Test::Simple(3p)Perl Programmers Reference Guide Test::Simple(3p)NAMETest::Simple - Basic utilities for writing tests.
SYNOPSIS
use Test::Simple tests => 1;
ok( $foo eq $bar, 'foo is bar' );
DESCRIPTION
** If you are unfamiliar with testing read Test::Tutorial
first! **
This is an extremely simple, extremely basic module for
writing tests suitable for CPAN modules and other pursuits.
If you wish to do more complicated testing, use the
Test::More module (a drop-in replacement for this one).
The basic unit of Perl testing is the ok. For each thing
you want to test your program will print out an "ok" or "not
ok" to indicate pass or fail. You do this with the ok()
function (see below).
The only other constraint is you must pre-declare how many
tests you plan to run. This is in case something goes hor-
ribly wrong during the test and your test program aborts, or
skips a test or whatever. You do this like so:
use Test::Simple tests => 23;
You must have a plan.
ok
ok( $foo eq $bar, $name );
ok( $foo eq $bar );
ok() is given an expression (in this case "$foo eq
$bar"). If it's true, the test passed. If it's false,
it didn't. That's about it.
ok() prints out either "ok" or "not ok" along with a
test number (it keeps track of that for you).
# This produces "ok 1 - Hell not yet frozen over" (or not ok)
ok( get_temperature($hell) > 0, 'Hell not yet frozen over' );
If you provide a $name, that will be printed along with
the "ok/not ok" to make it easier to find your test when
if fails (just search for the name). It also makes it
easier for the next guy to understand what your test is
for. It's highly recommended you use test names.
All tests are run in scalar context. So this:
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ok( @stuff, 'I have some stuff' );
will do what you mean (fail if stuff is empty)
Test::Simple will start by printing number of tests run in
the form "1..M" (so "1..5" means you're going to run 5
tests). This strange format lets Test::Harness know how
many tests you plan on running in case something goes horri-
bly wrong.
If all your tests passed, Test::Simple will exit with zero
(which is normal). If anything failed it will exit with how
many failed. If you run less (or more) tests than you
planned, the missing (or extras) will be considered
failures. If no tests were ever run Test::Simple will throw
a warning and exit with 255. If the test died, even after
having successfully completed all its tests, it will still
be considered a failure and will exit with 255.
So the exit codes are...
0 all tests successful
255 test died or all passed but wrong # of tests run
any other number how many failed (including missing or extras)
If you fail more than 254 tests, it will be reported as 254.
This module is by no means trying to be a complete testing
system. It's just to get you started. Once you're off the
ground its recommended you look at Test::More.
EXAMPLE
Here's an example of a simple .t file for the fictional Film
module.
use Test::Simple tests => 5;
use Film; # What you're testing.
my $btaste = Film->new({ Title => 'Bad Taste',
Director => 'Peter Jackson',
Rating => 'R',
NumExplodingSheep => 1
});
ok( defined($btaste) && ref $btaste eq 'Film, 'new() works' );
ok( $btaste->Title eq 'Bad Taste', 'Title() get' );
ok( $btaste->Director eq 'Peter Jackson', 'Director() get' );
ok( $btaste->Rating eq 'R', 'Rating() get' );
ok( $btaste->NumExplodingSheep == 1, 'NumExplodingSheep() get' );
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It will produce output like this:
1..5
ok 1 - new() works
ok 2 - Title() get
ok 3 - Director() get
not ok 4 - Rating() get
# Failed test 'Rating() get'
# in t/film.t at line 14.
ok 5 - NumExplodingSheep() get
# Looks like you failed 1 tests of 5
Indicating the Film::Rating() method is broken.
CAVEATSTest::Simple will only report a maximum of 254 failures in
its exit code. If this is a problem, you probably have a
huge test script. Split it into multiple files. (Otherwise
blame the Unix folks for using an unsigned short integer as
the exit status).
Because VMS's exit codes are much, much different than the
rest of the universe, and perl does horrible mangling to
them that gets in my way, it works like this on VMS.
0 SS$_NORMAL all tests successful
4 SS$_ABORT something went wrong
Unfortunately, I can't differentiate any further.
NOTESTest::Simple is explicitly tested all the way back to perl
5.004.
Test::Simple is thread-safe in perl 5.8.0 and up.
HISTORY
This module was conceived while talking with Tony Bowden in
his kitchen one night about the problems I was having writ-
ing some really complicated feature into the new Testing
module. He observed that the main problem is not dealing
with these edge cases but that people hate to write tests at
all. What was needed was a dead simple module that took all
the hard work out of testing and was really, really easy to
learn. Paul Johnson simultaneously had this idea (unfor-
tunately, he wasn't in Tony's kitchen). This is it.
SEE ALSO
Test::More
More testing functions! Once you outgrow Test::Simple,
look at Test::More. Test::Simple is 100% forward compa-
tible with Test::More (i.e. you can just use Test::More
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instead of Test::Simple in your programs and things will
still work).
Test
The original Perl testing module.
Test::Unit
Elaborate unit testing.
Test::Inline, SelfTest
Embed tests in your code!
Test::Harness
Interprets the output of your test program.
AUTHORS
Idea by Tony Bowden and Paul Johnson, code by Michael G
Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>, wardrobe by Calvin Klein.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2001, 2002, 2004 by Michael G Schwern
<schwern@pobox.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
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