


Test::Harness(3p)Perl Programmers Reference GuidTest::Harness(3p)


NAME
       Test::Harness - Run Perl standard test scripts with
       statistics

VERSION
       Version 2.56

SYNOPSIS
         use Test::Harness;

         runtests(@test_files);

DESCRIPTION
       STOP! If all you want to do is write a test script, con-
       sider using Test::Simple.  Test::Harness is the module
       that reads the output from Test::Simple, Test::More and
       other modules based on Test::Builder.  You don't need to
       know about Test::Harness to use those modules.

       Test::Harness runs tests and expects output from the test
       in a certain format.  That format is called TAP, the Test
       Anything Protocol.  It is defined in Test::Harness::TAP.

       "Test::Harness::runtests(@tests)" runs all the testscripts
       named as arguments and checks standard output for the
       expected strings in TAP format.

       The prove utility is a thin wrapper around Test::Harness.

       Taint mode

       Test::Harness will honor the "-T" or "-t" in the #! line
       on your test files.  So if you begin a test with:

           #!perl -T

       the test will be run with taint mode on.

       Configuration variables.

       These variables can be used to configure the behavior of
       Test::Harness.  They are exported on request.

       $Test::Harness::Verbose
           The package variable $Test::Harness::Verbose is
           exportable and can be used to let "runtests()" display
           the standard output of the script without altering the
           behavior otherwise.  The prove utility's "-v" flag
           will set this.

       $Test::Harness::switches
           The package variable $Test::Harness::switches is
           exportable and can be used to set perl command line
           options used for running the test script(s). The



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           default value is "-w". It overrides "HAR-
           NESS_SWITCHES".

       $Test::Harness::Timer
           If set to true, and "Time::HiRes" is available, print
           elapsed seconds after each test file.

       Failure

       When tests fail, analyze the summary report:

         t/base..............ok
         t/nonumbers.........ok
         t/ok................ok
         t/test-harness......ok
         t/waterloo..........dubious
                 Test returned status 3 (wstat 768, 0x300)
         DIED. FAILED tests 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19
                 Failed 10/20 tests, 50.00% okay
         Failed Test  Stat Wstat Total Fail  Failed  List of Failed
         -----------------------------------------------------------------------
         t/waterloo.t    3   768    20   10  50.00%  1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
         Failed 1/5 test scripts, 80.00% okay. 10/44 subtests failed, 77.27% okay.

       Everything passed but t/waterloo.t.  It failed 10 of 20
       tests and exited with non-zero status indicating something
       dubious happened.

       The columns in the summary report mean:

       Failed Test
           The test file which failed.

       Stat
           If the test exited with non-zero, this is its exit
           status.

       Wstat
           The wait status of the test.

       Total
           Total number of tests expected to run.

       Fail
           Number which failed, either from "not ok" or because
           they never ran.

       Failed
           Percentage of the total tests which failed.

       List of Failed
           A list of the tests which failed.  Successive failures
           may be abbreviated (ie. 15-20 to indicate that tests
           15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 failed).



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       Functions

       Test::Harness currently only has one function, here it is.

       runtests
             my $allok = runtests(@test_files);

           This runs all the given @test_files and divines
           whether they passed or failed based on their output to
           STDOUT (details above).  It prints out each individual
           test which failed along with a summary report and a
           how long it all took.

           It returns true if everything was ok.  Otherwise it
           will "die()" with one of the messages in the DIAGNOS-
           TICS section.

EXPORT
       &runtests is exported by Test::Harness by default.

       $verbose, $switches and $debug are exported upon request.

DIAGNOSTICS
       "All tests successful.\nFiles=%d,  Tests=%d, %s"
           If all tests are successful some statistics about the
           performance are printed.

       "FAILED tests %s\n\tFailed %d/%d tests, %.2f%% okay."
           For any single script that has failing subtests
           statistics like the above are printed.

       "Test returned status %d (wstat %d)"
           Scripts that return a non-zero exit status, both "$?
           >> 8" and $? are printed in a message similar to the
           above.

       "Failed 1 test, %.2f%% okay. %s"
       "Failed %d/%d tests, %.2f%% okay. %s"
           If not all tests were successful, the script dies with
           one of the above messages.

       "FAILED--Further testing stopped: %s"
           If a single subtest decides that further testing will
           not make sense, the script dies with this message.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES THAT TEST::HARNESS SETS
       Test::Harness sets these before executing the individual
       tests.

       "HARNESS_ACTIVE"
           This is set to a true value.  It allows the tests to
           determine if they are being executed through the har-
           ness or by any other means.




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       "HARNESS_VERSION"
           This is the version of Test::Harness.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES THAT AFFECT TEST::HARNESS
       "HARNESS_COLUMNS"
           This value will be used for the width of the terminal.
           If it is not set then it will default to "COLUMNS". If
           this is not set, it will default to 80. Note that
           users of Bourne-sh based shells will need to "export
           COLUMNS" for this module to use that variable.

