How to pass parameters to the dotnet test command while using NUnit or XUnit

If you want to avoid a runsettings file, you can use this workaround. One of the recommended ways of passing parameters, is through environment variables. So in your C# nunit (or xunit) file, you can do something like:

// in mytest.csvar user = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TestUser");var password = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TestPassword");var url = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TestUrl");

If you do not want to definitively set your environment variables, remember you can always set them temporarily for just your session process. One way of doing this, is by creating a simple cmd file

#launchtests.cmdSETLOCALSET TestUser='pete001'SET TestPassword='secret'SET TestUrl='http://testserver.local/login'DOTNET TEST mytest.csproj

And now the fun part. You can parameterize every aspect of this. So you can change it to:

#run wity launchtests.cmd pete001 secret 'http://testserver.local/login'SETLOCALSET TestUser=%1SET TestPassword=%2SET TestUrl=%3DOTNET TEST mytest.csproj

Or if you want to launch the test from an Azure DevOps (fka VSTS or TFS) pipeline, you can simply use the $(...) notation to inline variables, even if they're marked secret and/or come from Azure KeyVault.

#In Azure DevOps, variables not marked as secret are already added to the environmentSET TestPassword=$(TestPassword)dotnet test $(Build.SourcesDirectory)\MyCompany.MyProduct.UITests\MyTest.csproj --configuration $(BuildConfiguration) --collect "Code Coverage" --logger trx --results-directory $(Agent.TempDirectory)

Unfortunately, the only way to pass settings from dotnet test into NUnit is to use a .runsettings file. There's no way for NUnit to create custom command line arguments for the dotnet test tool - although we'd love there to be!

Take a look at the sample .runsettings file here. The specific bit you'll need:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><RunSettings>  <!-- Parameters used by tests at runtime -->  <TestRunParameters>    <Parameter name="webAppUrl" value="http://localhost" />    <Parameter name="webAppUserName" value="Admin" />    <Parameter name="webAppPassword" value="Password" />  </TestRunParameters></RunSettings>

You should just be able to then pass this file into dotnet test with the -s flag.

dotnet test myProj.csproj -s mySettings.runsettings

This documentation suggests that it should now be possible to pass in arguments on the command line, instead of within a runsettings file.

https://github.com/Microsoft/vstest-docs/blob/master/docs/RunSettingsArguments.md

dotnet test -- MSTest.MapInconclusiveToFailed=True MSTest.DeploymentEnabled=False

Note the space after -- .

Edit 1

What worked for me was a combination of adding a runsettings file, and then overriding the param I wanted to, using this syntax:

dotnet test -- TestRunParameters.Parameter(name=\"myParam\", value=\"value\")