Test::Harness(3p)Perl Programmers Reference GuidTest::Harness(3p)
Test::Harness - Run Perl standard test scripts with statis-
tics
Version 2.56
use Test::Harness;
runtests(@test_files);
STOP! If all you want to do is write a test script, consider
using Test::Simple. Test::Harness is the module that reads
the output from Test::Simple, Test::More and other modules
based on Test::Builder. You don't need to know about
Test::Harness to use those modules.
Test::Harness runs tests and expects output from the test in
a certain format. That format is called TAP, the Test Any-
thing Protocol. It is defined in Test::Harness::TAP.
"Test::Harness::runtests(@tests)" runs all the testscripts
named as arguments and checks standard output for the
expected strings in TAP format.
The prove utility is a thin wrapper around Test::Harness.
Taint mode
Test::Harness will honor the "-T" or "-t" in the #! line on
your test files. So if you begin a test with:
#!perl -T
the test will be run with taint mode on.
Configuration variables.
These variables can be used to configure the behavior of
Test::Harness. They are exported on request.
$Test::Harness::Verbose
The package variable $Test::Harness::Verbose is export-
able and can be used to let "runtests()" display the
standard output of the script without altering the
behavior otherwise. The prove utility's "-v" flag will
set this.
$Test::Harness::switches
The package variable $Test::Harness::switches is
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exportable and can be used to set perl command line
options used for running the test script(s). The default
value is "-w". It overrides "HARNESS_SWITCHES".
$Test::Harness::Timer
If set to true, and "Time::HiRes" is available, print
elapsed seconds after each test file.
Failure
When tests fail, analyze the summary report:
t/base..............ok
t/nonumbers.........ok
t/ok................ok
t/test-harness......ok
t/waterloo..........dubious
Test returned status 3 (wstat 768, 0x300)
DIED. FAILED tests 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19
Failed 10/20 tests, 50.00% okay
Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
t/waterloo.t 3 768 20 10 50.00% 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
Failed 1/5 test scripts, 80.00% okay. 10/44 subtests failed, 77.27% okay.
Everything passed but t/waterloo.t. It failed 10 of 20
tests and exited with non-zero status indicating something
dubious happened.
The columns in the summary report mean:
Failed Test
The test file which failed.
Stat
If the test exited with non-zero, this is its exit
status.
Wstat
The wait status of the test.
Total
Total number of tests expected to run.
Fail
Number which failed, either from "not ok" or because
they never ran.
Failed
Percentage of the total tests which failed.
List of Failed
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A list of the tests which failed. Successive failures
may be abbreviated (ie. 15-20 to indicate that tests 15,
16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 failed).
Functions
Test::Harness currently only has one function, here it is.
runtests
my $allok = 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 sec-
tion.
&runtests is exported by Test::Harness by default.
$verbose, $switches and $debug are exported upon request.
"All tests successful.\nFiles=%d, Tests=%d, %s"
If all tests are successful some statistics about the
performance are printed.
"FAILED tests %s\n\tFailed %d/%d tests, %.2f%% okay."
For any single script that has failing subtests statis-
tics like the above are printed.
"Test returned status %d (wstat %d)"
Scripts that return a non-zero exit status, both "$? >>
8" and $? are printed in a message similar to the above.
"Failed 1 test, %.2f%% okay. %s"
"Failed %d/%d tests, %.2f%% okay. %s"
If not all tests were successful, the script dies with
one of the above messages.
"FAILED--Further testing stopped: %s"
If a single subtest decides that further testing will
not make sense, the script dies with this message.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES THAT TEST::HARNESS SETS
Test::Harness sets these before executing the individual
tests.
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"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_COLUMNS"
This value will be used for the width of the terminal.
If it is not set then it will default to "COLUMNS". If
this is not set, it will default to 80. Note that users
of Bourne-sh based shells will need to "export COLUMNS"
for this module to use that variable.
"HARNESS_COMPILE_TEST"
When true it will make harness attempt to compile the
test using "perlcc" before running it.
