MirBSD manpage: prove(1)

PROVE(1)        Perl Programmers Reference Guide         PROVE(1)

NAME

     prove -- A command-line tool for running tests against
     Test::Harness

SYNOPSIS

     prove [options] [files/directories]

     Options:

         -b, --blib      Adds blib/lib to the path for your tests, a la "use blib".
         -d, --debug     Includes extra debugging information.
         -D, --dry       Dry run: Show the tests to run, but don't run them.
             --ext=x     Extensions (defaults to .t)
         -h, --help      Display this help
         -H, --man       Longer manpage for prove
         -I              Add libraries to @INC, as Perl's -I
         -l, --lib       Add lib to the path for your tests.
         -r, --recurse   Recursively descend into directories.
         -s, --shuffle   Run the tests in a random order.
         -T              Enable tainting checks
         -t              Enable tainting warnings
             --timer     Print elapsed time after each test file
         -v, --verbose   Display standard output of test scripts while running them.
         -V, --version   Display version info

     Single-character options may be stacked.  Default options
     may be set by specifying the PROVE_SWITCHES environment
     variable.

OVERVIEW

     prove is a command-line interface to the test-running func-
     tionality of "Test::Harness".  With no arguments, it will
     run all tests in the current directory.

     Shell metacharacters may be used with command lines options
     and will be exanded via "glob".

PROVE VS. "MAKE TEST"
     prove has a number of advantages over "make test" when doing
     development.

     * prove is designed as a development tool
         Perl users typically run the test harness through a
         makefile via "make test".  That's fine for module dis-
         tributions, but it's suboptimal for a test/code/debug
         development cycle.

     * prove is granular
         prove lets your run against only the files you want to
         check. Running "prove t/live/ t/master.t" checks every
         *.t in t/live, plus t/master.t.

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     * prove has an easy verbose mode
         prove has a "-v" option to see the raw output from the
         tests. To do this with "make test", you must set
         "HARNESS_VERBOSE=1" in the environment.

     * prove can run under taint mode
         prove's "-T" runs your tests under "perl -T", and "-t"
         runs them under "perl -t".

     * prove can shuffle tests
         You can use prove's "--shuffle" option to try to excite
         problems that don't show up when tests are run in the
         same order every time.

     * prove doesn't rely on a make tool
         Not everyone wants to write a makefile, or use
         ExtUtils::MakeMaker to do so.  prove has no external
         dependencies.

     * Not everything is a module
         More and more users are using Perl's testing tools out-
         side the context of a module distribution, and may not
         even use a makefile at all.

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

     -b, --blib

     Adds blib/lib to the path for your tests, a la "use blib".

     -d, --debug

     Include debug information about how prove is being run.
     This option doesn't show the output from the test scripts.
     That's handled by -v,--verbose.

     -D, --dry

     Dry run: Show the tests to run, but don't run them.

     --ext=extension

     Specify extensions of the test files to run.  By default,
     these are .t, but you may have other non-.t test files, most
     likely .sh shell scripts. The --ext is repeatable.

     -I

     Add libraries to @INC, as Perl's -I.

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     -l, --lib

     Add "lib" to @INC.  Equivalent to "-Ilib".

     -r, --recurse

     Descends into subdirectories of any directories specified,
     looking for tests.

     -s, --shuffle

     Sometimes tests are accidentally dependent on tests that
     have been run before.  This switch will shuffle the tests to
     be run prior to running them, thus ensuring that hidden
     dependencies in the test order are likely to be revealed.
     The author hopes the run the algorithm on the preceding sen-
     tence to see if he can produce something slightly less awk-
     ward.

     -t

     Runs test programs under perl's -t taint warning mode.

     -T

     Runs test programs under perl's -T taint mode.

     --timer

     Print elapsed time after each test file

     -v, --verbose

     Display standard output of test scripts while running them.
     Also sets TEST_VERBOSE in case your tests rely on them.

     -V, --version

     Display version info.

BUGS

     Please use the CPAN bug ticketing system at
     <http://rt.cpan.org/>. You can also mail bugs, fixes and
     enhancements to "<bug-test-harness@rt.cpan.org>".

TODO

     +   Shuffled tests must be recreatable

AUTHORS

     Andy Lester "<andy@petdance.com>"

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PROVE(1)        Perl Programmers Reference Guide         PROVE(1)

COPYRIGHT

     Copyright 2005 by Andy Lester "<andy@petdance.com>".

     This program is free software; you can redistribute it
     and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

     See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>.

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