---
title: resolve tests
versions:
  fpt: '*'
  ghae: '*'
  ghec: '*'
  ghes: '*'
topics:
  - Advanced Security
  - Code scanning
  - CodeQL
type: reference
product: '{% data reusables.gated-features.codeql %}'
autogenerated: codeql-cli
intro: '[Deep plumbing] Find QL unit tests in given directories.'
---


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

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

## Synopsis

```shell{:copy}
codeql resolve tests <options>... -- <test|dir>...
```

## Description

\[Deep plumbing] Find QL unit tests in given directories.

This plumbing command is responsible for expanding the command-line
parameters of subcommands that run QL unit tests, to an actual list of
individual .ql and .qlref files to execute.

## 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 *N*th 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.

#### `--format=<fmt>`

Select output format, either `text` *(default)* or `json`.

### 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.)