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Ploch.TestingSupport.MockConsoleApp

A minimal console application executable used as a test target for console application integration tests.

Overview

Ploch.TestingSupport.MockConsoleApp is a purpose-built stub executable. It provides a concrete console application binary that integration tests or test harnesses can launch as a child process without depending on any real application artefact.

The application does nothing more than write two lines to standard output and then wait for a key press before exiting. That behaviour is intentionally trivial: the value of this package is the existence of an independently launchable process, not anything it computes.

Typical uses include:

  • Testing code that spawns and monitors child processes (e.g. process-management utilities).
  • Verifying that a test scaffold correctly captures standard output from a sub-process.
  • End-to-end testing of console application launchers or wrappers that need a real executable to target.

The application targets net10.0 and produces a self-contained executable when published.

Installation

dotnet add package Ploch.TestingSupport.MockConsoleApp

After installation, the Ploch.TestingSupport.MockConsoleApp.exe (or the platform-equivalent binary) is available in the package's tools directory and can be referenced in test code by path.

Usage Examples

Launching the mock app from a test

[Fact]
public async Task ProcessLauncher_should_capture_stdout()
{
    // The executable path would typically be resolved from the NuGet package
    // or from a known relative path in the test project output directory.
    var executablePath = Path.Combine(
        AppContext.BaseDirectory,
        "Ploch.TestingSupport.MockConsoleApp.exe");

    var launcher = new ProcessLauncher(executablePath);
    var output = await launcher.CaptureOutputAsync();

    output.Should().Contain("Hello, World!");
}

Verifying process exit behaviour

[Fact]
public void ProcessManager_should_detect_running_process()
{
    var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(executablePath)
    {
        RedirectStandardInput = true,
        UseShellExecute = false
    };
    using var process = Process.Start(startInfo);
    var manager = new ProcessManager(process!.Id);

    manager.IsRunning.Should().BeTrue();

    // Simulate key press to allow the process to exit
    process.StandardInput.Write('\n');
    process.WaitForExit(timeoutMilliseconds: 2000);

    manager.IsRunning.Should().BeFalse();
}
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