


Test(3p)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide        Test(3p)


NAME
         Test - provides a simple framework for writing test scripts


SYNOPSIS
         use strict;
         use Test;

         # use a BEGIN block so we print our plan before MyModule is loaded
         BEGIN { plan tests => 14, todo => [3,4] }

         # load your module...
         use MyModule;

         ok(0); # failure
         ok(1); # success

         ok(0); # ok, expected failure (see todo list, above)
         ok(1); # surprise success!

         ok(0,1);             # failure: '0' ne '1'
         ok('broke','fixed'); # failure: 'broke' ne 'fixed'
         ok('fixed','fixed'); # success: 'fixed' eq 'fixed'
         ok('fixed',qr/x/);   # success: 'fixed' =~ qr/x/

         ok(sub { 1+1 }, 2);  # success: '2' eq '2'
         ok(sub { 1+1 }, 3);  # failure: '2' ne '3'
         ok(0, int(rand(2));  # (just kidding :-)

         my @list = (0,0);
         ok @list, 3, "\@list=".join(',',@list);      #extra diagnostics
         ok 'segmentation fault', '/(?i)success/';    #regex match

         skip($feature_is_missing, ...);    #do platform specific test


DESCRIPTION
       the Test::Harness manpage expects to see particular output
       when it executes tests.  This module aims to make writing
       proper test scripts just a little bit easier (and less
       error prone :-).

TEST TYPES
       o NORMAL TESTS
           These tests are expected to succeed.  If they don't
           something's screwed up!

       o SKIPPED TESTS
           Skip is for tests that might or might not be possible
           to run depending on the availability of platform
           specific features.  The first argument should evaluate
           to true (think "yes, please skip") if the required
           feature is not available.  After the first argument,
           skip works exactly the same way as do normal tests.



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Test(3p)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide        Test(3p)


       o TODO TESTS
           TODO tests are designed for maintaining an executable
           TODO list.  These tests are expected NOT to succeed.
           If a TODO test does succeed, the feature in question
           should not be on the TODO list, now should it?

           Packages should NOT be released with succeeding TODO
           tests.  As soon as a TODO test starts working, it
           should be promoted to a normal test and the newly
           working feature should be documented in the release
           notes or change log.

RETURN VALUE
       Both ok and skip return true if their test succeeds and
       false otherwise in a scalar context.

ONFAIL
         BEGIN { plan test => 4, onfail => sub { warn "CALL 911!" } }

       While test failures should be enough, extra diagnostics
       can be triggered at the end of a test run.  onfail is
       passed an array ref of hash refs that describe each test
       failure.  Each hash will contain at least the following
       fields: package, repetition, and result.  (The file, line,
       and test number are not included because their
       correspondance to a particular test is tenuous.)  If the
       test had an expected value or a diagnostic string, these
       will also be included.

       The optional onfail hook might be used simply to print out
       the version of your package and/or how to report problems.
       It might also be used to generate extremely sophisticated
       diagnostics for a particularly bizarre test failure.
       However it's not a panacea.  Core dumps or other
       unrecoverable errors prevent the onfail hook from running.
       (It is run inside an END block.)  Besides, onfail is
       probably over-kill in most cases.  (Your test code should
       be simpler than the code it is testing, yes?)

SEE ALSO
       the Test::Harness manpage and, perhaps, test coverage
       analysis tools.

AUTHOR
       Copyright (c) 1998 Joshua Nathaniel Pritikin.  All rights
       reserved.

       This package is free software and is provided "as is"
       without express or implied warranty.  It may be used,
       redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the Perl
       Artistic License (see
       http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html)





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Test(3p)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide        Test(3p)



























































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