       "HARNESS_COMPILE_TEST"
           When true it will make harness attempt to compile the
           test using "perlcc" before running it.

           NOTE This currently only works when sitting in the
           perl source directory!

       "HARNESS_DEBUG"
           If true, Test::Harness will print debugging informa-
           tion about itself as it runs the tests.  This is dif-
           ferent from "HARNESS_VERBOSE", which prints the output
           from the test being run.  Setting $Test::Har-
           ness::Debug will override this, or you can use the
           "-d" switch in the prove utility.

       "HARNESS_FILELEAK_IN_DIR"
           When set to the name of a directory, harness will
           check after each test whether new files appeared in
           that directory, and report them as

             LEAKED FILES: scr.tmp 0 my.db

           If relative, directory name is with respect to the
           current directory at the moment runtests() was called.
           Putting absolute path into "HARNESS_FILELEAK_IN_DIR"
           may give more predictable results.

       "HARNESS_IGNORE_EXITCODE"
           Makes harness ignore the exit status of child pro-
           cesses when defined.

       "HARNESS_NOTTY"
           When set to a true value, forces it to behave as
           though STDOUT were not a console.  You may need to set
           this if you don't want harness to output more frequent
           progress messages using carriage returns.  Some con-
           soles may not handle carriage returns properly (which
           results in a somewhat messy output).

       "HARNESS_PERL"
           Usually your tests will be run by $^X, the currently-
           executing Perl.  However, you may want to have it run
           by a different executable, such as a threading perl,



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           or a different version.

           If you're using the prove utility, you can use the
           "--perl" switch.

       "HARNESS_PERL_SWITCHES"
           Its value will be prepended to the switches used to
           invoke perl on each test.  For example, setting "HAR-
           NESS_PERL_SWITCHES" to "-W" will run all tests with
           all warnings enabled.

       "HARNESS_VERBOSE"
           If true, Test::Harness will output the verbose results
           of running its tests.  Setting $Test::Harness::verbose
           will override this, or you can use the "-v" switch in
           the prove utility.

EXAMPLE
       Here's how Test::Harness tests itself

         $ cd ~/src/devel/Test-Harness
         $ perl -Mblib -e 'use Test::Harness qw(&runtests $verbose);
           $verbose=0; runtests @ARGV;' t/*.t
         Using /home/schwern/src/devel/Test-Harness/blib
         t/base..............ok
         t/nonumbers.........ok
         t/ok................ok
         t/test-harness......ok
         All tests successful.
         Files=4, Tests=24, 2 wallclock secs ( 0.61 cusr + 0.41 csys = 1.02 CPU)

SEE ALSO
       The included prove utility for running test scripts from
       the command line, Test and Test::Simple for writing test
       scripts, Benchmark for the underlying timing routines, and
       Devel::Cover for test coverage analysis.

TODO
       Provide a way of running tests quietly (ie. no printing)
       for automated validation of tests.  This will probably
       take the form of a version of runtests() which rather than
       printing its output returns raw data on the state of the
       tests.  (Partially done in Test::Harness::Straps)

       Document the format.

       Fix HARNESS_COMPILE_TEST without breaking its core usage.

       Figure a way to report test names in the failure summary.

       Rework the test summary so long test names are not trun-
       cated as badly.  (Partially done with new skip test
       styles)




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       Add option for coverage analysis.

       Trap STDERR.

       Implement Straps total_results()

       Remember exit code

       Completely redo the print summary code.

       Implement Straps callbacks.  (experimentally implemented)

       Straps->analyze_file() not taint clean, don't know if it
       can be

       Fix that damned VMS nit.

       HARNESS_TODOFAIL to display TODO failures

       Add a test for verbose.

       Change internal list of test results to a hash.

       Fix stats display when there's an overrun.

       Fix so perls with spaces in the filename work.

       Keeping whittling away at _run_all_tests()

       Clean up how the summary is printed.  Get rid of those
       damned formats.

BUGS
       HARNESS_COMPILE_TEST currently assumes it's run from the
       Perl source directory.

       Please use the CPAN bug ticketing system at
       <http://rt.cpan.org/>.  You can also mail bugs, fixes and
       enhancements to "<bug-test-harness" at "rt.cpan.org>".

AUTHORS
       Either Tim Bunce or Andreas Koenig, we don't know. What we
       know for sure is, that it was inspired by Larry Wall's
       TEST script that came with perl distributions for ages.
       Numerous anonymous contributors exist.  Andreas Koenig
       held the torch for many years, and then Michael G Schwern.

       Current maintainer is Andy Lester "<andy at pet-
       dance.com>".

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2002-2005 by Michael G Schwern "<schwern at
       pobox.com>", Andy Lester "<andy at petdance.com>".




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       This program is free software; you can redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

       See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>.





















































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