Principle:Nightwatchjs Nightwatch Test Execution
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Testing, CLI, Test_Execution |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-12 00:00 GMT |
Overview
A command-line interface pattern for orchestrating test suite discovery, browser session management, and sequential or parallel test execution.
Description
Test execution is the process of running authored test cases against target browsers. The test runner handles configuration loading, argument parsing, WebDriver session creation, test file discovery, execution ordering, and result collection. It supports multiple execution modes including sequential runs, parallel execution across browsers or test files, and headless operation for CI/CD environments.
The execution pipeline consists of: CLI argument parsing, configuration merging, WebDriver session establishment, test suite loading, sequential/parallel execution, and exit code determination (0 for success, non-zero for failures).
Usage
Use this principle whenever tests need to be executed, whether locally during development, in CI/CD pipelines, or as part of automated deployment gates. The CLI interface is the primary method for test execution.
Theoretical Basis
Test execution follows a pipeline architecture:
- Parse CLI arguments and merge with configuration file
- Discover test files matching source patterns
- Initialize WebDriver session(s) for target browser(s)
- Execute test suites with lifecycle hooks
- Collect results and compute exit code
- Report results via configured reporters
// Pseudocode: Execution pipeline
argv = parseCLIArguments()
config = mergeConfig(argv, configFile)
sessions = createWebDriverSessions(config)
results = executeTestSuites(sessions, testFiles)
exitCode = results.hasFailures ? 10 : 0