a run that should take seconds look hung for many minutes. Always AND in `Category!=BuildSmoke&Category!=LiveGame` unless you specifically intend to run one of the slow suites: ``` dotnet test FRBDK/Glue/Tests/GlueUnitTests/GlueUnitTests.csproj -p:SolutionDir="\FRBDK\Glue\\" --filter "FullyQualifiedName~GumPlugin&Category!=BuildSmoke&Category!=LiveGame" ``` ## Deep dive For the full story of why each seam was needed and what's still NRE-prone (e.g. `AvailableAssetTypes.CommonAtis` requiring real `PluginManager` plugin loading), see `REFACTORING.md`'s "Unblock WizardProjectLogic AddGameScreen testing" and "Wizard apply-engine test seams" entries.