5. The XML Configuration File

The backupGlobals Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

PHPUnit can optionally backup all global and super-global variables before each test and restore this backup after each test.

This attribute configures this operation for all tests. This configuration can be overridden using the BackupGlobals attribute on the test case class and test method level.

The backupStaticProperties Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

PHPUnit can optionally backup all static properties in all declared classes before each test and restore this backup after each test.

This attribute configures this operation for all tests. This configuration can be overridden using the BackupStaticProperties attribute on the test case class and test method level.

The bootstrap Attribute

This attribute configures the bootstrap script that is loaded before the tests are executed. This script usually only registers the autoloader callback that is used to load the code under test.

The cacheDirectory Attribute

This attribute configures the directory in which PHPUnit stores data between test suite runs. The following data is stored in this directory:

• test-results: Results of the previous test suite run (used for reordering tests based on previous defects or duration, for instance; see below)

• code-coverage: Results of static analysis of tested code and test code (only written when code coverage reporting is requested; significantly improves performance of code coverage analysis on subsequent runs)

The cacheResult Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: true)

This attribute configures the storing of test results in the test-results cache file. This is required for ordering tests by defects or duration with the executionOrder attribute (see The executionOrder Attribute).

Use --do-not-cache-result on the command line or set this attribute to false to prevent the writing of the test-results cache file.

The colors Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether colors are used in PHPUnit’s output.

Setting this attribute to true is equivalent to using the --colors=auto CLI option.

Setting this attribute to false is equivalent to using the --colors=never CLI option.

The columns Attribute

Possible values: integer or string max (default: 80)

This attribute configures the number of columns to use for progress output.

If max is defined as value, the number of columns will be maximum of the current terminal.

The controlGarbageCollector Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

When the PHP runtime automatically performs garbage collection then this may happen in the middle of the preparation (fixture setup) of a test or in the middle of the execution of a test. This can have a negative impact on test execution performance.

Configuring controlGarbageCollector="true" has the following effects:

• Deactivate automatic garbage collection using gc_disable() before the first test is run

• Trigger garbage collection using gc_collect_cycles() before the first test is run

• Trigger garbage collection using gc_collect_cycles() after each n-th test

• Trigger garbage collection after using gc_collect_cycles() after the last test was run

• Activate automatic garbage collection using gc_enable() after the last test was run

The number of tests to execute before garbage collection is triggered is controlled by numberOfTestsBeforeGarbageCollection (see below).

The numberOfTestsBeforeGarbageCollection Attribute

Possible values: integer (default: 100)

Configures the number of tests to execute before garbage collection is triggered (see above).

The requireCoverageMetadata Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether a test will be marked as risky (see Unintentionally Covered Code) when it does not indicate the code it intends to cover using an attribute.

The processIsolation Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether each test should be run in a separate PHP process for increased isolation.

The stopOnDefect Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after the first error, failure, warning, or risky test.

The stopOnError Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after the first error.

The stopOnFailure Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after the first failure.

The stopOnWarning Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after the first test warning.

The stopOnRisky Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after the first risky test.

The stopOnDeprecation Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after first test that triggered a deprecation (E_DEPRECATED, E_USER_DEPRECATED, or PHPUnit deprecation).

The stopOnNotice Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after first test that triggered a notice (E_STRICT, E_NOTICE, or E_USER_NOTICE).

The stopOnSkipped Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after first skipped test.

The stopOnIncomplete Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the test suite execution should be stopped after first incomplete test.

The failOnAllIssues Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when an issue is triggered.

The failOnEmptyTestSuite Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when the configured test suite is empty.

The failOnWarning Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when all tests are successful but there are tests that had warnings.

The failOnRisky Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when all tests are successful but there are tests that were marked as risky.

The failOnDeprecation Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when all tests are successful but there are tests that triggered a deprecation (E_DEPRECATED or E_USER_DEPRECATED).

The failOnPhpunitDeprecation Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when all tests are successful but PHPUnit deprecations were triggered.

The failOnNotice Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when all tests are successful but there are tests that triggered a notice (E_STRICT, E_NOTICE, or E_USER_NOTICE).

The failOnSkipped Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when all tests are successful but there are tests that were marked as skipped.

The failOnIncomplete Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the PHPUnit test runner should exit with a shell exit code that indicates failure when all tests are successful but there are tests that were marked as incomplete.

The beStrictAboutChangesToGlobalState Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether PHPUnit should mark a test as risky when global state is manipulated by the code under test (or the test code).

The beStrictAboutOutputDuringTests Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether PHPUnit should mark a test as risky when the code under test (or the test code) prints output.

The beStrictAboutTestsThatDoNotTestAnything Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: true)

This attribute configures whether PHPUnit should mark a test as risky when no assertions are performed (expectations are also considered).

The beStrictAboutCoverageMetadata Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether PHPUnit should mark a test as risky when it executes code that is not specified to be covered or used using an attribute.

The enforceTimeLimit Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether time limits should be enforced.

The defaultTimeLimit Attribute

Possible values: integer (default: 0)

This attribute configures the default time limit (in seconds).

The timeoutForSmallTests Attribute

Possible values: integer (default: 1)

This attribute configures the time limit for tests attributed with Small (in seconds).

