6 my $app = App::Prove->new;
7 $app->process_args(@ARGV);
14 prove - Run tests through a TAP harness.
18 prove [options] [files or directories]
24 -v, --verbose Print all test lines.
25 -l, --lib Add 'lib' to the path for your tests (-Ilib).
26 -b, --blib Add 'blib/lib' to the path for your tests (-Iblib/lib).
27 -s, --shuffle Run the tests in random order.
28 -c, --color Colored test output (default).
29 --nocolor Do not color test output.
30 -f, --failures Only show failed tests.
31 --fork Fork to run harness in multiple processes
32 -m, --merge Merge test scripts' STDERR with their STDOUT.
33 -r, --recurse Recursively descend into directories.
34 --reverse Run the tests in reverse order.
35 -q, --quiet Suppress some test output while running tests.
36 -Q, --QUIET Only print summary results.
37 -p, --parse Show full list of TAP parse errors, if any.
38 --directives Only show results with TODO or SKIP directives.
39 --timer Print elapsed time after each test.
40 -T Enable tainting checks.
41 -t Enable tainting warnings.
42 -W Enable fatal warnings.
44 -h, --help Display this help
46 -H, --man Longer manpage for prove
47 --norc Don't process default .proverc
49 Options that take arguments:
51 -I Library paths to include.
52 -P Load plugin (searches App::Prove::Plugin::*.)
54 -e, --exec Interpreter to run the tests ('' for compiled tests.)
55 --harness Define test harness to use. See TAP::Harness.
56 --formatter Result formatter to use. See TAP::Harness.
57 -a, --archive Store the resulting TAP in an archive file.
58 -j, --jobs N Run N test jobs in parallel (try 9.)
59 --state=opts Control prove's persistent state.
60 --rc=rcfile Process options from rcfile
66 If F<~/.proverc> or F<./.proverc> exist they will be read and any
67 options they contain processed before the command line options. Options
68 in F<.proverc> are specified in the same way as command line options:
74 Additional option files may be specified with the C<--rc> option.
75 Default option file processing is disabled by the C<--norc> option.
77 Under Windows and VMS the option file is named F<_proverc> rather than
78 F<.proverc> and is sought only in the current directory.
80 =head2 Reading from C<STDIN>
82 If you have a list of tests (or URLs, or anything else you want to test) in a
83 file, you can add them to your tests by using a '-':
85 prove - < my_list_of_things_to_test.txt
87 See the C<README> in the C<examples> directory of this distribution.
89 =head2 Default Test Directory
91 If no files or directories are supplied, C<prove> looks for all files
92 matching the pattern C<t/*.t>.
94 =head2 Colored Test Output
96 Colored test output is the default, but if output is not to a
97 terminal, color is disabled. You can override this by adding the
100 Color support requires L<Term::ANSIColor> on Unix-like platforms and
101 L<Win32::Console> windows. If the necessary module is not installed
102 colored output will not be available.
104 =head2 Arguments to Tests
106 It is possible to supply arguments to tests. To do so separate them from
107 prove's own arguments with the arisdottle, '::'. For example
109 prove -v t/mytest.t :: --url http://example.com
111 would run F<t/mytest.t> with the options '--url http://example.com'.
112 When running multiple tests they will each receive the same arguments.
116 Normally you can just pass a list of Perl tests and the harness will know how
117 to execute them. However, if your tests are not written in Perl or if you
118 want all tests invoked exactly the same way, use the C<-e>, or C<--exec>
121 prove --exec '/usr/bin/ruby -w' t/
122 prove --exec '/usr/bin/perl -Tw -mstrict -Ilib' t/
123 prove --exec '/path/to/my/customer/exec'
127 If you need to make sure your diagnostics are displayed in the correct
128 order relative to test results you can use the C<--merge> option to
129 merge the test scripts' STDERR into their STDOUT.
131 This guarantees that STDOUT (where the test results appear) and STDOUT
132 (where the diagnostics appear) will stay in sync. The harness will
133 display any diagnostics your tests emit on STDERR.
135 Caveat: this is a bit of a kludge. In particular note that if anything
136 that appears on STDERR looks like a test result the test harness will
137 get confused. Use this option only if you understand the consequences
138 and can live with the risk.
142 You can ask C<prove> to remember the state of previous test runs and
143 select and/or order the tests to be run this time based on that
146 The C<--state> switch requires an argument which must be a comma
147 separated list of one or more of the following options.
153 Run the same tests as the last time the state was saved. This makes it
154 possible, for example, to recreate the ordering of a shuffled test.
156 # Run all tests in random order
157 $ prove -b --state=save --shuffle
159 # Run them again in the same order
160 $ prove -b --state=last
164 Run only the tests that failed on the last run.
167 e $ prove -b --state=save
170 $ prove -b --state=failed
172 If you also specify the C<save> option newly passing tests will be
173 excluded from subsequent runs.
175 # Repeat until no more failures
176 $ prove -b --state=failed,save
180 Run only the passed tests from last time. Useful to make sure that no
181 new problems have been introduced.
185 Run all tests in normal order. Multple options may be specified, so to
186 run all tests with the failures from last time first:
188 $ prove -b --state=failed,all,save
192 Run the tests that most recently failed first. The last failure time of
193 each test is stored. The C<hot> option causes tests to be run in most-recent-
196 $ prove -b --state=hot,save
198 Tests that have never failed will not be selected. To run all tests with
199 the most recently failed first use
201 $ prove -b --state=hot,all,save
203 This combination of options may also be specified thus
205 $ prove -b --state=adrian
209 Run any tests with todos.
213 Run the tests in slowest to fastest order. This is useful in conjunction
214 with the C<-j> parallel testing switch to ensure that your slowest tests
217 $ prove -b --state=slow -j9
221 Run test tests in fastest to slowest order.
225 Run the tests in newest to oldest order.
229 Run the tests in oldest to newest order.
233 Save the state on exit. The state is stored in a file called F<.prove>
234 (F<_prove> on Windows and VMS) in the current directory.
238 The C<--state> switch may be used more than once.
240 $ prove -b --state=hot --state=all,save
244 # vim:ts=4:sw=4:et:sta