PROVE(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PROVE(1)NAMEprove - Run tests through a TAP harness.
USAGEprove [options] [files or directories]
OPTIONS
Boolean options:
-v, --verbose Print all test lines.
-l, --lib Add 'lib' to the path for your tests (-Ilib).
-b, --blib Add 'blib/lib' and 'blib/arch' to the path for
your tests
-s, --shuffle Run the tests in random order.
-c, --color Colored test output (default).
--nocolor Do not color test output.
--count Show the X/Y test count when not verbose
(default)
--nocount Disable the X/Y test count.
-D--dry Dry run. Show test that would have run.
--ext Set the extension for tests (default '.t')
-f, --failures Show failed tests.
-o, --comments Show comments.
--ignore-exit Ignore exit status from test scripts.
-m, --merge Merge test scripts' STDERR with their STDOUT.
-r, --recurse Recursively descend into directories.
--reverse Run the tests in reverse order.
-q, --quiet Suppress some test output while running tests.
-Q, --QUIET Only print summary results.
-p, --parse Show full list of TAP parse errors, if any.
--directives Only show results with TODO or SKIP directives.
--timer Print elapsed time after each test.
--trap Trap Ctrl-C and print summary on interrupt.
--normalize Normalize TAP output in verbose output
-T Enable tainting checks.
-t Enable tainting warnings.
-W Enable fatal warnings.
-w Enable warnings.
-h, --help Display this help
-?, Display this help
-H, --man Longer manpage for prove--norc Don't process default .proverc
Options that take arguments:
-I Library paths to include.
-P Load plugin (searches App::Prove::Plugin::*.)
-M Load a module.
-e, --exec Interpreter to run the tests ('' for compiled
tests.)
--harness Define test harness to use. See TAP::Harness.
--formatter Result formatter to use. See FORMATTERS.
--source Load and/or configure a SourceHandler. See
SOURCE HANDLERS.
-a, --archive out.tgz Store the resulting TAP in an archive file.
-j, --jobs N Run N test jobs in parallel (try 9.)
--state=opts Control prove's persistent state.
--rc=rcfile Process options from rcfile
NOTES
.proverc
If ~/.proverc or ./.proverc exist they will be read and any options
they contain processed before the command line options. Options in
.proverc are specified in the same way as command line options:
# .proverc
--state=hot,fast,save
-j9
Additional option files may be specified with the "--rc" option.
Default option file processing is disabled by the "--norc" option.
Under Windows and VMS the option file is named _proverc rather than
.proverc and is sought only in the current directory.
Reading from "STDIN"
If you have a list of tests (or URLs, or anything else you want to
test) in a file, you can add them to your tests by using a '-':
prove - < my_list_of_things_to_test.txt
See the "README" in the "examples" directory of this distribution.
Default Test Directory
If no files or directories are supplied, "prove" looks for all files
matching the pattern "t/*.t".
Colored Test Output
Colored test output is the default, but if output is not to a terminal,
color is disabled. You can override this by adding the "--color"
switch.
Color support requires the Term::ANSIColor manpage on Unix-like plat‐
forms and the Win32::Console manpage windows. If the necessary module
is not installed colored output will not be available.
Exit Code
If the tests fail "prove" will exit with non-zero status.
Arguments to Tests
It is possible to supply arguments to tests. To do so separate them
from prove's own arguments with the arisdottle, '::'. For example
prove-v t/mytest.t :: --url http://example.com
would run t/mytest.t with the options '--url http://example.com'. When
running multiple tests they will each receive the same arguments.
"--exec"
Normally you can just pass a list of Perl tests and the harness will
know how to execute them. However, if your tests are not written in
Perl or if you want all tests invoked exactly the same way, use the
"-e", or "--exec" switch:
prove--exec '/usr/bin/ruby -w' t/
prove--exec '/usr/bin/perl -Tw -mstrict -Ilib' t/
prove--exec '/path/to/my/customer/exec'
"--merge"
If you need to make sure your diagnostics are displayed in the correct
order relative to test results you can use the "--merge" option to
merge the test scripts' STDERR into their STDOUT.
This guarantees that STDOUT (where the test results appear) and STDERR
(where the diagnostics appear) will stay in sync. The harness will dis‐
play any diagnostics your tests emit on STDERR.
Caveat: this is a bit of a kludge. In particular note that if anything
that appears on STDERR looks like a test result the test harness will
get confused. Use this option only if you understand the consequences
and can live with the risk.
"--trap"
The "--trap" option will attempt to trap SIGINT (Ctrl-C) during a test
run and display the test summary even if the run is interrupted
"--state"
You can ask "prove" to remember the state of previous test runs and
select and/or order the tests to be run based on that saved state.
