NAME¶
Test::Distribution - perform tests on all modules of a distribution
SYNOPSIS¶
$ cat t/01distribution.t
use Test::More;
BEGIN {
eval {
require Test::Distribution;
};
if($@) {
plan skip_all => 'Test::Distribution not installed';
}
else {
import Test::Distribution;
}
}
$ make test
...
DESCRIPTION¶
When using this module in a test script, it goes through all the modules in your
distribution, checks their POD, checks that they compile ok and checks that
they all define a $VERSION.
This module also performs a numer of test on the distribution itself. It checks
that your files match your SIGNATURE file if you have one. It checks that your
distribution isn't missing certain 'core' description files. It checks to see
you havent' missed out listing any pre-requisites in Makefile.PL.
It defines its own testing plan, so you usually don't use it in conjunction with
other "Test::*" modules in the same file. It's recommended that you
just create a one-line test script as shown in the SYNOPSIS above. However,
there are options...
NOTE If you do not specify any options Test::Distribution will run all
test types
except signature testing which must always be explicitly
switched on.
In the future I may change the default to run no tests at all as this sounds
safer. Mail me if you disagree.
OPTIONS¶
On the line in which you "use()" this module, you can specify named
arguments that influence the testing behavior.
- "tests => NUMBER"
- Specifies that in addition to the tests run by this module, your test
script will run additional tests. In other words, this value influences
the test plan. For example:
use Test::Distribution tests => 1;
use Test::More;
is($foo, $bar, 'baz');
It is important that you don't specify a "tests" argument when
using "Test::More" or other test modules as the plan is handled
by "Test::Distribution".
DEPRECATED FEATURE. I plan to remove this in the future unless I'm contacted
by someone that says they find this useful.
- "only => STRING|LIST"
- Specifies that only certain sets of tests are to be run. Possible values
are those mentioned in TEST TYPES below. For example, if you only want to
run the POD tests, you could say:
use Test::Distribution only => 'pod';
To specify that you only want to run the POD tests and the "use"
tests, and also that you are going to run two tests of your own, use:
use Test::Distribution
only => [ qw/pod use/ ],
tests => 2;
Note that when you specify the "versions" option, the
"use" option is automatically added. This is because in order to
get a module's $VERSION, it has to be loaded. In this case we might as
well run a "use" test.
The value for "only" can be a string or a reference to a list of
strings.
- "not => STRING|LIST"
- Specifies that certain types of tests should not be run. All tests not
mentioned in this argument are run. For example, if you want to test
everything except the POD, use:
use Test::Distribution
not => 'pod';
The value for "not" can be a string or a reference to a list of
strings. Although it doesn't seem to make much sense, you can use both
"only" and "not". In this case only the tests
specified in "only", but not "not" are run (if this
makes any sense).
- "distversion"
- If you test this to a true value, as well as testing that each module has
a $VERSION defined, Test::Distribution will also ensure that the $VERSION
matches that of the distribution.
- "podcoveropts"
- You can set this to be a hash reference of options to pass to
Test::Pod::Coverage's pod_coverage_ok method (which in turn gets passed to
Pod::Coverage.
TEST TYPES¶
Here is a description of the types of tests available.
- "description"
- Checks that the following files exist:
- Changes or ChangeLog
- MANIFEST
- README
- Build.PL or Makefile.PL
- "prereq"
- Checks whether all "use()"d modules that aren't in the perl core
are also mentioned in Makefile.PL's "PREREQ_PM".
- "pod"
- Checks for POD errors in files
- "podcover"
- Checks for Pod Coverage
- "sig"
- If the distribution has a SIGNATURE file, checks the SIGNATURE matches the
files.
- "use"
- This "use()"s the modules to make sure the load happens ok.
- "versions"
- Checks that all packages define $VERSION strings.
EXPOSED INTERNALS¶
There are a few subroutines to help you see what this module is doing. Note that
these subroutines are neither exported nor exportable, so you have to call
them fully qualified.
- "Test::Distribution::packages()"
- This is a list of packages that have been found. That is, we assume that
each file contains a package of the name indicated by the file's relative
position. For example, a file in "blib/lib/Foo/Bar.pm" is
expected to be available via "use Foo::Bar".
- "Test::Distribution::files()"
- This is a list of files that tests have been run on. The filenames are
relative to the distribution's root directory, so they start with
"blib/lib".
- "Test::Distribution::num_tests()"
- This is the number of tests that this module has run, based on your
specifications.
INSTALLATION¶
This module uses Module::Build for its installation. To install this module type
the following:
perl Build.PL
./Build
./Build test
./Build install
If you do not have Module::Build type:
perl Makefile.PL
to fetch it. Or use CPAN or CPANPLUS and fetch it "manually".
DEPENDENCIES¶
This module requires these other modules and libraries:
File::Basename
File::Find::Rule
File::Spec
Test::More
This module has these optional dependencies:
Module::CoreList
Test::Pod
Test::Pod::Coverage
If "Module::CoreList" is missing, the "prereq" tests are
skipped.
If "Test::Pod" is missing, the "pod" tests are skipped.
TODO¶
Just because these items are in the todo list, does not mean they will actually
be done. If you think one of these would be helpful say so - and it will then
move up on my priority list.
- •
- Module::Build support [currently waiting for a fix on Test::Prereq ]
FEATURE IDEAS¶
- "export" test type
- This would mandate that there should be a test for each exported symbol of
each module.
Let me know what you think of these ideas. Are they necessary? Unnecessary? Do
you have feature requests of your own?
BUGS¶
To report a bug or request an enhancement use CPAN's excellent Request Tracker.
SOURCE AVAILABILITY¶
This source is part of a SourceForge project which always has the latest sources
in svn.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sagar-r-shah/
AUTHORS¶
Marcel Gruenauer <marcel@cpan.org>
Sagar R. Shah
OTHER CREDITS¶
This module was inspired by a use.perl.org journal entry by "brian d
foy" (see <
http://use.perl.org/~brian_d_foy/journal/7463>) where he
describes an idea by Andy Lester.
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE¶
Copyright 2002-2003 Marcel Gruenauer. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2003-2007, Sagar R. Shah, All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.
SEE ALSO¶
perl(1),
ExtUtils::Manifest(3pm),
File::Find::Rule(3pm),
Module::CoreList(3pm),
Test::More(3pm),
Test::Pod(3pm),
Test::Pod::Coverage(3pm),
Test::Signature(3pm).