Test::Harness(3) Test::Harness(3)
NAME
Test::Harness - run perl standard test scripts with statistics
SYNOPSIS
use Test::Harness;
runtests(@tests);
DESCRIPTION
Perl test scripts print to standard output "ok N" for each single test,
where N is an increasing sequence of integers. The first line output by a
standard test script is "1..M" with M being the number of tests that
should be run within the test script. Test::Harness::runtests(@tests)
runs all the testscripts named as arguments and checks standard output
for the expected "ok N" strings.
After all tests have been performed, runtests() prints some performance
statistics that are computed by the Benchmark module.
The test script output
Any output from the testscript to standard error is ignored and bypassed,
thus will be seen by the user. Lines written to standard output
containing /^(not\s+)?ok\b/ are interpreted as feedback for runtests().
All other lines are discarded.
It is tolerated if the test numbers after ok are omitted. In this case
Test::Harness maintains temporarily its own counter until the script
supplies test numbers again. So the following test script
print <<END;
1..6
not ok
ok
not ok
ok
ok
END
will generate
FAILED tests 1, 3, 6
Failed 3/6 tests, 50.00% okay
The global variable $Test::Harness::verbose is exportable and can be used
to let runtests() display the standard output of the script without
altering the behavior otherwise.
The global variable $Test::Harness::switches is exportable and can be
used to set perl command line options used for running the test
script(s). The default value is -w.
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EXPORT
&runtests is exported by Test::Harness per default.
DIAGNOSTICS
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 statistics 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.
SEE ALSO
See the Benchmark manpage for the underlying timing routines.
AUTHORS
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 script that came with perl
distributions for ages. Numerous anonymous contributors exist. Current
maintainer is Andreas Koenig.
BUGS
Test::Harness uses $^X to determine the perl binary to run the tests
with. Test scripts running via the shebang (#!) line may not be portable
because $^X is not consistent for shebang scripts across platforms. This
is no problem when Test::Harness is run with an absolute path to the perl
binary or when $^X can be found in the path.
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