NAME Test::Apocalypse - Apocalypse's favorite tests bundled into a simple interface VERSION This document describes v1.001 of Test::Apocalypse - released March 08, 2011 as part of Test-Apocalypse. SYNOPSIS #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Test::More; eval "use Test::Apocalypse"; if ( $@ ) { plan skip_all => 'Test::Apocalypse required for validating the distribution'; } else { is_apocalypse_here(); } DESCRIPTION This module greatly simplifies common author tests for modules heading towards CPAN. I was sick of copy/pasting the tons of t/foo.t scripts + managing them in every distro. I thought it would be nice to bundle all of it into one module and toss it on CPAN :) That way, every time I update this module all of my dists would be magically updated! This module respects the RELEASE_TESTING/AUTOMATED_TESTING env variable, if it is not set it will skip the entire testsuite. Normally end-users should not run it; but you can if you want to see how bad my dists are, ha! The scheme is exactly the same as the one Alias proposed in Test::XT and in his blog post, . This module uses Module::Pluggable to have custom "backends" that process various tests. We wrap them in a hackish Test::Block block per-plugin and it seems to work nicely. If you want to write your own, it should be a breeze once you look at some of my plugins and see how it works. ( more documentation to come ) Usage In order to use this, you would need to be familiar with the "standard" steps in order to fully exercise the testsuite. There are a few steps we require, because our plugins need stuff to be prepared for them. For starters, you would need a test file in your distribution similar to the one in SYNOPSIS. Once that is done and added to your MANIFEST and etc, you can do this: perl Build.PL # sets up the dist ( duh, hah ) ./Build dist # makes the tarball ( so certain plugins can process it ) RELEASE_TESTING=1 ./Build test # runs the testsuite! Methods is_apocalypse_here() This is the main entry point for this testsuite. By default, it runs every plugin in the testsuite. You can enable/disable specific plugins if you desire. It accepts a single argument: a hashref or a hash. It can contain various options, but as of now it only supports two options. If you try to use allow and deny at the same time, this module will throw an exception. allow Setting "allow" to a string or a precompiled regex will run only the plugins that match the regex. If passed a string, this module will compile it via "qr/$str/i". # run only the EOL test and disable all other tests is_apocalypse_here( { allow => qr/^EOL$/, } ); # run all "dist" tests is_apocalypse_here( { allow => 'dist', } ); deny Setting "deny" to a string or a precompiled regex will not run the plugins that match the regex. If passed a string, this module will compile it via "qr/$str/i". # disable Pod_Coverage test and enable all other tests is_apocalypse_here( { deny => qr/^Pod_Coverage$/, } ); # disable all pod tests is_apocalypse_here( { deny => 'pod', } ); plugins() Since this module uses Module::Pluggable you can use this method on the package to find out what plugins are available. Handy if you need to know what plugins to skip, for example. my @tests = Test::Apocalypse->plugins; EXPORT Automatically exports the "is_apocalypse_here" sub. MORE IDEAS * Better POD spelling checker? Test::Spelling is ancient, and often blows up. There's a Test::Pod::Spelling on CPAN but it is flaky too :( * CPAN RT check? I want a test that checks the CPAN RT for any tickets, and display it when running the test. That would be helpful to remind me to be punctual with my tickets, ha! * Document the way we do plugins so others can add to this testsuite :) * POD standards check Do we have SYNOPSIS, ABSTRACT, SUPPORT, etc sections? ( PerlCritic can do that! Need to investigate more... ) * Integrate Test::UniqueTestNames into the testsuite This would be nice, but I'm not sure if I can actually force this on other tests. Otherwise I'll be just making sure that the Test::Apocalypse tests is unique, which is worthless to $dist trying to clean itself up... * META.yml checks We should make sure that the META.yml includes the "repository", "license", and other useful keys! * Other AUTHORs As always, we should keep up on the "latest" in the perl world and look at other authors for what they are doing. * indirect syntax We should figure out how to use to detect this deprecated method of coding. There's a Perl::Critic plugin for this, yay! * Test::PPPort Already implemented as but it's less invasive than my version, ha! * Test::DependentModules This is a crazy test, but would help tremendously in finding regressions in your code! * Test::CleanNamespaces I don't exclusively code in Moose, but this could be useful... * no internet? It would be nice to signal INTERNET_TESTING=0 or something zany like that so this testsuite will skip the tests that need internet access... Is there a convention that signals no internet access? Similar to RELEASE_TESTING, AUTOMATED_TESTING, and etc? <@rjbs> No. mmm I ain't in the mood to invent it so I'll just bench it for now :( however, if I was to invent it I would call it something like INTERNET_TESTING=0 Also, why does ILYAZ keep re-inventing the stuff? Use of uninitialized value $ENV{"PERL_RL_TEST_PROMPT_MINLEN"} in bitwise or (|) at line 33. <@Alias> use LWP::Online ':skip_all'; <@Alias> Whack