Installation

Prerequisites

• A shell: bash 5+, ksh, or zsh. The aceunit generator script needs one of these — your own project can keep using whatever shell you like.
• GNU make 3.81+. On BSD systems the binary is usually gmake, not make.
• A symbol-table tool: nm, objdump, or readelf, used to discover test fixtures from compiled object files.
• A C compiler. Tested extensively with GCC 12/13 and Clang 17/18, across a wide range of cross-compilation targets (see Cross-compilation & Embedded Targets).

Build

git clone https://github.com/christianhujer/aceunit.git
cd aceunit
make

This builds and tests AceUnit itself.

AceUnit defaults to objdump. If that’s not available (e.g. some BSDs), either install binutils, remove the objdump.ac module from share/aceunit, or pass -t nm / -t readelf when running aceunit.

To build with a different compiler:

make CC=clang

Install

sudo make install

Installs into /usr/local/. Override the location with PREFIX:

sudo make install PREFIX=/opt/aceunit/

PREFIX only affects installation — no rebuild needed. Uninstall the same way:

sudo make uninstall

Platform notes

Note

macOS: the system /bin/bash is too old for the aceunit script’s needs. Either switch the shebang in bin/aceunit to zsh, install a newer bash, or run ./configure.sh, which detects your OS and patches a supported shell in automatically.

Note

DOS / bcc: run aceunit with -t nm -b nm86 -s _.

Next: Getting Started for your first test, or Core Concepts for the discovery model.