The timeoutForMediumTests Attribute

Possible values: integer (default: 10)

This attribute configures the time limit for tests attributed with Medium (in seconds).

The timeoutForLargeTests Attribute

Possible values: integer (default: 60)

This attribute configures the time limit for tests attributed with Large (in seconds).

The defaultTestSuite Attribute

This attribute configures the name of the default test suite.

The stderr Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether PHPUnit should print its output to stderr instead of stdout.

The reverseDefectList Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether tests that are not successful should be printed in reverse order.

The registerMockObjectsFromTestArgumentsRecursively Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether arrays and object graphs that are passed from one test to another using the Depends* attributes should be recursively scanned for mock objects.

The extensionsDirectory Attribute

When phpunit.phar is used then this attribute may be used to configure a directory from which all *.phar files will be loaded as extensions for the PHPUnit test runner.

The executionOrder Attribute

Possible values: default, defects, depends, no-depends, duration, random, reverse, size (default: default)

Using multiple values is possible. These need to be separated by ,.

This attribute configures the order in which tests are executed.

• default: ordered in the order in which PHPUnit found the tests (does not use the result cache)

• defects: ordered by defect (errored, failed, warning, incomplete, risky, skipped, unknown, passed), requires enabled result cache

• depends: ordered by dependency (tests without dependencies first, dependent tests last)

• depends,defects: ordered by dependency first, then ordered by defects

• depends,duration: ordered by dependency first, then ordered by duration

• depends,random: ordered by dependency first, then ordered randomly

• depends,reverse: ordered by dependency first, then ordered in reverse

• duration: ordered by duration (fastest test first, slowest test last), requires enabled result cache

• no-depends: not ordered by dependency

• no-depends,defects: not ordered by dependency, then ordered by defects

• no-depends,duration: not ordered by dependency, then ordered by duration

• no-depends,random: not ordered by dependency, then ordered randomly

• no-depends,reverse: not ordered by dependency, then ordered in reverse

• no-depends,size: not ordered by dependency, then ordered by size

• random: ordered randomly

• reverse: ordered as PHPUnit found the tests, then ordered in reverse

• size: ordered by size (small, medium, large, unknown), also see (see Small, Medium, and Large)

The resolveDependencies Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: true)

This attribute configures whether dependencies between tests (expressed using the Depends* attributes) should be resolved.

The testdox Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether the output should be printed in TestDox format.

The displayDetailsOnAllIssues Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on all issues should be printed.

The displayDetailsOnIncompleteTests Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on incomplete tests should be printed.

The displayDetailsOnSkippedTests Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on skipped tests should be printed.

The displayDetailsOnTestsThatTriggerDeprecations Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on tests that triggered deprecations should be printed.

The displayDetailsOnPhpunitDeprecations Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on PHPUnit deprecations should be printed.

The displayDetailsOnTestsThatTriggerErrors Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on tests that triggered errors should be printed.

The displayDetailsOnTestsThatTriggerNotices Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on tests that triggered notices should be printed.

The displayDetailsOnTestsThatTriggerWarnings Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether details on tests that triggered warnings should be printed.

The <testsuite> Element

Parent element: <testsuites>

A <testsuite> element must have a name attribute and may have one or more <directory> and/or <file> child elements that configure directories and/or files, respectively, that should be searched for tests. Files and directories can be excluded by using <exclude> child elements.

<testsuites>
<testsuitename="unit">
<directory>tests/unit</directory>
</testsuite>

<testsuitename="integration">
<directory>tests/integration</directory>
</testsuite>

<testsuitename="edge-to-edge">
<directory>tests/edge-to-edge</directory>
<exclude>tests/edge-to-edge/pathToIgnore</exclude>
</testsuite>

<testsuitename="smoke">
<file>tests/smoke/FirstTest.php</file>
<file>tests/smoke/SecondTest.php</file>
</testsuite>
</testsuites>

While the <directory> element adds all test classes found in a directory to the test suite, the <file> element adds the test class found in a single file. This is useful when only a few selected files from a directory should be part of a test suite.

<testsuites>
<testsuitename="unit">
<directoryphpVersion="8.0.0"phpVersionOperator=">=">tests/unit</directory>
</testsuite>
</testsuites>

The <include> Element

Parent element: <source>

Configures a set of files to be included in the list of the project’s source code files.

<include>
<directorysuffix=".php">src</directory>
</include>

The example shown above instructs PHPUnit to include all source code files with .php suffix in the src directory and its sub-directories.

The <exclude> Element

Parent element: <source>

Configures a set of files to be excluded from the list of the project’s source code files.

<include>
<directorysuffix=".php">src</directory>
</include>

<exclude>
<directorysuffix=".php">src/generated</directory>
<file>src/autoload.php</file>
</exclude>

The example shown above instructs PHPUnit to include all source code files with .php suffix in the src directory and its sub-directories, but to exclude all files with .php suffix in the src/generated directory and its sub-directories as well as the src/autoload.php file.

The <directory> Element

Parent elements: <include>, <exclude>

Configures a directory and its sub-directories for inclusion in or exclusion from the list of the project’s source code files.

