Man page 1 : prove

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 --fork

Additional option files may be specified with the \f(CW\*(C`--rc\*(C'\fR option. Default option file processing is disabled by the \f(CW\*(C`--norc\*(C'\fR option.

Under Windows and VMS the option file is named _proverc rather than .proverc and is sought only in the current directory. .ie n .SS "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 \f(CW\*(C`README\*(C'\fR in the \f(CW\*(C`examples\*(C'\fR directory of this distribution.

If no files or directories are supplied, \f(CW\*(C`prove\*(C'\fR looks for all files matching the pattern \f(CW\*(C`t/*.t\*(C'\fR.

Colored test output is the default, but if output is not to a terminal, color is disabled. You can override this by adding the \f(CW\*(C`--color\*(C'\fR switch.

Color support requires Term::ANSIColor on Unix-like platforms and Win32::Console windows. If the necessary module is not installed colored output will not be available.

If the tests fail \f(CW\*(C`prove\*(C'\fR will exit with non-zero status.

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. .ie n .SS """--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 \f(CW\*(C`-e\*(C'\fR, or \f(CW\*(C`--exec\*(C'\fR switch:

prove --exec \*(Aq/usr/bin/ruby -w\*(Aq t/ prove --exec \*(Aq/usr/bin/perl -Tw -mstrict -Ilib\*(Aq t/ prove --exec \*(Aq/path/to/my/customer/exec\*(Aq

.ie n .SS """--merge""" If you need to make sure your diagnostics are displayed in the correct order relative to test results you can use the \f(CW\*(C`--merge\*(C'\fR option to merge the test scripts' STDERR into their STDOUT.

This guarantees that STDOUT (where the test results appear) and STDOUT (where the diagnostics appear) will stay in sync. The harness will display 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. .ie n .SS """--state""" You can ask \f(CW\*(C`prove\*(C'\fR to remember the state of previous test runs and select and/or order the tests to be run based on that saved state.

The \f(CW\*(C`--state\*(C'\fR switch requires an argument which must be a comma separated list of one or more of the following options.

last 4 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. .Sp # Run all tests in random order $ prove -b --state=save --shuffle # Run them again in the same order $ prove -b --state=last

failed 4 Run only the tests that failed on the last run. .Sp # Run all tests $ prove -b --state=save # Run failures $ prove -b --state=failed

.Sp If you also specify the \f(CW\*(C`save\*(C'\fR option newly passing tests will be excluded from subsequent runs. .Sp # Repeat until no more failures $ prove -b --state=failed,save

passed 4 Run only the passed tests from last time. Useful to make sure that no new problems have been introduced.

all 4 Run all tests in normal order. Multple options may be specified, so to run all tests with the failures from last time first: .Sp $ prove -b --state=failed,all,save

hot 4 Run the tests that most recently failed first. The last failure time of each test is stored. The \f(CW\*(C`hot\*(C'\fR option causes tests to be run in most-recent- failure order. .Sp $ prove -b --state=hot,save

.Sp Tests that have never failed will not be selected. To run all tests with the most recently failed first use .Sp $ prove -b --state=hot,all,save

.Sp This combination of options may also be specified thus .Sp $ prove -b --state=adrian

todo 4 Run any tests with todos.

slow 4 Run the tests in slowest to fastest order. This is useful in conjunction with the \f(CW\*(C`-j\*(C'\fR parallel testing switch to ensure that your slowest tests start running first. .Sp $ prove -b --state=slow -j9

fast 4 Run test tests in fastest to slowest order.

new 4 Run the tests in newest to oldest order based on the modification times of the test scripts.

old 4 Run the tests in oldest to newest order.

fresh 4 Run those test scripts that have been modified since the last test run.

save 4 Save the state on exit. The state is stored in a file called .prove (_prove on Windows and VMS) in the current directory.

The \f(CW\*(C`--state\*(C'\fR switch may be used more than once.

$ prove -b --state=hot --state=all,save

.ie n .SS "@INC" prove introduces a separation between \*(L"options passed to the perl which runs prove\*(R" and \*(L"options passed to the perl which runs tests\*(R"; this distinction is by design. Thus the perl which is running a test starts with the default \f(\fR. Additional library directories can be added via the \f(CW\*(C`PERL5LIB\*(C'\fR environment variable, via -Ifoo in \f(CW\*(C`PERL5OPT\*(C'\fR or via the \f(CW\*(C`-Ilib\*(C'\fR option to prove.

Normally when a Perl program is run in taint mode the contents of the \f(CW\*(C`PERL5LIB\*(C'\fR environment variable do not appear in \f(\fR.

Because \f(CW\*(C`PERL5LIB\*(C'\fR is often used during testing to add build directories to \f(\fR prove (actually TAP::Parser::Source::Perl) passes the names of any directories found in \f(CW\*(C`PERL5LIB\*(C'\fR as -I switches. The net effect of this is that \f(CW\*(C`PERL5LIB\*(C'\fR is honoured even when prove is run in taint mode.

For an up-to-date list of plugins available, please check CPAN:

<http://search.cpan.org/search?query=App%3A%3AProve+Plugin>

Please see \*(L"PLUGINS\*(R" in App::Prove.