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prove and Test::Harness 2.36
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From:
Andy Lester
Date:
November 14, 2003 11:33
Subject:
prove and Test::Harness 2.36
Message ID:
20031114202249.GA10430@petdance.com
I've just released Test::Harness 2.36. As of 2.32, T::H has come with
the new F<prove> command-line utility for running tests. My unabashed
goal for prove is to change the way people think about automated tests,
by making it so simple to run the tests as the code is written that
there's no reason not to.
"Why did you write this?" I hear you ask. A number of reasons:
* prove is designed as a development tool
* prove is granular
* prove has an easy verbose mode
* prove can run under taint mode
* prove can shuffle tests
* prove doesn't rely on a make tool
* Not everything is a module
I've included the prove man page below as a summary and introduction.
As always, suggestions are welcomed and encouraged.
xoa
NAME
prove -- A command-line tool for running tests against Test::Harness
SYNOPSIS
prove [options] [files/directories]
Options:
-b, --blib Adds blib/lib to the path for your tests, a la "use blib".
-d, --debug Includes extra debugging information.
-D, --dry Dry run: Show the tests to run, but don't run them.
--ext=x Extensions (defaults to .t)
-h, --help Display this help
-H, --man Longer manpage for prove
-I Add libraries to @INC, as Perl's -I
-r, --recurse Recursively descend into directories.
-s, --shuffle Run the tests in a random order.
-T Enable tainting checks
-t Enable tainting warnings
-v, --verbose Display standard output of test scripts while running them.
-V, --version Display version info
Single-character options may be stacked. Default options may be set by
specifying the PROVE_SWITCHES environment variable.
OVERVIEW
prove is a command-line interface to the test-running functionality of
"Test::Harness". With no arguments, it will run all tests in the current
directory.
Shell metacharacters may be used with command lines options and will be
exanded via "glob".
PROVE VS. "MAKE TEST"
prove has a number of advantages over "make test" when doing
development.
* prove is designed as a development tool
Perl users typically run the test harness through a makefile via
"make test". That's fine for module distributions, but it's
suboptimal for a test/code/debug development cycle.
* prove is granular
prove lets your run against only the files you want to check.
Running "prove t/live/ t/master.t" checks every *.t in t/live, plus
t/master.t.
* prove has an easy verbose mode
prove has a "-v" option to see the raw output from the tests. To do
this with "make test", you must set "HARNESS_VERBOSE=1" in the
environment.
* prove can run under taint mode
prove's "-T" runs your tests under "perl -T", and "-t" runs them
under "perl -t".
* prove can shuffle tests
You can use prove's "--shuffle" option to try to excite problems
that don't show up when tests are run in the same order every time.
* prove doesn't rely on a make tool
Not everyone wants to write a makefile, or use ExtUtils::MakeMaker
to do so. prove has no external dependencies.
* Not everything is a module
More and more users are using Perl's testing tools outside the
context of a module distribution, and may not even use a makefile at
all.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
-b, --blib
Adds blib/lib to the path for your tests, a la "use blib".
-d, --debug
Include debug information about how prove is being run. This option
doesn't show the output from the test scripts. That's handled by
-v,--verbose.
-D, --dry
Dry run: Show the tests to run, but don't run them.
--ext=extension
Specify extensions of the test files to run. By default, these are .t,
but you may have other non-.t test files, most likely .sh shell scripts.
The --ext is repeatable.
-I
Add libraries to @INC, as Perl's -I
-r, --recurse
Descends into subdirectories of any directories specified, looking for
tests.
-s, --shuffle
Sometimes tests are accidentally dependent on tests that have been run
before. This switch will shuffle the tests to be run prior to running
them, thus ensuring that hidden dependencies in the test order are
likely to be revealed. The author hopes the run the algorithm on the
preceding sentence to see if he can produce something slightly less
awkward.
-T, --taint
Runs test programs under perl's -T taint mode.
-v, --verbose
Display standard output of test scripts while running them.
-V, --version
Display version info.
BUGS
Please use the CPAN bug ticketing system at <http://rt.cpan.org/>. You
can also mail bugs, fixes and enhancements to
"<bug-test-harness@rt.cpan.org>".
TODO
* Shuffled tests must be recreatable
* Add a flag to run prove under Devel::Cover
AUTHORS
Andy Lester "<andy@petdance.com>"
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2003 by Andy Lester "<andy@petdance.com>".
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>.
--
Andy Lester => andy@petdance.com => www.petdance.com => AIM:petdance
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prove and Test::Harness 2.36
by Andy Lester