


PROVE(1)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide        PROVE(1)


NAME
       prove - Run tests through a TAP harness.

USAGE
        prove [options] [files or directories]

OPTIONS
       Boolean options:

        -v,  --verbose     Print all test lines.
        -l,  --lib         Add 'lib' to the path for your tests (-Ilib).
        -b,  --blib        Add 'blib/lib' and 'blib/arch' to the path for your tests
        -s,  --shuffle     Run the tests in random order.
        -c,  --color       Colored test output (default).
             --nocolor     Do not color test output.
             --count       Show the X/Y test count when not verbose (default)
             --nocount     Disable the X/Y test count.
        -D   --dry         Dry run. Show test that would have run.
             --ext         Set the extension for tests (default '.t')
        -f,  --failures    Show failed tests.
        -o,  --comments    Show comments.
             --fork        Fork to run harness in multiple processes.
             --ignore-exit Ignore exit status from test scripts.
        -m,  --merge       Merge test scripts' STDERR with their STDOUT.
        -r,  --recurse     Recursively descend into directories.
             --reverse     Run the tests in reverse order.
        -q,  --quiet       Suppress some test output while running tests.
        -Q,  --QUIET       Only print summary results.
        -p,  --parse       Show full list of TAP parse errors, if any.
             --directives  Only show results with TODO or SKIP directives.
             --timer       Print elapsed time after each test.
             --normalize   Normalize TAP output in verbose output
        -T                 Enable tainting checks.
        -t                 Enable tainting warnings.
        -W                 Enable fatal warnings.
        -w                 Enable warnings.
        -h,  --help        Display this help
        -?,                Display this help
        -H,  --man         Longer manpage for prove
             --norc        Don't process default .proverc

       Options that take arguments:

        -I                 Library paths to include.
        -P                 Load plugin (searches App::Prove::Plugin::*.)
        -M                 Load a module.
        -e,  --exec        Interpreter to run the tests ('' for compiled tests.)
             --harness     Define test harness to use.  See TAP::Harness.
             --formatter   Result formatter to use. See TAP::Harness.
        -a,  --archive     Store the resulting TAP in an archive file.
        -j,  --jobs N      Run N test jobs in parallel (try 9.)
             --state=opts  Control prove's persistent state.
             --rc=rcfile   Process options from rcfile




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PROVE(1)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide        PROVE(1)


NOTES
   .proverc
       If ~/.proverc or ./.proverc exist they will be read and
       any options they contain processed before the command line
       options. Options in .proverc are specified in the same way
       as command line options:

           # .proverc
           --state=hot,fast,save
           -j9 --fork

       Additional option files may be specified with the "--rc"
       option.  Default option file processing is disabled by the
       "--norc" option.

       Under Windows and VMS the option file is named _proverc
       rather than .proverc and is sought only in the current
       directory.

   Reading from "STDIN"
       If you have a list of tests (or URLs, or anything else you
       want to test) in a file, you can add them to your tests by
       using a '-':

        prove - < my_list_of_things_to_test.txt

       See the "README" in the "examples" directory of this
       distribution.

   Default Test Directory
       If no files or directories are supplied, "prove" looks for
       all files matching the pattern "t/*.t".

   Colored Test Output
       Colored test output is the default, but if output is not
       to a terminal, color is disabled. You can override this by
       adding the "--color" switch.

       Color support requires Term::ANSIColor on Unix-like
       platforms and Win32::Console windows. If the necessary
       module is not installed colored output will not be
       available.

   Exit Code
       If the tests fail "prove" will exit with non-zero status.

   Arguments to Tests
       It is possible to supply arguments to tests. To do so
       separate them from prove's own arguments with the
       arisdottle, '::'. For example

        prove -v t/mytest.t :: --url http://example.com

       would run t/mytest.t with the options '--url



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       http://example.com'.  When running multiple tests they
       will each receive the same arguments.

   "--exec"
       Normally you can just pass a list of Perl tests and the
       harness will know how to execute them.  However, if your
       tests are not written in Perl or if you want all tests
       invoked exactly the same way, use the "-e", or "--exec"
       switch:

        prove --exec '/usr/bin/ruby -w' t/
        prove --exec '/usr/bin/perl -Tw -mstrict -Ilib' t/
        prove --exec '/path/to/my/customer/exec'

   "--merge"
       If you need to make sure your diagnostics are displayed in
       the correct order relative to test results you can use the
       "--merge" option to merge the test scripts' STDERR into
       their STDOUT.

