<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>catch3/docs/thread-safety.md, branch devel</title>
<subtitle>Progmasoft Catch3: an independently maintained C++17 test framework with a parallel runner, property checks, snapshots and structured results.</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/'/>
<entry>
<title>Give Catch3 its own build names and headers</title>
<updated>2026-10-24T23:37:35+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leitwolf11</name>
</author>
<published>2026-10-24T23:37:35+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/commit/?id=126dc333564cb72b5115d9a9242d66694694b6d0'/>
<id>126dc333564cb72b5115d9a9242d66694694b6d0</id>
<content type='text'>
Catch2 compatibility means the API tests are written in: the macros, such
as TEST_CASE and REQUIRE, and the Catch:: namespace. It does not mean
Catch2's build names or header paths. find_package(Catch2) found Catch3,
and a project using both frameworks met two packages, two sets of targets,
two Catch.cmake modules and two catch2/ header trees with the same names.

Build names:
- CMake: project and package Catch3, targets Catch3::Catch3 and
  Catch3::Catch3WithMain, libraries Catch3 and Catch3Main, options
  CATCH3_*, lib/cmake/Catch3 with Catch3Config, and pkg-config catch3 and
  catch3-with-main. The version is Catch3's, 0.3.0, compatible within a
  minor version.
- The CMake scripts are Catch3.cmake (catch3_discover_tests),
  Catch3AddTests.cmake and Catch3ShardTests.cmake
  (catch3_add_sharded_tests); the helpers they define at ctest time have a
  catch3_ prefix. ParseAndAddCatchTests.cmake, deprecated upstream, is gone.
- Bazel //:catch3 and //:catch3_main, Meson catch3 and catch3-with-main
  (with override_dependency), Xmake catch3 and catch3_main, Premake Catch3
  and Catch3WithMain. Visual Studio projects get GUIDs of their own.
- The Progmasoft::Catch3 target and package are gone: property testing
  and snapshots are part of Catch3::Catch3. Their sources now build with
  the library's warning flags, so property failures are built field by
  field (no missing initializers) and the default property name is a
  thread-local pointer to the name its scope owns (no global destructor).

Headers: the engine moved from src/catch2 to src/Progmasoft/Catch3 with
Progmasoft names, so &lt;catch2/catch_test_macros.hpp&gt; is
&lt;Progmasoft/Catch3/TestMacros.hpp&gt;, &lt;catch2/matchers/catch_matchers_string.hpp&gt;
is &lt;Progmasoft/Catch3/Matchers/String.hpp&gt;, and interface headers are named
after their interface, such as Interfaces/IConfig.hpp. Include guards
became #pragma once. The installed headers go to include/Progmasoft.
src/Progmasoft/Context.cpp is StrategyContext.cpp, so no two sources share
a file name.

tools/scripts/upstreamFiles.txt lists the files that come from Catch2.
The license check expects BSL-1.0 on them and Progmasoft's header on the
rest of src/Progmasoft; the convenience-header check, the amalgamation
script and the surrogate tests take the engine's headers from it. The
amalgamated files are regenerated. The header-guard workflow checks for
#pragma once instead of checkguard.

Documents, the README and the release notes describe the new names.
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Catch2 compatibility means the API tests are written in: the macros, such
as TEST_CASE and REQUIRE, and the Catch:: namespace. It does not mean
Catch2's build names or header paths. find_package(Catch2) found Catch3,
and a project using both frameworks met two packages, two sets of targets,
two Catch.cmake modules and two catch2/ header trees with the same names.

Build names:
- CMake: project and package Catch3, targets Catch3::Catch3 and
  Catch3::Catch3WithMain, libraries Catch3 and Catch3Main, options
  CATCH3_*, lib/cmake/Catch3 with Catch3Config, and pkg-config catch3 and
  catch3-with-main. The version is Catch3's, 0.3.0, compatible within a
  minor version.
- The CMake scripts are Catch3.cmake (catch3_discover_tests),
  Catch3AddTests.cmake and Catch3ShardTests.cmake
  (catch3_add_sharded_tests); the helpers they define at ctest time have a
  catch3_ prefix. ParseAndAddCatchTests.cmake, deprecated upstream, is gone.
- Bazel //:catch3 and //:catch3_main, Meson catch3 and catch3-with-main
  (with override_dependency), Xmake catch3 and catch3_main, Premake Catch3
  and Catch3WithMain. Visual Studio projects get GUIDs of their own.
- The Progmasoft::Catch3 target and package are gone: property testing
  and snapshots are part of Catch3::Catch3. Their sources now build with
  the library's warning flags, so property failures are built field by
  field (no missing initializers) and the default property name is a
  thread-local pointer to the name its scope owns (no global destructor).

Headers: the engine moved from src/catch2 to src/Progmasoft/Catch3 with
Progmasoft names, so &lt;catch2/catch_test_macros.hpp&gt; is
&lt;Progmasoft/Catch3/TestMacros.hpp&gt;, &lt;catch2/matchers/catch_matchers_string.hpp&gt;
is &lt;Progmasoft/Catch3/Matchers/String.hpp&gt;, and interface headers are named
after their interface, such as Interfaces/IConfig.hpp. Include guards
became #pragma once. The installed headers go to include/Progmasoft.
src/Progmasoft/Context.cpp is StrategyContext.cpp, so no two sources share
a file name.

tools/scripts/upstreamFiles.txt lists the files that come from Catch2.
The license check expects BSL-1.0 on them and Progmasoft's header on the
rest of src/Progmasoft; the convenience-header check, the amalgamation
script and the surrogate tests take the engine's headers from it. The
amalgamated files are regenerated. The header-guard workflow checks for
#pragma once instead of checkguard.

