to fix this message.¶

Using a feature that is only available starting with a certain version can be a problem when your tests also run on older versions of Bats. In most cases, running this code in older versions will generate an error due to a missing command. However, in cases like run’s where old version simply take all parameters as command to execute, the failure can be silent.

How to fix¶

When you encounter this warning, you can simply guard your code with bats_require_minimum_version <version> as the message says. For example, consider the following code:

@test test {
    bats_require_minimum_version 1.5.0
    # pre 1.5.0 the flag --separate-stderr would be interpreted as command to run
    run --separate-stderr some-command
    [ $output = "blablabla" ]
}

The call to bats_require_minimum_version can be put anywhere before the warning generating command, even in setup, setup_file, or even outside any function. This can be used to give fine control over the version dependencies:

@test test {
    bats_require_minimum_version 1.5.0
    # pre 1.5.0 the flag --separate-stderr would be interpreted as command to run
    run --separate-stderr some-command
    [ $output = "blablabla" ]
}

@test test2 {
    run some-other-command # no problem executing on earlier version
}

If the above code is executed on a system with a BATS_VERSION pre 1.5.0, the first test will fail on bats_require_minimum_version 1.5.0.

Instances:¶

run’s non command parameters like –keep-empty-lines are only available since 1.5.0