       This guarantees that STDOUT (where the test results
       appear) and STDOUT (where the diagnostics appear) will
       stay in sync. The harness will display any diagnostics
       your tests emit on STDERR.

       Caveat: this is a bit of a kludge. In particular note that
       if anything that appears on STDERR looks like a test
       result the test harness will get confused. Use this option
       only if you understand the consequences and can live with
       the risk.

   "--state"
       You can ask "prove" to remember the state of previous test
       runs and select and/or order the tests to be run based on
       that saved state.

       The "--state" switch requires an argument which must be a
       comma separated list of one or more of the following
       options.

       "last"
           Run the same tests as the last time the state was
           saved. This makes it possible, for example, to
           recreate the ordering of a shuffled test.

               # Run all tests in random order
               $ prove -b --state=save --shuffle

               # Run them again in the same order
               $ prove -b --state=last

       "failed"
           Run only the tests that failed on the last run.




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PROVE(1)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide        PROVE(1)


               # Run all tests
               $ prove -b --state=save

               # Run failures
               $ prove -b --state=failed

           If you also specify the "save" option newly passing
           tests will be excluded from subsequent runs.

               # Repeat until no more failures
               $ prove -b --state=failed,save

       "passed"
           Run only the passed tests from last time. Useful to
           make sure that no new problems have been introduced.

       "all"
           Run all tests in normal order. Multple options may be
           specified, so to run all tests with the failures from
           last time first:

               $ prove -b --state=failed,all,save

       "hot"
           Run the tests that most recently failed first. The
           last failure time of each test is stored. The "hot"
           option causes tests to be run in most-recent- failure
           order.

               $ prove -b --state=hot,save

           Tests that have never failed will not be selected. To
           run all tests with the most recently failed first use

               $ prove -b --state=hot,all,save

           This combination of options may also be specified thus

               $ prove -b --state=adrian

       "todo"
           Run any tests with todos.

       "slow"
           Run the tests in slowest to fastest order. This is
           useful in conjunction with the "-j" parallel testing
           switch to ensure that your slowest tests start running
           first.

               $ prove -b --state=slow -j9

       "fast"
           Run test tests in fastest to slowest order.




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       "new"
           Run the tests in newest to oldest order based on the
           modification times of the test scripts.

       "old"
           Run the tests in oldest to newest order.

       "fresh"
           Run those test scripts that have been modified since
           the last test run.

       "save"
           Save the state on exit. The state is stored in a file
           called .prove (_prove on Windows and VMS) in the
           current directory.

       The "--state" switch may be used more than once.

           $ prove -b --state=hot --state=all,save

   @INC
       prove introduces a separation between "options passed to
       the perl which runs prove" and "options passed to the perl
       which runs tests"; this distinction is by design. Thus the
       perl which is running a test starts with the default @INC.
       Additional library directories can be added via the
       "PERL5LIB" environment variable, via -Ifoo in "PERL5OPT"
       or via the "-Ilib" option to prove.

   Taint Mode
       Normally when a Perl program is run in taint mode the
       contents of the "PERL5LIB" environment variable do not
       appear in @INC.

       Because "PERL5LIB" is often used during testing to add
       build directories to @INC prove (actually
       TAP::Parser::Source::Perl) passes the names of any
       directories found in "PERL5LIB" as -I switches. The net
       effect of this is that "PERL5LIB" is honoured even when
       prove is run in taint mode.

PLUGINS
       Plugins can be loaded using the "-Pplugin" syntax, eg:

         prove -PMyPlugin

       This will search for a module named
       "App::Prove::Plugin::MyPlugin", or failing that,
       "MyPlugin".  If the plugin can't be found, "prove" will
       complain & exit.

       You can pass arguments to your plugin by appending
       "=arg1,arg2,etc" to the plugin name:




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         prove -PMyPlugin=fou,du,fafa

       Please check individual plugin documentation for more
       details.

   Available Plugins
       For an up-to-date list of plugins available, please check
       CPAN:

       <http://search.cpan.org/search?query=App%3A%3AProve+Plugin>

   Writing Plugins
       Please see "PLUGINS" in App::Prove.












































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