Documents, the README and the release notes describe the new names.
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Complete Catch3 documentation and Windows CI: distinguish compatibility docs, correct fork integration, fix Conan CRT and Xmake test entry point</title>
<updated>2026-09-24T21:36:48+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Leitwolf11</name>
</author>
<published>2026-09-24T21:36:48+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/commit/?id=c3a325d284ab2487f472f3a8b928c0b12a200979'/>
<id>c3a325d284ab2487f472f3a8b928c0b12a200979</id>
<content type='text'>
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Thread safety in assertions is no longer experimental</title>
<updated>2025-12-28T20:02:50+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Martin Hořeňovský</name>
</author>
<published>2025-12-28T20:02:50+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/commit/?id=970ec144f56d78703c51d08a855844e91c8560a8'/>
<id>970ec144f56d78703c51d08a855844e91c8560a8</id>
<content type='text'>
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>v3.10.0</title>
<updated>2025-08-25T19:30:21+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Martin Hořeňovský</name>
</author>
<published>2025-08-25T19:27:29+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/commit/?id=25319fd3047c6bdcf3c0170e76fa526c77f99ca9'/>
<id>25319fd3047c6bdcf3c0170e76fa526c77f99ca9</id>
<content type='text'>
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Make message macros (FAIL, WARN, INFO, etc) thread safe</title>
<updated>2025-08-23T09:08:18+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Martin Hořeňovský</name>
</author>
<published>2025-08-22T22:15:53+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/commit/?id=582200a1f8ddd6f435d1264668c7074121c2636c'/>
<id>582200a1f8ddd6f435d1264668c7074121c2636c</id>
<content type='text'>
This builds on the existing work to make assertion thread safe,
by adding an extra synchronization point in the holder of
`ReusableStringStream`'s stream instances, as those are used to
build the messages, and finishing the move of message scope holders
to be thread-local.
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
This builds on the existing work to make assertion thread safe,
by adding an extra synchronization point in the holder of
`ReusableStringStream`'s stream instances, as those are used to
build the messages, and finishing the move of message scope holders
to be thread-local.
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>v3.9.0</title>
<updated>2025-07-24T20:01:46+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Martin Hořeňovský</name>
</author>
<published>2025-07-24T20:01:46+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/commit/?id=fee81626d2a4811095c3a39d20fb355eeb954101'/>
<id>fee81626d2a4811095c3a39d20fb355eeb954101</id>
<content type='text'>
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Add configuration option to make assertions thread-safe</title>
<updated>2025-07-24T08:10:00+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Martin Hořeňovský</name>
</author>
<published>2025-07-17T20:58:41+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.progmasoft.com/catch3/commit/?id=2a8a8a7210513fc2f6ae5e65986c0f2d730c1537'/>
<id>2a8a8a7210513fc2f6ae5e65986c0f2d730c1537</id>
<content type='text'>
All the previous refactoring to make the assertion fast paths
smaller and faster also allows us to implement the fast paths
just with thread-local and atomic variables, without full mutexes.

However, the performance overhead of thread-safe assertions is
still significant for single threaded usage:

|  slowdown |  Debug  | Release |
|-----------|--------:|--------:|
| fast path |   1.04x |   1.43x |
| slow path |   1.16x |   1.22x |

Thus, we don't make the assertions thread-safe by default, and instead
provide a build-time configuration option that the users can set to get
thread-safe assertions.

This commit is functional, but it still needs some follow-up work:
 * We do not need full seq_cst increments for the atomic counters,
   and using weaker ones can be faster.
 * We brute-force updating the reporter-friendly totals from internal
   atomic counters by doing it everywhere. We should properly trace
   where this is needed instead.
 * Message macros (`INFO`, `UNSCOPED_INFO`, `CAPTURE`, etc) are not
   made thread safe in this commit, but they can be made thread safe
   in the future, by building on top of this work.
 * Add more tests, including with thread-sanitizer, and compiled
   examples to the repository. Right now, these changes have been
   compiled with tsan manually, but these tests are not added to CI.

Closes #2948
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
All the previous refactoring to make the assertion fast paths
smaller and faster also allows us to implement the fast paths
just with thread-local and atomic variables, without full mutexes.

However, the performance overhead of thread-safe assertions is
still significant for single threaded usage:

|  slowdown |  Debug  | Release |
|-----------|--------:|--------:|
| fast path |   1.04x |   1.43x |
| slow path |   1.16x |   1.22x |

Thus, we don't make the assertions thread-safe by default, and instead
provide a build-time configuration option that the users can set to get
thread-safe assertions.

This commit is functional, but it still needs some follow-up work:
 * We do not need full seq_cst increments for the atomic counters,
   and using weaker ones can be faster.
 * We brute-force updating the reporter-friendly totals from internal
   atomic counters by doing it everywhere. We should properly trace
   where this is needed instead.
 * Message macros (`INFO`, `UNSCOPED_INFO`, `CAPTURE`, etc) are not
   made thread safe in this commit, but they can be made thread safe
   in the future, by building on top of this work.
 * Add more tests, including with thread-sanitizer, and compiled
   examples to the repository. Right now, these changes have been
   compiled with tsan manually, but these tests are not added to CI.

Closes #2948
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
