This is wrong, you don't need to install the build before you can test it.

@sipa thanks for the feedback. Perhaps there is something with boost that i'm not familiar with then. If I update the test:

diff --git a/src/test/getarg_tests.cpp b/src/test/getarg_tests.cpp
index 10fb05ca8..5e0f48855 100644
--- a/src/test/getarg_tests.cpp
+++ b/src/test/getarg_tests.cpp
@@ -146,15 +146,7 @@ BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(intarg)
 
 BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(doubledash)
 {
-    const auto foo = std::make_pair("-foo", ArgsManager::ALLOW_ANY);
-    const auto bar = std::make_pair("-bar", ArgsManager::ALLOW_ANY);
-    SetupArgs({foo, bar});
-    ResetArgs("--foo");
-    BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(gArgs.GetBoolArg("-foo", false), true);
-
-    ResetArgs("--foo=verbose --bar=1");
-    BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(gArgs.GetArg("-foo", ""), "verbose");
-    BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(gArgs.GetArg("-bar", 0), 1);
+    BOOST_TEST_MESSAGE("foo");
 }

and then run make, followed by test_bitcoin --log_level=message --run_test=getarg_tests/doubledash I see no message. however, after running make install, the unit test prints the message foo.

@yancyribbens: It seems that your problem is caused by omitting any path name on executing test_bitcoin, which will search in $PATH for the binary, which then most likely is the installed one. To execute unit tests from your local build, either use make check or src/test/test_bitcoin (as described in src/test/README.md).

@theStack thanks that works. Maybe it would be helpful to add the local path prefix under the section Running individual tests since running the system installed binary isn't useful here.

Adding the prefix here seems fine, as we use it throughout the rest of the file. You just need to fix the commit message. i.e doc: add src/test/ prefix to test_bitcoin in test README.

Yes, I think this is fine, I mean it depends on what the current directory is, whether you want to do ./test_bitcoin or src/test/test_bitcoin, I've used both many times.

since src/test/test_bitcoin is used elsewhere it is helpful to be consistent imo. Also, I think this illustrates the binary test_bitcoin should not be the one installed with make install.

I think this illustrates the binary test_bitcoin should not be the one installed with make install.

This is intentionally done because the test_bitcoin is distributed as part of the downloads. People are encouraged to run test_bitcoin on any system they intend to use bitcoind on to increase confidence that there aren't any strange platform-specfic issues interfering.

This is intentionally done because the test_bitcoin is distributed as part of the downloads. People are encouraged to run test_bitcoin on any system they intend to use bitcoind on to increase confidence that there aren't any strange platform-specfic issues interfering.

That's understandable. However, the instuctions ask you to run make after modifying a test file. Running make only updated the file at src/test/test_bitcoin and not the system installed bin. Otherwise the instructions should include make install in addition to make imo.

The following sections might be updated with supplementary metadata relevant to reviewers and maintainers.

Conflicts

No conflicts as of last run.

This simple change seems too controversial and didn't attract too much attention in the past month. Closing for now.