How to run setup code only once in an xUnit.net test

Following the guidance in this xUnit discussion topic, it looks like you need to implement a constructor on the Fixture and also implement IDisposable. Here’s a complete sample that behaves the way you want:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using Xunit;
using Xunit.Sdk;

namespace xUnitSample
{
    public class SomeFixture : IDisposable
    {
        public SomeFixture()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("SomeFixture ctor: This should only be run once");
        }

        public void SomeMethod()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("SomeFixture::SomeMethod()");
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("SomeFixture: Disposing SomeFixture");
        }
    }

    public class TestSample : IUseFixture<SomeFixture>, IDisposable
    {
        public void SetFixture(SomeFixture data)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("TestSample::SetFixture(): Calling SomeMethod");
            data.SomeMethod();
        }

        public TestSample()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("This should be run once before every test " + DateTime.Now.Ticks);
        }

        [Fact]
        public void Test1()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("This is test one.");
        }

        [Fact]
        public void Test2()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("This is test two.");
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Disposing");
        }
    }
}

When running this from the console runner, you’ll see the following output:

D:\xUnit>xunit.console.clr4.exe test.dll /html foo.htm xUnit.net
console test runner (64-bit .NET 4.0.30319.17929) Copyright (C)
2007-11 Microsoft Corporation.

xunit.dll: Version 1.9.1.1600 Test assembly: test.dll

SomeFixture ctor: This should only be run once

Tests complete: 2 of 2

SomeFixture: Disposing SomeFixture

2 total, 0 failed, 0 skipped, took 0.686 seconds

Then, when you crack open the test output file foo.htm, you’ll see the other test output.