Dirt Simple Perl Unit Example

This is how to write the simplest one-file testage for PerlUnit, with the minimum of "package" shenanigans, but with the real assertions, like assert_matches, available.

To test MyModule.pl, get inside it and instrument its main() like this:

  exit (main())  if $0 eq __FILE__;

Now MyModule.pl will run normally, as a script, from a command line, but when bonded with another module it doesn't activate its main() routine.

Now write this inside TestMyModule.pl:

 use strict;
 require 'MyModule.pl';

 package TestMyModule;
    use base qw(Test::Unit::TestCase);

    sub new {
        my $self = shift()->SUPER::new(@_);
        # your state for fixture here
        return $self;
    }

    sub set_up {
        # provide fixture
    }
    sub tear_down {
        # clean up after test
    }
    sub test_foo {
        my $self = shift;        
        $self->assert_matches(qr/expected result/, 'expected result');

    }
    sub test_bar {
        # test the bar feature
    }

    use Test::Unit::TestRunner;

    my $testrunner = Test::Unit::TestRunner->new();
    $testrunner->start('TestMyModule');

And that's it. Now you can start writing ordinary test_*() cases on MyModule's contents.

This information was scattered across various help files, and not entirely obvious to the itinerant PerlLanguage dabbler...

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CategoryPerl CategoryTesting