1Test::Simple(3)       User Contributed Perl Documentation      Test::Simple(3)
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NAME

6       Test::Simple - Basic utilities for writing tests.
7

SYNOPSIS

9         use Test::Simple tests => 1;
10
11         ok( $foo eq $bar, 'foo is bar' );
12

DESCRIPTION

14       ** If you are unfamiliar with testing read Test::Tutorial first! **
15
16       This is an extremely simple, extremely basic module for writing tests
17       suitable for CPAN modules and other pursuits.  If you wish to do more
18       complicated testing, use the Test::More module (a drop-in replacement
19       for this one).
20
21       The basic unit of Perl testing is the ok.  For each thing you want to
22       test your program will print out an "ok" or "not ok" to indicate pass
23       or fail.  You do this with the "ok()" function (see below).
24
25       The only other constraint is you must pre-declare how many tests you
26       plan to run.  This is in case something goes horribly wrong during the
27       test and your test program aborts, or skips a test or whatever.  You do
28       this like so:
29
30           use Test::Simple tests => 23;
31
32       You must have a plan.
33
34       ok
35             ok( $foo eq $bar, $name );
36             ok( $foo eq $bar );
37
38           "ok()" is given an expression (in this case "$foo eq $bar").  If
39           it's true, the test passed.  If it's false, it didn't.  That's
40           about it.
41
42           "ok()" prints out either "ok" or "not ok" along with a test number
43           (it keeps track of that for you).
44
45             # This produces "ok 1 - Hell not yet frozen over" (or not ok)
46             ok( get_temperature($hell) > 0, 'Hell not yet frozen over' );
47
48           If you provide a $name, that will be printed along with the "ok/not
49           ok" to make it easier to find your test when if fails (just search
50           for the name).  It also makes it easier for the next guy to
51           understand what your test is for.  It's highly recommended you use
52           test names.
53
54           All tests are run in scalar context.  So this:
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56               ok( @stuff, 'I have some stuff' );
57
58           will do what you mean (fail if stuff is empty)
59
60       Test::Simple will start by printing number of tests run in the form
61       "1..M" (so "1..5" means you're going to run 5 tests).  This strange
62       format lets Test::Harness know how many tests you plan on running in
63       case something goes horribly wrong.
64
65       If all your tests passed, Test::Simple will exit with zero (which is
66       normal).  If anything failed it will exit with how many failed.  If you
67       run less (or more) tests than you planned, the missing (or extras) will
68       be considered failures.  If no tests were ever run Test::Simple will
69       throw a warning and exit with 255.  If the test died, even after having
70       successfully completed all its tests, it will still be considered a
71       failure and will exit with 255.
72
73       So the exit codes are...
74
75           0                   all tests successful
76           255                 test died or all passed but wrong # of tests run
77           any other number    how many failed (including missing or extras)
78
79       If you fail more than 254 tests, it will be reported as 254.
80
81       This module is by no means trying to be a complete testing system.
82       It's just to get you started.  Once you're off the ground its
83       recommended you look at Test::More.
84

EXAMPLE

86       Here's an example of a simple .t file for the fictional Film module.
87
88           use Test::Simple tests => 5;
89
90           use Film;  # What you're testing.
91
92           my $btaste = Film->new({ Title    => 'Bad Taste',
93                                    Director => 'Peter Jackson',
94                                    Rating   => 'R',
95                                    NumExplodingSheep => 1
96                                  });
97           ok( defined($btaste) && ref $btaste eq 'Film',     'new() works' );
98
99           ok( $btaste->Title      eq 'Bad Taste',     'Title() get'    );
100           ok( $btaste->Director   eq 'Peter Jackson', 'Director() get' );
101           ok( $btaste->Rating     eq 'R',             'Rating() get'   );
102           ok( $btaste->NumExplodingSheep == 1,        'NumExplodingSheep() get' );
103
104       It will produce output like this:
105
106           1..5
107           ok 1 - new() works
108           ok 2 - Title() get
109           ok 3 - Director() get
110           not ok 4 - Rating() get
111           #   Failed test 'Rating() get'
112           #   in t/film.t at line 14.
113           ok 5 - NumExplodingSheep() get
114           # Looks like you failed 1 tests of 5
115
116       Indicating the Film::Rating() method is broken.
117

CAVEATS

119       Test::Simple will only report a maximum of 254 failures in its exit
120       code.  If this is a problem, you probably have a huge test script.
121       Split it into multiple files.  (Otherwise blame the Unix folks for
122       using an unsigned short integer as the exit status).
123
124       Because VMS's exit codes are much, much different than the rest of the
125       universe, and perl does horrible mangling to them that gets in my way,
126       it works like this on VMS.
127
128           0     SS$_NORMAL        all tests successful
129           4     SS$_ABORT         something went wrong
130
131       Unfortunately, I can't differentiate any further.
132

NOTES

134       Test::Simple is explicitly tested all the way back to perl 5.6.0.
135
136       Test::Simple is thread-safe in perl 5.8.1 and up.
137

HISTORY

139       This module was conceived while talking with Tony Bowden in his kitchen
140       one night about the problems I was having writing some really
141       complicated feature into the new Testing module.  He observed that the
142       main problem is not dealing with these edge cases but that people hate
143       to write tests at all.  What was needed was a dead simple module that
144       took all the hard work out of testing and was really, really easy to
145       learn.  Paul Johnson simultaneously had this idea (unfortunately, he
146       wasn't in Tony's kitchen).  This is it.
147

SEE ALSO

149       Test::More
150           More testing functions!  Once you outgrow Test::Simple, look at
151           Test::More.  Test::Simple is 100% forward compatible with
152           Test::More (i.e. you can just use Test::More instead of
153           Test::Simple in your programs and things will still work).
154
155       Look in Test::More's SEE ALSO for more testing modules.
156

AUTHORS

158       Idea by Tony Bowden and Paul Johnson, code by Michael G Schwern
159       <schwern@pobox.com>, wardrobe by Calvin Klein.
160

MAINTAINERS

162       Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>
163
165       Copyright 2001-2008 by Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>.
166
167       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
168       under the same terms as Perl itself.
169
170       See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html
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174perl v5.34.0                      2022-03-05                   Test::Simple(3)
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