that in the relevant test scripts Alias: Hmm, how can I control that at a distance? i.e. disabling inet if I had inet access? <@Alias> You can't <@Alias> It's a pragmatic test, tries to pull some huge site front pages and looks for copyright statements At least it's a good start - thanks! <@Alias> So it deals with proxies and airport wireless hijacking etc properly Hah yeah I had to do the same thing at $work in the past, we put up a "special" page then had our software try to read it and if the content didn't match it complained :) <@Alias> right <@Alias> So yeah, it automates that <@Alias> I wrote it while in an airport annoyed that something I wrote wasn't falling back on a minicpan properly At least it'll be an improvement, but I still need to force no inet for testing... ohwell Heh, it seems like us perl hackers do a lot of work while stranded at airports :) <@Alias> If you can break LWP from the environment, that would work <@Alias> Setting a proxy ENVthat is illegal etc ah good thinking, I'll read up on the fine points of LWP env vars and try to screw it up * Test::CPAN::Changes Use the newfangled CPAN Changes spec :) Modules that I considered but decided against using * Test::Distribution This module was a plugin in this testsuite but I don't need it. All the functionality in it is already replicated in the plugins :) * Test::Module::Used and Test::Dependencies They were plugins in this testsuite but since I started coding with Moose, they don't work! I've switched to my homebrew solution utilizing Perl::PrereqScanner which works nicely for me. * Test::MyDeps Superseded by Test::DependentModules. Also, I don't want to waste a lot of time on each testrun testing other modules! * Test::NoTabs I always use tabs! :( * Test::CheckManifest This was a buggy module that I dropped and is now using Test::DistManifest * Test::Dist This is pretty much the same thing as this dist ;) * Test::PureASCII This rocks, as I don't care about unicode in my perl! ;) * Test::LatestPrereqs This looks cool but we need to fiddle with config files? My OutdatedPrereqs test already covers it pretty well... * Test::Pod::Content This is useful, but not everyone has the same POD layout. It would be too much work to try and generalize this... * Test::GreaterVersion Since I never use CPAN, this is non-functional for me. However, it might be useful for someone? * Test::Kwalitee This dist rocks, but it doesn't print the info nor utilize the extra metrics. My homebrew solution actually copied a lot of code from this, so I have to give it props! * Test::LoadAllModules This is very similar to Test::UseAllModules but looks more complicated. Also, I already have enough tests that do that ;) * Test::ModuleReady This looks like a nice module, but what it does is already covered by the numerous tests in this dist... * Test::PerlTidy Br0ken install at this time... ( PerlCritic can do that! Need to investigate more... ) Also, all it does is... run your module through perltidy and compare the outputs. Not that useful imo because I never could get perltidy to match my prefs :( * Test::Install::METArequires This looks like a lazy way to do auto_install and potentially dangerous! Better to just use the prereq logic in Build.PL/Makefile.PL * Test::Perl::Metrics::Simple This just tests your Cyclomatic complexity and was the starting point for my homebrew solution. SUPPORT Perldoc You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc Test::Apocalypse Websites The following websites have more information about this module, and may be of help to you. As always, in addition to those websites please use your favorite search engine to discover more resources. * Search CPAN * RT: CPAN's Bug Tracker * AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation * CPAN Ratings * CPAN Forum * CPANTS Kwalitee * CPAN Testers Results * CPAN Testers Matrix Email You can email the author of this module at "APOCAL at" asking for help with any problems you have. Internet Relay Chat You can get live help by using IRC ( Internet Relay Chat ). If you don't know what IRC is, please read this excellent guide: . Please be courteous and patient when talking to us, as we might be busy or sleeping! You can join those networks/channels and get help: * You can connect to the server at '' and join this channel: #perl-help then talk to this person for help: Apocalypse. * You can connect to the server at '' and join this channel: #perl then talk to this person for help: Apocal. * You can connect to the server at '' and join this channel: #perl then talk to this person for help: Ap0cal. Bugs / Feature Requests Please report any bugs or feature requests by email to "bug-test-apocalypse at", or through the web interface at . You will be automatically notified of any progress on the request by the system. Source Code The code is open to the world, and available for you to hack on. Please feel free to browse it and play with it, or whatever. If you want to contribute patches, please send me a diff or prod me to pull from your repository :) git clone git:// AUTHOR Apocalypse ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to for the prodding and help in getting this package ready to be bundled into debian! COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Apocalypse. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this distribution. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.