Profile VS2005 Tests

Hans-Peter

Hi,
how can I profile tests that are implemented in VS 2005 Test projects?

Thanks
Hans-Peter

Tom Harris

Hi there,

you will need to profiler VSTestHost.exe. This is the process that will actually run your tests. You will need to supply appropriate command line parameters so that it can pick up your tests. Do let us know how you get on?

Thanks,

Tom Harris,

Red Gate Software

Hans-Peter

Well - I found VSTestHost.exe - but no information about appropriate command line parameters. Please can you provide more detailed information? An example would be great.

Thanks
Hans-Peter

Brian Donahue

Hi Hans-Peter,

It looks like I'd need a few hours to get familiar with this profiling scenario, so I thought I would do a bit of research about profiling a Visual Studio 2005 test project. I hope that I can get some time soon to actually do this (and document it of course!).

From what I can see, test projects are actually run by MSTest.exe, but this process now starts VSTestHost.exe. All of the test code should be run in the process of VSTestHost, so this should make it convenient to profile, provided that if you use ANTS Profiler to launch VSTestHost.exe, Visual Studio doesn't crank up a second VSTestHost when you launch the test from the IDE.

Assuming this, then, you should be able to profile VSTestHost.exe with no arguments at all, then go back into your Visual Studio IDE and run the test from there. All of the test code, with any luck, will run in the VSTestHost launched by ANTS Profiler and you should get all of the results by taking snapshots.

As I said, though, I'm a bit short on time to try this approach myself. Hopefully I'm right!