1Test::Builder::Tester(3pPme)rl Programmers Reference GuiTdeest::Builder::Tester(3pm)
2
6 Test::Builder::Tester - test testsuites that have been built with
7 Test::Builder
8
10 use Test::Builder::Tester tests => 1;
11 use Test::More;
12 test_out("not ok 1 - foo");
14 test_fail(+1);
15 fail("foo");
16 test_test("fail works");
17
19 A module that helps you test testing modules that are built with
20 Test::Builder.
21 The testing system is designed to be used by performing a three step
23 process for each test you wish to test. This process starts with using
24 "test_out" and "test_err" in advance to declare what the testsuite you
25 are testing will output with Test::Builder to stdout and stderr.
26 You then can run the test(s) from your test suite that call
28 Test::Builder. At this point the output of Test::Builder is safely
29 captured by Test::Builder::Tester rather than being interpreted as real
30 test output.
31 The final stage is to call "test_test" that will simply compare what
33 you predeclared to what Test::Builder actually outputted, and report
34 the results back with a "ok" or "not ok" (with debugging) to the normal
35 output.
36 Functions
38 These are the six methods that are exported as default.
39 test_out
41 test_err
42 Procedures for predeclaring the output that your test suite is
43 expected to produce until "test_test" is called. These procedures
44 automatically assume that each line terminates with "\n". So
45 test_out("ok 1","ok 2");
47 is the same as
49 test_out("ok 1\nok 2");
51 which is even the same as
53 test_out("ok 1");
55 test_out("ok 2");
56 Once "test_out" or "test_err" (or "test_fail" or "test_diag") have
58 been called once all further output from Test::Builder will be
59 captured by Test::Builder::Tester. This means that your will not
60 be able perform further tests to the normal output in the normal
61 way until you call "test_test" (well, unless you manually meddle
62 with the output filehandles)
63 test_fail
65 Because the standard failure message that Test::Builder produces
66 whenever a test fails will be a common occurrence in your test
67 error output, and because has changed between Test::Builder
68 versions, rather than forcing you to call "test_err" with the
69 string all the time like so
70 test_err("# Failed test ($0 at line ".line_num(+1).")");
72 "test_fail" exists as a convenience function that can be called
74 instead. It takes one argument, the offset from the current line
75 that the line that causes the fail is on.
76 test_fail(+1);
78 This means that the example in the synopsis could be rewritten more
80 simply as:
81 test_out("not ok 1 - foo");
83 test_fail(+1);
84 fail("foo");
85 test_test("fail works");
86 test_diag
88 As most of the remaining expected output to the error stream will
89 be created by Test::Builder's "diag" function,
90 Test::Builder::Tester provides a convience function "test_diag"
91 that you can use instead of "test_err".
92 The "test_diag" function prepends comment hashes and spacing to the
94 start and newlines to the end of the expected output passed to it
95 and adds it to the list of expected error output. So, instead of
96 writing
97 test_err("# Couldn't open file");
99 you can write
101 test_diag("Couldn't open file");
103 Remember that Test::Builder's diag function will not add newlines
105 to the end of output and test_diag will. So to check
106 Test::Builder->new->diag("foo\n","bar\n");
108 You would do
110 test_diag("foo","bar")
112 without the newlines.
114 test_test
116 Actually performs the output check testing the tests, comparing the
117 data (with "eq") that we have captured from Test::Builder against
118 that that was declared with "test_out" and "test_err".
119 This takes name/value pairs that effect how the test is run.
121 title (synonym 'name', 'label')
123 The name of the test that will be displayed after the "ok" or
124 "not ok".
125 skip_out
127 Setting this to a true value will cause the test to ignore if
128 the output sent by the test to the output stream does not match
129 that declared with "test_out".
130 skip_err
132 Setting this to a true value will cause the test to ignore if
133 the output sent by the test to the error stream does not match
134 that declared with "test_err".
135 As a convience, if only one argument is passed then this argument
137 is assumed to be the name of the test (as in the above examples.)
138 Once "test_test" has been run test output will be redirected back
140 to the original filehandles that Test::Builder was connected to
141 (probably STDOUT and STDERR,) meaning any further tests you run
142 will function normally and cause success/errors for Test::Harness.
143 line_num
145 A utility function that returns the line number that the function
146 was called on. You can pass it an offset which will be added to
147 the result. This is very useful for working out the correct text
148 of diagnostic functions that contain line numbers.
149 Essentially this is the same as the "__LINE__" macro, but the
151 "line_num(+3)" idiom is arguably nicer.
152 In addition to the six exported functions there there exists one
154 function that can only be accessed with a fully qualified function
155 call.
156 color
158 When "test_test" is called and the output that your tests generate
159 does not match that which you declared, "test_test" will print out
160 debug information showing the two conflicting versions. As this
161 output itself is debug information it can be confusing which part
162 of the output is from "test_test" and which was the original output
163 from your original tests. Also, it may be hard to spot things like
164 extraneous whitespace at the end of lines that may cause your test
165 to fail even though the output looks similar.
166 To assist you, if you have the Term::ANSIColor module installed
168 (which you should do by default from perl 5.005 onwards),
169 "test_test" can colour the background of the debug information to
170 disambiguate the different types of output. The debug output will
171 have it's background coloured green and red. The green part
172 represents the text which is the same between the executed and
173 actual output, the red shows which part differs.
174 The "color" function determines if colouring should occur or not.
176 Passing it a true or false value will enable or disable colouring
177 respectively, and the function called with no argument will return
178 the current setting.
179 To enable colouring from the command line, you can use the
181 Text::Builder::Tester::Color module like so:
182 perl -Mlib=Text::Builder::Tester::Color test.t
184 Or by including the Test::Builder::Tester::Color module directly in
186 the PERL5LIB.
187
189 Calls "<Test::Builder-"no_ending>> turning off the ending tests. This
190 is needed as otherwise it will trip out because we've run more tests
191 than we strictly should have and it'll register any failures we had
192 that we were testing for as real failures.
193 The color function doesn't work unless Term::ANSIColor is installed and
195 is compatible with your terminal.
196 Bugs (and requests for new features) can be reported to the author
198 though the CPAN RT system:
199 <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Test-Builder-Tester>
200
202 Copyright Mark Fowler <mark@twoshortplanks.com> 2002, 2004.
203 Some code taken from Test::More and Test::Catch, written by by Michael
205 G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>. Hence, those parts Copyright Micheal G
206 Schwern 2001. Used and distributed with permission.
207 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
209 under the same terms as Perl itself.
210
212 This code has been tested explicitly on the following versions of perl:
213 5.7.3, 5.6.1, 5.6.0, 5.005_03, 5.004_05 and 5.004.
214 Thanks to Richard Clamp <richardc@unixbeard.net> for letting me use his
216 testing system to try this module out on.
217
219 Test::Builder, Test::Builder::Tester::Color, Test::More.
220perl v5.10.1 2009-07-07 Test::Builder::Tester(3pm)