assert - Unit Testing without Assertions

Question

Occasionally I come accross a unit test that doesn't Assert anything. The particular example I came across this morning was testing that a log file got written to when a condition was met. The assumption was that if no error was thrown the test passed.

I personally don't have a problem with this, however it seems to be a bit of a "code smell" to write a unit test that doesn't have any assertions associated with it.

Just wondering what people's views on this are?

Answer 1

It's simply a very minimal test, and should be documented as such. It only verifies that it doesn't explode when run. The worst part about tests like this is that they present a false sense of security. Your code coverage will go up, but it's illusory. Very bad odor.