Ubuntu Manpage: Test::Distribution - perform tests on all modules of a distribution

Provided by: libtest-distribution-perl_2.00-7_all

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.