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

6       Test::Assertions - a simple set of building blocks for both unit and
7       runtime testing
8

SYNOPSIS

10               #ASSERT does nothing
11               use Test::Assertions;
12
13               #ASSERT warns "Assertion failure"...
14               use Test::Assertions qw(warn);
15
16               #ASSERT dies with "Assertion failure"...
17               use Test::Assertions qw(die);
18
19               #ASSERT warns "Assertion failure"... with stack trace
20               use Test::Assertions qw(cluck);
21
22               #ASSERT dies with "Assertion failure"... with stack trace
23               use Test::Assertions qw(confess);
24
25               #ASSERT prints ok/not ok
26               use Test::Assertions qw(test);
27
28               #Will cause an assertion failure
29               ASSERT(1 == 0);
30
31               #Optional message
32               ASSERT(0 == 1, "daft");
33
34               #Checks if coderef dies
35               ASSERT(
36                       DIED( sub {die()} )
37               );
38
39               #Check if perl compiles OK
40               ASSERT(
41                       COMPILES('program.pl')
42               );
43
44               #Deep comparisons
45               ASSERT(
46                       EQUAL(\@a, \@b),
47                       "lists of widgets match"        # an optional message
48               );
49               ASSERT(
50                       EQUAL(\%a, \%b)
51               );
52
53               #Compare to a canned value
54               ASSERT(
55                       EQUALS_FILE($foo, 'bar.dat'),
56                       "value matched stored value"
57               );
58
59               #Compare to a canned value (regex match using file contents as regex)
60               ASSERT(
61                       MATCHES_FILE($foo, 'bar.regex')
62               );
63
64               #Compare file contents
65               ASSERT(
66                       FILES_EQUAL('foo.dat', 'bar.dat')
67               );
68
69               #returns 'not ok for Foo::Bar Tests (1 errors in 3 tests)'
70               ASSESS(
71                        ['ok 1', 'not ok 2', 'A comment', 'ok 3'], 'Foo::Bar Tests', 0
72               );
73
74               #Collate results from another test script
75               ASSESS_FILE("test.pl");
76
77               #File routines
78               $success = WRITE_FILE('bar.dat', 'hello world');
79               ASSERT( WRITE_FILE('bar.dat', 'hello world'), 'file was written');
80               $string = READ_FILE('example.out');
81               ASSERT( READ_FILE('example.out'), 'file has content' );
82
83       The helper routines don't need to be used inside ASSERT():
84
85               if ( EQUALS_FILE($string, $filename) ) {
86                       print "File hasn't changed - skipping\n";
87               } else {
88                       my $rc = run_complex_process($string);
89                       print "File changed - string was reprocessed with result '$rc'\n";
90               }
91
92               ($boolean, $output) = COMPILES('file.pl');
93               # or...
94               my $string;
95               ($boolean, $standard_output) = COMPILES('file.pl', 1, \$string);
96               # $string now contains standard error, separate from $standard_output
97
98       In test mode:
99
100               use Test::Assertions qw(test);
101               plan tests => 4;
102               plan tests;                                     #will attempt to deduce the number
103               only (1,2);                                     #Only report ok/not ok for these tests
104               ignore 2;                                       #Skip this test
105
106               #In test/ok mode...
107               use Test::Assertions qw(test/ok);
108               ok(1);                                          #synonym for ASSERT
109

