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Run CAT on Linux

On Linux CAT runs as the PowerShell module under PowerShell 7 — the tests, the providers for databases and files, the outputs except Excel. Install PowerShell 7, install the module, run.

Of the four CAT tools, the PowerShell module is the one that runs on Linux — it needs PowerShell 7 and nothing else. CAT CLI and the Python module are Windows-only; CAT Studio is a Windows application. What the module cannot do on Linux: the providers built on Windows components (Dax@*, PowerBI@*, CsvOleDB@1, ExcelOleDB@1), and the Excel output unless libgdiplus is installed. Databases, CSV and YAML files, the JSON/YAML/JUnit/TRX and database outputs — all there.

Install PowerShell 7

Microsoft has a nice article with step-by-step instructions to install PowerShell 7 on Ubuntu. At the moment Focal, Jammy and Noble are supported:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/install-ubuntu?view=powershell-7.4

Install CAT

First, you need to run PowerShell 7:

pwsh

PowerShell prints its version. Notice it also changes the prompt, now you are “in PowerShell”, not “in bash”. The prompt now starts with “PS” letters:

pwsh command in bash

Your terminal now expects PowerShell commands. You can easily install CAT with a single line, the same way as on Windows:

Install-Module CAT -AcceptLicense -Force -AllowClobber -Scope CurrentUser

Use CAT

Now you can use any commands from CAT PowerShell module.

Don’t forget you need to run Import-Module CAT everytime before you use CAT module. Example:

CAT commands in PowerShell

For non-interactive way, you can save your commands into a .ps1 script and run it like this:

pwsh ./run-cat-tests.ps1
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