The <file> Element

Parent elements: <include>, <exclude>

Configures a file for inclusion in or exclusion from the list of the project’s source code files.

The <restrictDeprecations> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Restricts the reporting of E_DEPRECATED and E_USER_DEPRECATED errors to the list of the project’s source code files.

The <restrictNotices> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Restricts the reporting of E_STRICT, E_NOTICE, and E_USER_NOTICE errors to the list of the project’s source code files.

The <restrictWarnings> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Restricts the reporting of E_WARNING and E_USER_WARNING errors to the list of the project’s source code files.

The <baseline> Attribute

Possible values: string

The baseline file to be used when running the test suite.

The <ignoreSuppressionOfDeprecations> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Ignore the suppression (using the @ operator) of E_USER_DEPRECATED errors.

The <ignoreSuppressionOfPhpDeprecations> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Ignore the suppression (using the @ operator) of E_DEPRECATED errors.

The <ignoreSuppressionOfErrors> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Ignore the suppression (using the @ operator) of E_USER_ERROR errors.

The <ignoreSuppressionOfNotices> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Ignore the suppression (using the @ operator) of E_USER_NOTICE errors.

The <ignoreSuppressionOfPhpNotices> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Ignore the suppression (using the @ operator) of E_STRICT and E_NOTICE errors.

The <ignoreSuppressionOfWarnings> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Ignore the suppression (using the @ operator) of E_USER_WARNING errors.

The <ignoreSuppressionOfPhpWarnings> Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

Ignore the suppression (using the @ operator) of E_WARNING errors.

The includeUncoveredFiles Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: true)

When set to true, all source code files that are configured to be considered for code coverage analysis will be included in the code coverage report(s). This includes source code files that are not executed while the tests are running.

The ignoreDeprecatedCodeUnits Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether code units annotated with @deprecated should be ignored from code coverage.

The pathCoverage Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

When set to false, only line coverage data will be collected, processed, and reported.

When set to true, line coverage, branch coverage, and path coverage data will be collected, processed, and reported. This requires a code coverage driver that supports path coverage. Path Coverage is currently only implemented by Xdebug.

The disableCodeCoverageIgnore Attribute

Possible values: true or false (default: false)

This attribute configures whether metadata to ignore code should be ignored.

The <report> Element

Parent element: <coverage>

Configures the code coverage reports to be generated.

<report>
<cloveroutputFile="clover.xml"/>
<coberturaoutputFile="cobertura.xml"/>
<crap4joutputFile="crap4j.xml"threshold="50"/>
<htmloutputDirectory="html-coverage"lowUpperBound="50"highLowerBound="90"/>
<phpoutputFile="coverage.php"/>
<textoutputFile="coverage.txt"showUncoveredFiles="false"showOnlySummary="true"/>
<xmloutputDirectory="xml-coverage"/>
</report>

The <junit> Element

Parent element: <logging>

Configures a test result logfile in JUnit XML format.

The <teamcity> Element

Parent element: <logging>

Configures a test result logfile in TeamCity format.

The <testdoxHtml> Element

Parent element: <logging>

Configures a test result logfile in TestDox HTML format.

The <testdoxText> Element

Parent element: <logging>

Configures a test result logfile in TestDox text format.

The <bootstrap> Element

Parent element: <extensions>

<extensions>
<bootstrapclass="Vendor\ExampleExtensionForPhpunit\Extension"/>
</extensions>

<extensions>
<bootstrapclass="Vendor\ExampleExtensionForPhpunit\Extension">
<parametername="message"value="the-message"/>
</bootstrap>
</extensions>

The <includePath> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to prepend a path to the include_path.

The <ini> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a PHP configuration setting using ini_set().

<php>
<ininame="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

ini_set('foo', 'bar');

The <const> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a global constant.

<php>
<constname="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

define('foo', 'bar');

The <var> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a global variable.

<php>
<varname="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$GLOBALS['foo'] = 'bar';

The <env> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a value in the super-global array $_ENV.

<php>
<envname="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$_ENV['foo'] = 'bar';

By default, environment variables are not overwritten if they exist already. To force overwriting existing variables, use the force attribute:

<php>
<envname="foo"value="bar"force="true"/>
</php>

The <get> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a value in the super-global array $_GET.

<php>
<getname="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$_GET['foo'] = 'bar';

The <post> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a value in the super-global array $_POST.

<php>
<postname="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$_POST['foo'] = 'bar';

The <cookie> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a value in the super-global array $_COOKIE.

<php>
<cookiename="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$_COOKIE['foo'] = 'bar';

The <server> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a value in the super-global array $_SERVER.

<php>
<servername="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$_SERVER['foo'] = 'bar';

The <files> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a value in the super-global array $_FILES.

<php>
<filesname="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$_FILES['foo'] = 'bar';

The <request> Element

Parent element: <php>

This element can be used to set a value in the super-global array $_REQUEST.

<php>
<requestname="foo"value="bar"/>
</php>

The XML configuration above corresponds to the following PHP code:

$_REQUEST['foo'] = 'bar';