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Running and debugging tests

Introduction​

You can run a single test, a set of tests or all tests. Tests can be run on different browsers. By default, tests are run in a headless manner, meaning no browser window will be opened while running the tests and results will be seen in the terminal. If you prefer, you can run your tests in headed mode by using the headless test run parameter.

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Running tests​

Run all tests​

Use the following command to run all tests.

dotnet test

Run tests in headed mode​

Use the following command to run your tests in headed mode opening a browser window for each test.

HEADED=1 dotnet test

Run tests on different browsers: Browser env​

Specify which browser you would like to run your tests on via the BROWSER environment variable.

BROWSER=webkit dotnet test

Run tests on different browsers: launch configuration​

Specify which browser you would like to run your tests on by adjusting the launch configuration options:

dotnet test -- Playwright.BrowserName=webkit

To run your test on multiple browsers or configurations, you need to invoke the dotnet test command multiple times. There you can then either specify the BROWSER environment variable or set the Playwright.BrowserName via the runsettings file:

dotnet test --settings:chromium.runsettings
dotnet test --settings:firefox.runsettings
dotnet test --settings:webkit.runsettings
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <RunSettings>
    <Playwright>
      <BrowserName>chromium</BrowserName>
    </Playwright>
  </RunSettings>

For more information see selective unit tests in the Microsoft docs.

Run specific tests​

To run a single test file, use the filter flag followed by the class name of the test you want to run.

dotnet test --filter "ExampleTest"

To run a set of test files, use the filter flag followed by the class names of the tests you want to run.

dotnet test --filter "ExampleTest1|ExampleTest2"

To run a test with a specific title use the filter flag followed by Name~ and the title of the test.

dotnet test --filter "Name~GetStartedLink"

Run tests with multiple workers:​

dotnet test -- MSTest.Parallelize.Workers=5

Debugging Tests​

Since Playwright runs in .NET, you can debug it with your debugger of choice in e.g. Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio. Playwright comes with the Playwright Inspector which allows you to step through Playwright API calls, see their debug logs and explore locators.

PWDEBUG=1 dotnet test

debugging tests with playwright inspector

Check out our debugging guide to learn more about the Playwright Inspector as well as debugging with Browser Developer tools.

What's Next​