The "--state" switch requires an argument which must be a comma sepa‐
rated list of one or more of the following options.
""last""
Run the same tests as the last time the state was saved. This makes
it possible, for example, to recreate the ordering of a shuffled
test.
# Run all tests in random order
$ prove-b --state=save --shuffle
# Run them again in the same order
$ prove-b --state=last
""failed""
Run only the tests that failed on the last run.
# Run all tests
$ prove-b --state=save
# Run failures
$ prove-b --state=failed
If you also specify the "save" option newly passing tests will be
excluded from subsequent runs.
# Repeat until no more failures
$ prove-b --state=failed,save
""passed""
Run only the passed tests from last time. Useful to make sure that
no new problems have been introduced.
""all""
Run all tests in normal order. Multple options may be specified, so
to run all tests with the failures from last time first:
$ prove-b --state=failed,all,save
""hot""
Run the tests that most recently failed first. The last failure
time of each test is stored. The "hot" option causes tests to be
run in most-recent- failure order.
$ prove-b --state=hot,save
Tests that have never failed will not be selected. To run all tests
with the most recently failed first use
$ prove-b --state=hot,all,save
This combination of options may also be specified thus
$ prove-b --state=adrian
""todo""
Run any tests with todos.
""slow""
Run the tests in slowest to fastest order. This is useful in con‐
junction with the "-j" parallel testing switch to ensure that your
slowest tests start running first.
$ prove-b --state=slow -j9
""fast""
Run test tests in fastest to slowest order.
""new""
Run the tests in newest to oldest order based on the modification
times of the test scripts.
""old""
Run the tests in oldest to newest order.
""fresh""
Run those test scripts that have been modified since the last test
run.
""save""
Save the state on exit. The state is stored in a file called .prove
(_prove on Windows and VMS) in the current directory.
The "--state" switch may be used more than once.
$ prove-b --state=hot --state=all,save
@INC
prove introduces a separation between "options passed to the perl which
runs prove" and "options passed to the perl which runs tests"; this
distinction is by design. Thus the perl which is running a test starts
with the default "@INC". Additional library directories can be added
via the "PERL5LIB" environment variable, via -Ifoo in "PERL5OPT" or via
the "-Ilib" option to prove.
Taint Mode
Normally when a Perl program is run in taint mode the contents of the
"PERL5LIB" environment variable do not appear in "@INC".
Because "PERL5LIB" is often used during testing to add build directo‐
ries to "@INC" prove passes the names of any directories found in
"PERL5LIB" as -I switches. The net effect of this is that "PERL5LIB" is
honoured even when prove is run in taint mode.
FORMATTERS
You can load a custom the TAP::Parser::Formatter manpage:
prove--formatter MyFormatter
SOURCE HANDLERS
You can load custom the TAP::Parser::SourceHandler manpages, to change
the way the parser interprets particular sources of TAP.
prove--source MyHandler --source YetAnother t
If you want to provide config to the source you can use:
prove--source MyCustom \
--source Perl --perl-option 'foo=bar baz' --perl-option avg=0.278 \
--source File --file-option extensions=.txt --file-option extensions=.tmp t
--source pgTAP --pgtap-option pset=format=html --pgtap-option pset=border=2
Each "--$source-option" option must specify a key/value pair separated
by an "=". If an option can take multiple values, just specify it mul‐
tiple times, as with the "extensions=" examples above. If the option
should be a hash reference, specify the value as a second pair sepa‐
rated by a "=", as in the "pset=" examples above (escape "=" with a
backslash).
All "--sources" are combined into a hash, and passed to the new entry
in the TAP::Harness manpage's "sources" parameter.
See the TAP::Parser::IteratorFactory manpage for more details on how
configuration is passed to SourceHandlers.
PLUGINS
Plugins can be loaded using the "-Pplugin" syntax, eg:
prove-PMyPlugin
This will search for a module named "App::Prove::Plugin::MyPlugin", or
failing that, "MyPlugin". If the plugin can't be found, "prove" will
complain & exit.
You can pass arguments to your plugin by appending "=arg1,arg2,etc" to
the plugin name:
prove -PMyPlugin=fou,du,fafa
Please check individual plugin documentation for more details.
Available Plugins
For an up-to-date list of plugins available, please check CPAN:
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=App%3A%3AProve+Plugin
Writing Plugins
Please see the PLUGINS entry in the App::Prove manpage.
3rd Berkeley Distribution perl v5.6.1 PROVE(1)