Is there only supposed to be one `context` as root in a `ShouldSpec` when using `beforeEach`? It see...

# kotest

[dave08]

Is there only supposed to be one context as root in a ShouldSpec when using beforeEach? It seems like when I put the beforeEach in the init block along with two contexts , it only gets run once...

[sam]

beforeEach will run before each leaf test. context is not a leaf, so you would want beforeContainer or beforeAny

[dave08]

Thanks! And what's the difference between beforeEach and beforeTest then?

[dave08]

A leaf is the should?

[dave08]

Or the most inner context surrounding the should?

[sam]

It's on the listeners doc page. I'm afk atm but can check later if you can't find it

[dave08]

I looked, but it wasn't too clear there...

[dave08]

I think the terminology needs to be worked on, defining the stages in respect to the various styles...

[dave08]

Ok, I reread the docs, I think its just something unexpected happening... sometimes the beforeSpecs/beforeTests get run all at once before the forAll tests and fail, and sometimes they get run before each leaf as expected by instancePerLeaf... I'm still looking into why...

[sam]

Once you figure it out, please let me know.

[dave08]

It seems like there's a difference between using override fun beforeXXX or the lambda form beforeXXX { straight in the init block... the former sometimes runs the afterXXX before the container surrounding the should block on instancePerLeaf and the latter seems to work fine...

[dave08]

Could that be @sam?

[sam]

There should be no difference because the latter just calls into the former

[sam]

Can you make a small example that reproduces the issue, that would allow me to find and fix

[dave08]

It seems like a simpler test doesn't recreate the problem... 🤔 it might be linked to use of coroutines in various places and a few more factors involved in that test. If I manage to pinpoint it, I'll let you know.

[dave08]

I'll DM the original code just in case you can spot something though...

[reevn]

Stumbled upon this thread. To give some more context:

A few versions ago only beforeTest existed. As this is executed before leaf tests AND containers (i.e describe/context block), there was no way to execute code only before leaf tests.

Because of that, beforeEach and beforeContainer were added to support each individual use-case. To complete the circle beforeAny was also added, which does the same thing as the original beforeTest.

So we now have
• beforeEach - before leaf tests
• beforeContainer - before containers
• beforeAny - before both
beforeTest doesn't do anything the above can't do, and in a perfect world beforeEach would be called beforeTest. In order to not introduce breaking changes it was left as is and beforeEach was chosen as a name