NOTE This currently only works when sitting in the perl
source directory!
"HARNESS_DEBUG"
If true, Test::Harness will print debugging information
about itself as it runs the tests. This is different
from "HARNESS_VERBOSE", which prints the output from the
test being run. Setting $Test::Harness::Debug will
override this, or you can use the "-d" switch in the
prove utility.
"HARNESS_FILELEAK_IN_DIR"
When set to the name of a directory, harness will check
after each test whether new files appeared in that
directory, and report them as
LEAKED FILES: scr.tmp 0 my.db
If relative, directory name is with respect to the
current directory at the moment runtests() was called.
Putting absolute path into "HARNESS_FILELEAK_IN_DIR" may
give more predictable results.
"HARNESS_IGNORE_EXITCODE"
Makes harness ignore the exit status of child processes
when defined.
"HARNESS_NOTTY"
When set to a true value, forces it to behave as though
STDOUT were not a console. You may need to set this if
you don't want harness to output more frequent progress
messages using carriage returns. Some consoles may not
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handle carriage returns properly (which results in a
somewhat messy output).
"HARNESS_PERL"
Usually your tests will be run by $^X, the currently-
executing Perl. However, you may want to have it run by
a different executable, such as a threading perl, or a
different version.
If you're using the prove utility, you can use the
"--perl" switch.
"HARNESS_PERL_SWITCHES"
Its value will be prepended to the switches used to
invoke perl on each test. For example, setting
"HARNESS_PERL_SWITCHES" to "-W" will run all tests with
all warnings enabled.
"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.
Here's how Test::Harness tests itself
$ cd ~/src/devel/Test-Harness
$ perl -Mblib -e 'use Test::Harness qw(&runtests $verbose);
$verbose=0; runtests @ARGV;' t/*.t
Using /home/schwern/src/devel/Test-Harness/blib
t/base..............ok
t/nonumbers.........ok
t/ok................ok
t/test-harness......ok
All tests successful.
Files=4, Tests=24, 2 wallclock secs ( 0.61 cusr + 0.41 csys = 1.02 CPU)
The included prove utility for running test scripts from the
command line, Test and Test::Simple for writing test
scripts, Benchmark for the underlying timing routines, and
Devel::Cover for test coverage analysis.
Provide a way of running tests quietly (ie. no printing) for
automated validation of tests. This will probably take the
form of a version of runtests() which rather than printing
its output returns raw data on the state of the tests.
(Partially done in Test::Harness::Straps)
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Document the format.
Fix HARNESS_COMPILE_TEST without breaking its core usage.
Figure a way to report test names in the failure summary.
Rework the test summary so long test names are not truncated
as badly. (Partially done with new skip test styles)
Add option for coverage analysis.
Trap STDERR.
Implement Straps total_results()
Remember exit code
Completely redo the print summary code.
Implement Straps callbacks. (experimentally implemented)
Straps->analyze_file() not taint clean, don't know if it can
be
Fix that damned VMS nit.
HARNESS_TODOFAIL to display TODO failures
Add a test for verbose.
Change internal list of test results to a hash.
Fix stats display when there's an overrun.
Fix so perls with spaces in the filename work.
Keeping whittling away at _run_all_tests()
Clean up how the summary is printed. Get rid of those
damned formats.
HARNESS_COMPILE_TEST currently assumes it's run from the
Perl source directory.
Please use the CPAN bug ticketing system at
<http://rt.cpan.org/>. You can also mail bugs, fixes and
enhancements to "<bug-test-harness" at "rt.cpan.org>".
Either Tim Bunce or Andreas Koenig, we don't know. What we
know for sure is, that it was inspired by Larry Wall's TEST
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script that came with perl distributions for ages. Numerous
anonymous contributors exist. Andreas Koenig held the torch
for many years, and then Michael G Schwern.
Current maintainer is Andy Lester "<andy at petdance.com>".
Copyright 2002-2005 by Michael G Schwern "<schwern at
pobox.com>", Andy Lester "<andy at petdance.com>".
This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>.
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