Using binary in python test in bazel

Question

I would like to write some end-to-end tests of my C++ binary, that would provide some input file and read output from stdout and assert it's correct. I wrote a simple python test and it works fine and now I try to make it work with bazel. I added py_test to bazel and it builds, but I can't specify cc_binary in deps of that target (bazel complains). If I don't run the build command of the cc_binary separately, the python test won't see the binary in bazel-bin. How can I force to also build my cc_binary before running py_test?

Answer 1

You can add the binary as a data dependency. See the encyclopedia for details, but it would basically look something like:

cc_binary(
    name = "my-bin",
    srcs = ["bin.cc"],
)

py_test(
    name = "my-test",
    srcs = ["my_test.py"],
    data = [":my-bin"],
    # any other attributes you need...
)