Perl 5 version documentation

Test::Harness

NAME

Test::Harness - Run Perl standard test scripts with statistics

VERSION

Version 3.42

SYNOPSIS

  1.   use Test::Harness;
  3.   runtests(@test_files);

DESCRIPTION

Although, for historical reasons, the Test::Harness distribution takes its name from this module it now exists only to provide TAP::Harness with an interface that is somewhat backwards compatible with Test::Harness 2.xx. If you're writing new code consider using TAP::Harness directly instead.

Emulation is provided for runtests and execute_tests but the pluggable 'Straps' interface that previous versions of Test::Harness supported is not reproduced here. Straps is now available as a stand alone module: Test::Harness::Straps.

See TAP::Parser, TAP::Harness for the main documentation for this distribution.

FUNCTIONS

The following functions are available.

runtests( @test_files )

This runs all the given @test_files and divines whether they passed or failed based on their output to STDOUT (details above). It prints out each individual test which failed along with a summary report and a how long it all took.

It returns true if everything was ok. Otherwise it will die() with one of the messages in the DIAGNOSTICS section.

execute_tests( tests => \@test_files, out => \*FH )

Runs all the given @test_files (just like runtests() ) but doesn't generate the final report. During testing, progress information will be written to the currently selected output filehandle (usually STDOUT ), or to the filehandle given by the out parameter. The out is optional.

Returns a list of two values, $total and $failed , describing the results. $total is a hash ref summary of all the tests run. Its keys and values are this:

  1.     bonus           Number of individual todo tests unexpectedly passed
  2.     max             Number of individual tests ran
  3.     ok              Number of individual tests passed
  4.     sub_skipped     Number of individual tests skipped
  5.     todo            Number of individual todo tests
  7.     files           Number of test files ran
  8.     good            Number of test files passed
  9.     bad             Number of test files failed
  10.     tests           Number of test files originally given
  11.     skipped         Number of test files skipped

If $total->{bad} == 0 and $total->{max} > 0 , you've got a successful test.

$failed is a hash ref of all the test scripts that failed. Each key is the name of a test script, each value is another hash representing how that script failed. Its keys are these:

  1.     name        Name of the test which failed
  2.     estat       Script's exit value
  3.     wstat       Script's wait status
  4.     max         Number of individual tests
  5.     failed      Number which failed
  6.     canon       List of tests which failed (as string).

$failed should be empty if everything passed.

EXPORT

&runtests is exported by Test::Harness by default.

&execute_tests , $verbose , $switches and $debug are exported upon request.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES THAT TAP::HARNESS::COMPATIBLE SETS

Test::Harness sets these before executing the individual tests.

  • HARNESS_ACTIVE

    This is set to a true value. It allows the tests to determine if they are being executed through the harness or by any other means.

  • HARNESS_VERSION

    This is the version of Test::Harness .

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES THAT AFFECT TEST::HARNESS

  • HARNESS_PERL_SWITCHES

    Setting this adds perl command line switches to each test file run.

    For example, HARNESS_PERL_SWITCHES=-T will turn on taint mode. HARNESS_PERL_SWITCHES=-MDevel::Cover will run Devel::Cover for each test.

    -w is always set. You can turn this off in the test with BEGIN { $^W = 0 } .

  • HARNESS_TIMER

    Setting this to true will make the harness display the number of milliseconds each test took. You can also use prove's --timer switch.

  • HARNESS_VERBOSE

    If true, Test::Harness will output the verbose results of running its tests. Setting $Test::Harness::verbose will override this, or you can use the -v switch in the prove utility.

  • HARNESS_OPTIONS

    Provide additional options to the harness. Currently supported options are:

    • j<n>

      Run <n> (default 9) parallel jobs.

    • c

      Try to color output. See new in TAP::Formatter::Base.

    • a<file.tgz>

      Will use TAP::Harness::Archive as the harness class, and save the TAP to file.tgz

    • fPackage-With-Dashes

      Set the formatter_class of the harness being run. Since the HARNESS_OPTIONS is seperated by : , we use - instead.

    Multiple options may be separated by colons:

    1.     HARNESS_OPTIONS=j9:c make test
  • HARNESS_SUBCLASS

    Specifies a TAP::Harness subclass to be used in place of TAP::Harness.

  • HARNESS_SUMMARY_COLOR_SUCCESS

    Determines the Term::ANSIColor for the summary in case it is successful. This color defaults to 'green' .

  • HARNESS_SUMMARY_COLOR_FAIL

    Determines the Term::ANSIColor for the failure in case it is successful. This color defaults to 'red' .

Taint Mode

Normally when a Perl program is run in taint mode the contents of the PERL5LIB environment variable do not appear in @INC .

Because PERL5LIB is often used during testing to add build directories to @INC Test::Harness passes the names of any directories found in PERL5LIB as -I switches. The net effect of this is that PERL5LIB is honoured even in taint mode.

SEE ALSO

TAP::Harness

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-test-harness at rt.cpan.org , or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Test-Harness. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

AUTHORS

Andy Armstrong <andy@hexten.net>

Test::Harness 2.64 (maintained by Andy Lester and on which this module is based) has this attribution:

  1.     Either Tim Bunce or Andreas Koenig, we don't know. What we know for
  2.     sure is, that it was inspired by Larry Wall's F<TEST> script that came
  3.     with perl distributions for ages. Numerous anonymous contributors
  4.     exist.  Andreas Koenig held the torch for many years, and then
  5.     Michael G Schwern.

LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2007-2011, Andy Armstrong <andy@hexten.net> . All rights reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic.