Release 0.34.0

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

🔧 New features

Watch mode

Automatically re-run tests whenever source files change. Uses inotifywait on Linux or fswatch on macOS:

Usage

bashunit watch tests/
# or as a flag
bashunit --watch tests/

If the required file-watching tool is not installed, bashunit provides a clear installation hint.

Test tags

Filter tests by # @tag annotations using --tag and --exclude-tag:

Annotate tests

# @tag slow
function test_heavy_computation() {
  ...
}

# @tag integration
function test_api_call() {
  ...
}

Run by tag

bashunit --tag slow tests/
bashunit --exclude-tag integration tests/

Date comparison assertions

A full suite of date assertions with automatic format detection (epoch seconds, ISO 8601, space-separated datetime, and timezone offsets):

• assert_date_equals - two dates represent the same point in time
• assert_date_before / assert_date_after - chronological ordering
• assert_date_within_range - date falls between two bounds
• assert_date_within_delta - date is within N seconds of a reference

JSON assertions

Validate JSON output using jq under the hood:

• assert_json_key_exists - a key is present in the JSON
• assert_json_contains - JSON contains a key-value pair
• assert_json_equals - full JSON equality check

Duration assertions

Measure how long a function takes to execute:

• assert_duration - execution finishes in exactly N seconds
• assert_duration_less_than - execution finishes under N seconds
• assert_duration_greater_than - execution takes at least N seconds

More assertion power

• assert_have_been_called_nth_with - verify spy arguments on a specific invocation
• assert_string_matches_format / assert_string_not_matches_format - match strings against format placeholders (%d, %s, %f, %i, %x, %e, %%)
• TAP version 13 output format via --output tap for CI/CD integration
• --jobs N flag to limit parallel test concurrency
• Source context display in failure summaries showing the relevant assertion lines

⚡ Performance

This release includes significant performance optimizations reducing subprocess overhead across the board:

• Cache function discovery to avoid duplicate pipelines per test file
• Reduce subshells in the test execution hot path
• Batch coverage recording with in-memory buffering
• Cache uname result at source time to eliminate repeated subprocess forks
• Replace bc and awk subprocesses with native bash arithmetic in clock and duration formatting
• Cache base64 -w flag support at load time instead of detecting per test
• Use direct variable access for assertion state instead of getter subshells in the runner hot path

🐛 Bug fixes

• Fix misleading error message for assert_not_same and assert_not_equals on failure
• Mocking mktemp no longer breaks spy creation
• JUnit XML report now conforms to the standard schema
  • Proper <failure>/<skipped> child elements, errors="0" attribute
  • Convert time values from milliseconds to seconds (float)
  • Strip ANSI escape sequences and invalid XML control characters

---

See the full changelog on GitHub