A simple testing framework for bash scripts

Test your bash scripts in the fastest and simplest way.

Why bashunit

A lightweight, fast testing framework for Bash 3.0+, focused on developer experience. It ships hundreds of assertions plus spies, mocks, data providers, snapshots and more.

Quick start

Install the latest version into your project:

curl -s https://bashunit.com/install.sh | bash

Write a test in tests/example_test.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

function test_bashunit_is_working() {
  assert_same "bashunit is working" "bashunit is working"
}

Run it:

./lib/bashunit tests/

Prefer learning by doing? Run ./lib/bashunit learn for an interactive tutorial.

Assertions at a glance

bashunit ships ~60 assertions across many families. One representative example per family (full catalog and signatures at bashunit.com/assertions):

Family	Example
Equality & truth	assert_equals "foo" "$actual"
Strings	assert_string_starts_with "Hello" "$greeting"
Exit codes	assert_exit_code "1" (checks $? of the previous command)
Numeric	assert_greater_than "1" "$count"
Arrays	assert_array_length 3 "${my_array[@]}"
Files & dirs	assert_file_permissions 644 "$file"
JSON (needs jq)	assert_json_contains ".name" "bashunit" "$json"
Dates	assert_date_before "2026-01-01" "$date"
Duration	assert_duration_less_than "echo hello" 500
Snapshots	assert_match_snapshot "$(my_cmd)"
Test doubles	assert_have_been_called_times 2 my_fn

Documentation

Full documentation, covering installation options, every feature and examples, lives at bashunit.com.

Contribute

Issues, ideas and pull requests are welcome. See the contribution guide to set up your environment.