DESCRIPTION

111       Test::Assertions provides a convenient set of tools for constructing
112       tests, such as unit tests or run-time assertion checks (like C's ASSERT
113       macro).  Unlike some of the Test:: modules available on CPAN,
114       Test::Assertions is not limited to unit test scripts; for example it
115       can be used to check output is as expected within a benchmarking
116       script.  When it is used for unit tests, it generates output in the
117       standard form for CPAN unit testing (under Test::Harness).
118
119       The package's import method is used to control the behaviour of ASSERT:
120       whether it dies, warns, prints 'ok'/'not ok', or does nothing.
121
122       In 'test' mode the script also exports plan(), only() and ignore()
123       functions.  In 'test/ok' mode an ok() function is also exported for
124       compatibility with Test/Test::Harness.  The plan function attempts to
125       count the number of tests if it isn't told a number (this works fine in
126       simple test scripts but not in loops/subroutines). In either mode, a
127       warning will be emitted if the planned number of tests is not the same
128       as the number of tests actually run, e.g.
129
130               # Looks like you planned 2 tests but actually ran 1.
131
132   METHODS
133       plan $number_of_tests
134           Specify the number of tests to expect. If $number_of_tests isn't
135           supplied, ASSERTION tries to deduce the number itself by parsing
136           the calling script and counting the number of calls to ASSERT.  It
137           also returns the number of tests, should you wish to make use of
138           that figure at some point.  In 'test' and 'test/ok' mode a warning
139           will be emitted if the actual number of tests does not match the
140           number planned, similar to Test::More.
141
142       only(@test_numbers)
143           Only display the results of these tests
144
145       ignore(@test_numbers)
146           Don't display the results of these tests
147
148       ASSERT($bool, $comment)
149           The workhorse function.  Behaviour depends on how the module was
150           imported.  $comment is optional.
151
152       ASSESS(@result_strings)
153           Collate the results from a set of tests.  In a scalar context
154           returns a result string starting with "ok" or "not ok"; in a list
155           context returns 1=pass or 0=fail, followed by a description.
156
157            ($bool, $desc) = ASSESS(@args)
158
159           is equivalent to
160
161            ($bool, $desc) = INTERPRET(scalar ASSESS(@args))
162
163       ASSESS_FILE($file, $verbose, $timeout)
164            $verbose is an optional boolean
165            default timeout is 60 seconds (0=never timeout)
166
167           In a scalar context returns a result string; in a list context
168           returns 1=pass or 0=fail, followed by a description.  The timeout
169           uses alarm(), but has no effect on platforms which do not implement
170           alarm().
171
172       ($bool, $desc) = INTERPRET($result_string)
173           Inteprets a result string.  $bool indicates 1=pass/0=fail; $desc is
174           an optional description.
175
176       $bool = EQUAL($item1, $item2)
177           Deep comparison of 2 data structures (i.e. references to some kind
178           of structure) or scalars.
179
180       $bool = EQUALS_FILE($string, $filename)
181           Compares a string with a canned value in a file.
182
183       $bool = MATCHES_FILE($string, $regexfilename)
184           Compares a value with a regex that is read from a file. The regex
185           has the '^' anchor prepended and the '$' anchor appended, after
186           being read in from the file.  Handy if you have random numbers or
187           dates in your output.
188
189       $bool = FILES_EQUAL($filename1, $filename2)
190           Test if 2 files' contents are identical
191
192       $bool = DIED($coderef)
193           Test if the coderef died
194
195       COMPILES($filename, $strict, $scalar_reference)
196           Test if the perl code in $filename compiles OK, like perl -c.  If
197           $strict is true, tests with the options -Mstrict -w.
198
199           In scalar context it returns 1 if the code compiled, 0 otherwise.
200           In list context it returns the same boolean, followed by the output
201           (that is, standard output and standard error combined) of the
202           syntax check.
203
204           If $scalar_reference is supplied and is a scalar reference then the
205           standard output and standard error of the syntax check subprocess
206           will be captured separately. Standard error will be put into this
207           scalar - IO::CaptureOutput is loaded on demand to do this - and
208           standard output will be returned as described above.
209
210       $contents = READ_FILE($filename)
211           Reads the specified file and returns the contents.  Returns undef
212           if file cannot be read.
213
214       $success = WRITE_FILE($filename, $contents)
215           Writes the given contents to the specified file.  Returns undef if
216           file cannot be written.
217

OVERHEAD

219       When Test::Assertions is imported with no arguments, ASSERT is aliased
220       to an empty coderef.  If this is still too much runtime overhead for
221       you, you can use a constant to optimise out ASSERT statements at
222       compile time.  See the section on runtime testing in
223       Test::Assertions::Manual for a discussion of overheads, some examples
224       and some benchmark results.
225

DEPENDENCIES

227       The following modules are loaded on demand:
228
229        Carp
230        File::Spec
231        Test::More
232        File::Compare
233        IO::CaptureOutput
234
236       Test and Test::Simple
237           Minimal unit testing modules
238
239       Test::More
240           Richer unit testing toolkit compatible with Test and Test::Simple
241
242       Carp::Assert
243           Runtime testing toolkit
244

TODO

246               - Declare ASSERT() with :assertions attribute in versions of perl >= 5.9
247                 so it can be optimised away at runtime. It should be possible to declare
248                 the attribute conditionally in a BEGIN block (with eval) for backwards
249                 compatibility
250

SEE ALSO

252       Test::Assertions::Manual - A guide to using Test::Assertions
253

VERSION

255       $Revision: 1.54 $ on $Date: 2006/08/07 10:44:42 $ by $Author: simonf $
256

AUTHOR

258       John Alden with additions from Piers Kent and Simon Flack <cpan _at_
259       bbc _dot_ co _dot_ uk>
260
262       (c) BBC 2005. This program is free software; you can redistribute it
263       and/or modify it under the GNU GPL.
264
265       See the file COPYING in this distribution, or
266       http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt
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270perl v5.36.0                      2023-01-20               Test::Assertions(3)
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