Can a #[cfg(test)] depend on a crate the parent crate does not depend on?

#1

This is related to Can #[cfg(test)] load parent module twice with different configs? - #2 by jonh

My question is:

  • I have a crate_foo
  • I have a crate_bar
  • crate_foo does NOT depend on crate_bar

Question: is a unit test of crate_foo allowed to depend on crate_bar ?

Intuition suggests no, but I want to double check.

#2

I think dev-dependencies are loaded for tests, but if not you can use a feature that is only enabled in tests. Try adding it to dev-dependencies first.

#3

Your suggestion is perfectly valid.

I abstracted too much of the original XY problem. The situation is:

crate num_base
crate num_base_cpu = num_base w/ feature cpu
crate num_base_gpu = num_base w/ feature gpu

this would be a Circular dependency to have the unit testing of num_base depend on num_base_cpu and num_base_gpu

#4