A Return to Unit Testing using xcodebuild

I have previously written a couple of posts on the testing of iOS applications by executing command line only commands. What I did:

xcodebuild -sdk iphonesimulator -project JonsProject.xcodeproj -target JonsProjectTest -configuration Debug TEST_AFTER_BUILD=YES

This used to fire up the simulator and execute the test schema. Now I get this:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Tools/Tools/RunPlatformUnitTests:81: warning: Skipping tests; the iPhoneSimulator platform does not currently support application-hosted tests (TEST_HOST set).

Partly I think that I might have lost my mind as the tests worked, I saw them work, they worked!  However, the build server on which all of this worked now does not, but then the scripts for the CI

have changed. So, which stopped working first? Who knows, but it's not adding to my positive mental health.

Anyway at least one of my colleagues has been suggesting that we use this run the simulator and execute the tests:

https://github.com/sgleadow/xcodetest

I am not sure that this is a wonderful idea as it appears to involve compiled in binaries. Which I don't think I agree with. You shouldn't have to alter your code to use what is a base "feature" of the IDE.

After a bit of poking around the script that gets executed there are these blocks of code:

RunTestsForApplication() {
    Warning ${LINENO} "Skipping tests; the iPhoneSimulator platform does not currently support application-hosted tests (TEST_HOST set)."
}


and 

if [ "${TEST_HOST}" != "" ]; then
    # All applications are tested the same way, by injecting a bundle.
    # The bundle needs to configure and run the tests itself somehow.
    RunTestsForApplication "${TEST_HOST}" "${TEST_BUNDLE_PATH}"

else
    # If no TEST_HOST is specified, assume we're running the test bundle.
   
    RunTestsForBundle "${TEST_BUNDLE_PATH}"
fi


Which kind of implies that RunTestsForApplication will be supported in the future and is somehow related to the setting of the TEST_HOST environment variable.  But what happens if you set that variable to blank?  Well, given this command:

xcodebuild -sdk iphonesimulator -project JonsProject.xcodeproj -target JonsProjectTests -configuration Debug  TEST_AFTER_BUILD=YES TEST_HOST=""

The unit tests run.  And fail, correctly, in my case.

error: -[JonsProjectTests testExample] : Unit tests are not implemented yet in Jons Password KeeperTests
Test Case '-[JonsProjectTests testExample]' failed (0.000 seconds).

Test Suite 'JonsProjectTests' finished at 2013-01-28 10:25:32 +0000.
Executed 1 test, with 1 failure (0 unexpected) in 0.000 (0.000) seconds

Test Suite '/build/Debug-iphonesimulator/JonsProjectTests.octest(Tests)' finished at 2013-01-28 10:25:32 +0000.
Executed 1 test, with 1 failure (0 unexpected) in 0.000 (0.001) seconds

But, but, but the simulator isn't open.  I remember, distinctly, that to get this lot working in the past, the simulator HAD to be open.

I am so losing my mind.