xref: /openbsd/gnu/usr.bin/perl/t/README (revision 3cab2bb3)
1This is the perl test library.  To run the test suite, just type './TEST'
2or 'make test' from the build directory above t/.  See also the section
3"Special Make Test Targets" in pod/perlhack.pod to learn about other
4specific test commands.
5
6To add new tests, just look at the current tests and do likewise.
7The library t/test.pl provides some utility functions that you can use
8in most tests, except in the most basic ones.
9
10If a test fails, run it by itself to see if it prints any informative
11diagnostics.  If not, modify the test to print informative diagnostics.
12If you put out extra lines with a '#' character on the front, you don't
13have to worry about removing the extra print statements later since TEST
14ignores lines beginning with '#'.
15
16If you know that Perl is basically working but expect that some tests
17will fail, you may want to use Test::Harness thusly:
18        cd t
19        ./perl harness
20This method pinpoints failed tests automatically.
21
22If you come up with new tests, please submit them to
23https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues.
24
25Tests in the t/base/ directory ought to be runnable with plain miniperl.
26That is, they should not require Config.pm nor should they require any
27extensions to have been built.  TEST will abort if any tests in the
28t/base/ directory fail.
29
30Tests in the t/comp/, t/cmd/, t/run/, t/io/, t/op/ and t/uni/ directories
31should also be runnable by miniperl and not require Config.pm, but
32failures to comply will not cause TEST to abort like for t/base/.
33
34Tests in t/perf/ are designed to test performance and optimisations,
35and also contain additional tools and files designed to run outside
36of the test suite
37