---
title: test accept
versions: # DO NOT MANUALLY EDIT. CHANGES WILL BE OVERWRITTEN BY A 🤖
  fpt: '*'
  ghec: '*'
  ghes: '*'
topics:
  - Code Security
  - Code scanning
  - CodeQL
type: reference
product: '{% data reusables.gated-features.codeql %}'
autogenerated: codeql-cli
intro: Accept results of failing unit tests.
redirect_from:
  - /code-security/codeql-cli/manual/test-accept
---


<!-- Content after this section is automatically generated -->

{% data reusables.codeql-cli.man-pages-version-note %}

## Synopsis

```shell copy
codeql test accept <options>... -- <test|dir>...
```

## Description

Accept results of failing unit tests.

This is a convenience command that renames the `.actual` files left by
[codeql test run](/code-security/codeql-cli/codeql-cli-manual/test-run) for failing tests into `.expected`, such that future runs on the tests that give the
same output will be considered to pass. What it does can also be
achieved by ordinary file manipulation, but you may find its syntax more
useful for this special case.

The command-line arguments specify one or more _tests_ -- that is,
`.ql(ref)` files -- and the command automatically derives the names of
the `.actual` files from them. Any test that doesn't have an `.actual`
file will be silently ignored, which makes it easy to accept just the
results of _failing_ tests from a previous run.

## Options

### Primary Options

#### `<test|dir>...`

Each argument is one of:

* A `.ql` or `.qlref` file that defines a test to run.
* A directory which will be searched recursively for tests to run.

#### `--slice=<N/M>`

\[Advanced] Divide the test cases into _M_ roughly equal-sized slices
and process only the _&#x4E;_&#x74;h of them. This can be used for manual
parallelization of the testing process.

#### `--[no-]strict-test-discovery`

\[Advanced] Only use queries that can be strongly identified as tests.
This mode tries to distinguish between `.ql` files that define unit
tests and `.ql` files that are meant to be useful queries. This option
is used by tools, such as IDEs, that need to identify all unit tests in
a directory tree without depending on previous knowledge of how the
files in it are arranged.

Within a QL pack whose `qlpack.yml` declares a `tests` directory, all
`.ql` files in that directory are considered tests, and `.ql` files
outside it are ignored. In a QL pack that doesn't declare a `tests`
directory, a `.ql` file is identified as a test only if it has a
corresponding `.expected` file.

For consistency, `.qlref` files are limited by the same rules as `.ql`
files even though a `.qlref` file cannot really be a non-test.

### Common options

#### `-h, --help`

Show this help text.

#### `-J=<opt>`

\[Advanced] Give option to the JVM running the command.

(Beware that options containing spaces will not be handled correctly.)

#### `-v, --verbose`

Incrementally increase the number of progress messages printed.

#### `-q, --quiet`

Incrementally decrease the number of progress messages printed.

#### `--verbosity=<level>`

\[Advanced] Explicitly set the verbosity level to one of errors,
warnings, progress, progress+, progress++, progress+++. Overrides `-v`
and `-q`.

#### `--logdir=<dir>`

\[Advanced] Write detailed logs to one or more files in the given
directory, with generated names that include timestamps and the name of
the running subcommand.

(To write a log file with a name you have full control over, instead
give `--log-to-stderr` and redirect stderr as desired.)

#### `--common-caches=<dir>`

\[Advanced] Controls the location of cached data on disk that will
persist between several runs of the CLI, such as downloaded QL packs and
compiled query plans. If not set explicitly, this defaults to a
directory named `.codeql` in the user's home directory; it will be
created if it doesn't already exist.

Available since `v2.15.2`.