Provided by: libtest-assertions-perl_1.054-3_all 
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
RELATED MODULES
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