1Test::Simple(3pm)      Perl Programmers Reference Guide      Test::Simple(3pm)
2
3
4

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 $bar").  If it's
39           true, the test passed.  If it's false, it didn't.  That's about it.
40
41           ok() prints out either "ok" or "not ok" along with a test number
42           (it keeps track of that for you).
43
44             # This produces "ok 1 - Hell not yet frozen over" (or not ok)
45             ok( get_temperature($hell) > 0, 'Hell not yet frozen over' );
46
47           If you provide a $name, that will be printed along with the "ok/not
48           ok" to make it easier to find your test when if fails (just search
49           for the name).  It also makes it easier for the next guy to under‐
50           stand what your test is for.  It's highly recommended you use test
51           names.
52
53           All tests are run in scalar context.  So this:
54
55               ok( @stuff, 'I have some stuff' );
56
57           will do what you mean (fail if stuff is empty)
58
59       Test::Simple will start by printing number of tests run in the form
60       "1..M" (so "1..5" means you're going to run 5 tests).  This strange
61       format lets Test::Harness know how many tests you plan on running in
62       case something goes horribly wrong.
63
64       If all your tests passed, Test::Simple will exit with zero (which is
65       normal).  If anything failed it will exit with how many failed.  If you
66       run less (or more) tests than you planned, the missing (or extras) will
67       be considered failures.  If no tests were ever run Test::Simple will
68       throw a warning and exit with 255.  If the test died, even after having
69       successfully completed all its tests, it will still be considered a
70       failure and will exit with 255.
71
72       So the exit codes are...
73
74           0                   all tests successful
75           255                 test died or all passed but wrong # of tests run
76           any other number    how many failed (including missing or extras)
77
78       If you fail more than 254 tests, it will be reported as 254.
79
80       This module is by no means trying to be a complete testing system.
81       It's just to get you started.  Once you're off the ground its recom‐
82       mended you look at Test::More.
83

EXAMPLE

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

CAVEATS

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

NOTES

133       Test::Simple is explicitly tested all the way back to perl 5.004.
134
135       Test::Simple is thread-safe in perl 5.8.0 and up.
136

HISTORY

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

SEE ALSO

148       Test::More
149           More testing functions!  Once you outgrow Test::Simple, look at
150           Test::More.  Test::Simple is 100% forward compatible with
151           Test::More (i.e. you can just use Test::More instead of Test::Sim‐
152           ple in your programs and things will still work).
153
154       Test
155           The original Perl testing module.
156
157       Test::Unit
158           Elaborate unit testing.
159
160       Test::Inline, SelfTest
161           Embed tests in your code!
162
163       Test::Harness
164           Interprets the output of your test program.
165

AUTHORS

167       Idea by Tony Bowden and Paul Johnson, code by Michael G Schwern <schw‐
168       ern@pobox.com>, wardrobe by Calvin Klein.
169
171       Copyright 2001, 2002, 2004 by Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>.
172
173       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
174       under the same terms as Perl itself.
175
176       See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html
177
178
179
180perl v5.8.8                       2001-09-21                 Test::Simple(3pm)
Impressum