How to run a .js file containing a Mocha suite multiple times in a loop?

Question

I have multiple .js test files and I would like to be able to run the tests in each file multiple times. For example, I would like to run each 5 or 10 times in a row. Even if it's just one file at a time, but the same file multiple times.

I was trying to unload the module from memory and then loading it again multiple time to see if it worked, but it doesn't. Check:

const testFilePath = './myFileWithOneMochaTestSuit.js';
for(let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
   delete require.cache[require.resolve(test)]; // Unloading the module in memory
   require(testFilePath);
}

The reason why I want to do this is because I have some integration tests that sometimes can fail. I want to be able to run these tests as many times as I need to analyze them when they fail.

All my test files look something like this:

// test1.js
describe('test suit 1', () => {
    //...
    before(() => {
        //...
    });

    it(`test 1...`, async () => {
        //...
    });

    it('test 2', () => {
        //...
    });

    // more tests  
});

// test2.js


// test2.js
describe('test suit 2', () => {
    //...
    before(() => {
        //...
    });

    it(`test 1...`, async () => {
        //...
    });

    it('test 2', () => {
        //...
    });

    // more tests  
});

So, what I need is to be able to run the test suite in test1.js multiple times in a row. And then test2.js multiple times in a row. Etc.

I have not been able to do that.

Any help would be appreciated.

I tried loading the files with require multiple times, but they only run once, the first time.

I tried removing the cached module in memory and loading it again with require, but didn't work.

Answer 1

Weird! It started working all of a sudden once I assigned the returned value of require to a variable and print it like:

for(let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
   delete require.cache[require.resolve(testFilePath)]; // Unloading the module in memory
   const m = require(testFilePath);
   console.log(m);
}

But then I removed the console.log(m) to see if it kept working, and it did:

for(let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
   delete require.cache[require.resolve(testFilePath)]; // Unloading the module in memory
   const m = require(testFilePath);
}

Finally I removed the const m = to see if it keeps working, and it did!

for(let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
   delete require.cache[require.resolve(testFilePath)]; // Unloading the module in memory
   require(testFilePath);
}

So I basically got back to where I started, but now it was working and loading the modules and unloading the test files and running the tests multiple times as I wanted.

I don't know how this happened with basically no difference in the code, but I'm glad it did.