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bats — Bash Automated Testing System: a TAP (<https://testanything.org/>) compliant testing framework for B

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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batscommandclitapsystembashautomatedtesting

Problem

How to use the bats command: Bash Automated Testing System: a TAP (<https://testanything.org/>) compliant testing framework for Bash. More information: <https://bats-core.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage.html>.

Solution

bats — Bash Automated Testing System: a TAP (<https://testanything.org/>) compliant testing framework for Bash. More information: <https://bats-core.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage.html>.

Run a BATS test script and output results in the TAP (Test Anything Protocol) format:

bats {{[-t|--tap]}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Count test cases of a test script without running any tests:

bats {{[-c|--count]}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Run BATS test cases recursively (files with a .bats extension):

bats {{[-r|--recursive]}} {{path/to/directory}}

Output results in a specific format:

bats {{[-F|--formatter]}} {{pretty|tap|tap13|junit}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Add timing information to tests:

bats {{[-T|--timing]}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Run specific number of jobs in parallel (requires GNU parallel to be installed):

bats {{[-j|--jobs]}} {{number}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Code Snippets

Run a BATS test script and output results in the TAP (Test Anything Protocol) format

bats {{[-t|--tap]}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Count test cases of a test script without running any tests

bats {{[-c|--count]}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Run BATS test cases recursively (files with a `.bats` extension)

bats {{[-r|--recursive]}} {{path/to/directory}}

Output results in a specific format

bats {{[-F|--formatter]}} {{pretty|tap|tap13|junit}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Add timing information to tests

bats {{[-T|--timing]}} {{path/to/test.bats}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/bats

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