NAME¶
Test::Assertions - a simple set of building blocks for both unit and runtime
testing
SYNOPSIS¶
#ASSERT does nothing
use Test::Assertions;
#ASSERT warns "Assertion failure"...
use Test::Assertions qw(warn);
#ASSERT dies with "Assertion failure"...
use Test::Assertions qw(die);
#ASSERT warns "Assertion failure"... with stack trace
use Test::Assertions qw(cluck);
#ASSERT dies with "Assertion failure"... with stack trace
use Test::Assertions qw(confess);
#ASSERT prints ok/not ok
use Test::Assertions qw(test);
#Will cause an assertion failure
ASSERT(1 == 0);
#Optional message
ASSERT(0 == 1, "daft");
#Checks if coderef dies
ASSERT(
DIED( sub {die()} )
);
#Check if perl compiles OK
ASSERT(
COMPILES('program.pl')
);
#Deep comparisons
ASSERT(
EQUAL(\@a, \@b),
"lists of widgets match" # an optional message
);
ASSERT(
EQUAL(\%a, \%b)
);
#Compare to a canned value
ASSERT(
EQUALS_FILE($foo, 'bar.dat'),
"value matched stored value"
);
#Compare to a canned value (regex match using file contents as regex)
ASSERT(
MATCHES_FILE($foo, 'bar.regex')
);
#Compare file contents
ASSERT(
FILES_EQUAL('foo.dat', 'bar.dat')
);
#returns 'not ok for Foo::Bar Tests (1 errors in 3 tests)'
ASSESS(
['ok 1', 'not ok 2', 'A comment', 'ok 3'], 'Foo::Bar Tests', 0
);
#Collate results from another test script
ASSESS_FILE("test.pl");
#File routines
$success = WRITE_FILE('bar.dat', 'hello world');
ASSERT( WRITE_FILE('bar.dat', 'hello world'), 'file was written');
$string = READ_FILE('example.out');
ASSERT( READ_FILE('example.out'), 'file has content' );
The helper routines don't need to be used inside
ASSERT():
if ( EQUALS_FILE($string, $filename) ) {
print "File hasn't changed - skipping\n";
} else {
my $rc = run_complex_process($string);
print "File changed - string was reprocessed with result '$rc'\n";
}
($boolean, $output) = COMPILES('file.pl');
# or...
my $string;
($boolean, $standard_output) = COMPILES('file.pl', 1, \$string);
# $string now contains standard error, separate from $standard_output
In test mode:
use Test::Assertions qw(test);
plan tests => 4;
plan tests; #will attempt to deduce the number
only (1,2); #Only report ok/not ok for these tests
ignore 2; #Skip this test
#In test/ok mode...
use Test::Assertions qw(test/ok);
ok(1); #synonym for ASSERT
DESCRIPTION¶
Test::Assertions provides a convenient set of tools for constructing tests, such
as unit tests or run-time assertion checks (like C's ASSERT macro). Unlike
some of the Test:: modules available on CPAN, Test::Assertions is not limited
to unit test scripts; for example it can be used to check output is as
expected within a benchmarking script. When it is used for unit tests, it
generates output in the standard form for CPAN unit testing (under
Test::Harness).
The package's import method is used to control the behaviour of ASSERT: whether
it dies, warns, prints 'ok'/'not ok', or does nothing.
In 'test' mode the script also exports
plan(),
only() and
ignore() functions. In 'test/ok' mode an
ok() function is also
exported for compatibility with Test/Test::Harness. The plan function attempts
to count the number of tests if it isn't told a number (this works fine in
simple test scripts but not in loops/subroutines). In either mode, a warning
will be emitted if the planned number of tests is not the same as the number
of tests actually run, e.g.
# Looks like you planned 2 tests but actually ran 1.
METHODS¶
- plan $number_of_tests
- Specify the number of tests to expect. If $number_of_tests
isn't supplied, ASSERTION tries to deduce the number itself by parsing the
calling script and counting the number of calls to ASSERT. It also returns
the number of tests, should you wish to make use of that figure at some
point. In 'test' and 'test/ok' mode a warning will be emitted if the
actual number of tests does not match the number planned, similar to
Test::More.
