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
       functionality 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.

       * 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 ExtU-
           tils::MakeMaker to do so.  prove has no external
           dependencies.

       * Not everything is a module
           More and more users are using Perl's testing tools
           outside 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.

       -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
       sentence to see if he can produce something slightly less
       awkward.

       -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
       .  You can also mail bugs, fixes and
       enhancements to "".

TODO
       o   Shuffled tests must be recreatable

AUTHORS
       Andy Lester ""

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2005 by Andy Lester "".

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

       See .



perl v5.8.8                 2006-05-19                   PROVE(1)