Add a filePath property to SourceLocation

February 24, 2026 · View on GitHub

  • Status: Implemented (Swift 6.3)

Introduction

Swift Testing represents the in-source location of tests, issues, errors, etc. using a structure called SourceLocation. This structure contains the line, column, and file ID for a given location in a Swift source file. I propose adding the file path to this structure for use by developers and tools.

Motivation

When we initially designed Swift Testing and SourceLocation, our expectation was that tools like Visual Studio Code or Xcode would be able to translate Swift file IDs to file paths where needed.

At the time, Swift 6 had not yet been introduced and we were working off the assumption that #filePath would eventually be deprecated (possibly in Swift 6). This assumption was based on the history behind #fileID:

  • SE-0274 originally proposed repurposing #file to generate file IDs (and added #filePath for use cases that still needed full paths.)
  • SE-0285 modified the plan to leave #file as-is in Swift 5 and introduced #fileID and planned to have #file equal #fileID in Swift 6 onward.
  • In September 2024, the Language Steering Group discussed #file, #filePath, and #fileID, and decided to maintain the status quo.

Because the future of these magic values (now expression macros) was unclear, we opted to provide only a fileID property on SourceLocation. SourceLocation does gather a full file path, but does not expose a public property to access this value at runtime or later.

It has become clear since we shipped Swift Testing that tools are much better equipped to handle file paths than Swift file IDs, and the translation from a file ID back to the original path on a developer's system may be non-trivial or even impossible (in the case of strict sandboxing around a tool).

Proposed solution

I propose adding a filePath property to SourceLocation and to the JSON event stream schema.

Detailed design

The following property is added:

extension SourceLocation {
  /// The path to the source file.
  public var filePath: String { get set }
}

Swift Testing's JSON schema (version "6.3" onward) is updated to add a "filePath" key to source location values and to make the "fileID" key optional:

 <source-location> ::= {
-  "fileID": <string>, ; the Swift file ID of the file
+  ["fileID": <string>,] ; the Swift file ID of the file if available, as per
+                        ; SE-0274 § "Specification of the #file string format"
+  "filePath": <string>, ; the compile-time path to the file
   "line": <number>,
   "column": <number>,
 }

The value of the "filePath" key is an absolute file system path. It is not guaranteed to refer to an existing file (for instance, it may refer to a file on a build system that isn't present at runtime). The path style used (POSIX, Windows, or otherwise) is implementation-defined.

If the "fileID" key is not present when Swift Testing decodes an instance of SourceLocation, it is synthesized from "filePath" and the module name is assumed to be "__C"1. This change allows Swift Testing to support source location information generated in other languages like Objective-C or C++. For example, a test written in Objective-C could construct a <source-location> JSON value as follows:

id jsonObject = @{
  @"line": @(__LINE__),
  @"column": @(__builtin_COLUMN()),
  @"filePath": @(__file__)
};

And, assuming __file__ equals "/foo/bar/quux.m", Swift Testing would infer a file ID of "__C/quux.m".

Source compatibility

There are no source compatibility concerns.

Integration with supporting tools

Supporting tools will be able to migrate from the unsupported "_filePath" JSON key to the new "filePath" key. We will continue to emit "_filePath" where needed until the ecosystem has moved to "filePath".

Future directions

N/A

Alternatives considered

  • None.

Footnotes

  1. The Swift compiler and runtime assume a module name of __C for most imported foreign types. ↩