- only(@test_numbers)
- Only display the results of these tests
- ignore(@test_numbers)
- Don't display the results of these tests
- ASSERT($bool, $comment)
- The workhorse function. Behaviour depends on how the module
was imported. $comment is optional.
- ASSESS(@result_strings)
- Collate the results from a set of tests. In a scalar
context returns a result string starting with "ok" or "not
ok"; in a list context returns 1=pass or 0=fail, followed by a
description.
($bool, $desc) = ASSESS(@args)
is equivalent to
($bool, $desc) = INTERPRET(scalar ASSESS(@args))
- ASSESS_FILE($file, $verbose, $timeout)
-
$verbose is an optional boolean
default timeout is 60 seconds (0=never timeout)
In a scalar context returns a result string; in a list context returns
1=pass or 0=fail, followed by a description. The timeout uses
alarm(), but has no effect on platforms which do not implement
alarm().
- ($bool, $desc) = INTERPRET($result_string)
- Inteprets a result string. $bool indicates 1=pass/0=fail;
$desc is an optional description.
- $bool = EQUAL($item1, $item2)
- Deep comparison of 2 data structures (i.e. references to
some kind of structure) or scalars.
- $bool = EQUALS_FILE($string, $filename)
- Compares a string with a canned value in a file.
- $bool = MATCHES_FILE($string, $regexfilename)
- Compares a value with a regex that is read from a file. The
regex has the '^' anchor prepended and the '$' anchor appended, after
being read in from the file. Handy if you have random numbers or dates in
your output.
- $bool = FILES_EQUAL($filename1, $filename2)
- Test if 2 files' contents are identical
- $bool = DIED($coderef)
- Test if the coderef died
- COMPILES($filename, $strict, $scalar_reference)
- Test if the perl code in $filename compiles OK, like perl
-c. If $strict is true, tests with the options -Mstrict -w.
In scalar context it returns 1 if the code compiled, 0 otherwise. In list
context it returns the same boolean, followed by the output (that is,
standard output and standard error combined) of the syntax check.
If $scalar_reference is supplied and is a scalar reference then the standard
output and standard error of the syntax check subprocess will be captured
separately. Standard error will be put into this scalar -
IO::CaptureOutput is loaded on demand to do this - and standard output
will be returned as described above.
- $contents = READ_FILE($filename)
- Reads the specified file and returns the contents. Returns
undef if file cannot be read.
- $success = WRITE_FILE($filename, $contents)
- Writes the given contents to the specified file. Returns
undef if file cannot be written.
OVERHEAD¶
When Test::Assertions is imported with no arguments, ASSERT is aliased to an
empty coderef. If this is still too much runtime overhead for you, you can use
a constant to optimise out ASSERT statements at compile time. See the section
on runtime testing in Test::Assertions::Manual for a discussion of overheads,
some examples and some benchmark results.
DEPENDENCIES¶
The following modules are loaded on demand:
Carp
File::Spec
Test::More
File::Compare
IO::CaptureOutput
- Test and Test::Simple
- Minimal unit testing modules
- Test::More
- Richer unit testing toolkit compatible with Test and
Test::Simple
- Carp::Assert
- Runtime testing toolkit
TODO¶
- Declare ASSERT() with :assertions attribute in versions of perl >= 5.9
so it can be optimised away at runtime. It should be possible to declare
the attribute conditionally in a BEGIN block (with eval) for backwards
compatibility
SEE ALSO¶
Test::Assertions::Manual - A guide to using Test::Assertions
VERSION¶
$Revision: 1.54 $ on $Date: 2006/08/07 10:44:42 $ by $Author: simonf $
AUTHOR¶
John Alden with additions from Piers Kent and Simon Flack <cpan _at_ bbc
_dot_ co _dot_ uk>
COPYRIGHT¶
(c) BBC 2005. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the GNU GPL.
See the file COPYING in this distribution, or
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt