


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
       Test::Harness 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 spe-
           cific features.  The first argument should evaluate to
           true (think "yes, please skip") if the required fea-
           ture is not available.  After the first argument, skip
           works exactly the same way as do normal tests.



2001-05-24                 perl v5.6.1                          1





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 cor-
       respondence 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 prob-
       lems.  It might also be used to generate extremely sophis-
       ticated diagnostics for a particularly bizarre test fail-
       ure.  However it's not a panacea.  Core dumps or other
       unrecoverable errors prevent the "onfail" hook from run-
       ning.  (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) 1998-1999 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/Artis-
       tic.html)





2001-05-24                 perl v5.6.1                          2


