Test::Exception - Test exception based code

TO DO
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
AUTHOR
SEE ALSO
LICENCE

NAME

Test::Exception - Test exception based code

SYNOPSIS

  use Test::More tests => 5;
  use Test::Exception;

  # or if you don't need Test::More

  use Test::Exception tests => 5;

  # then...

  # Check that something died
  dies_ok {$foo->method1} 'expecting to die';

  # Check that something did not die
  lives_ok {$foo->method2} 'expecting to live';

  # Check that the stringified exception matches given regex
  throws_ok {$foo->method3} qr/division by zero/, 'zero caught okay';

  # Check an exception of the given class (or subclass) is thrown
  throws_ok {$foo->method4} 'Error::Simple', 'simple error thrown';

  # Check that a test runs without an exception
  lives_and {is $foo->method, 42} 'method is 42';


  # or if you don't like prototyped functions


  dies_ok( sub { $foo->method1 }, 'expecting to die' );
  lives_ok( sub {$foo->method2}, 'expecting to live' );
  throws_ok( sub {$foo->method3}, qr/division by zero/,
      'zero caught okay' );
  throws_ok( sub {$foo->method4}, 'Error::Simple', 
      'simple error thrown' );
  lives_and( sub {is $foo->method, 42}, 'method is 42' );

DESCRIPTION

This module provides a few convenience methods for testing exception based code. It is built with the Test::Builder manpage and plays happily with the Test::More manpage and friends.

If you are not already familiar with the Test::More manpage now would be the time to go take a look.

You can specify the test plan when you use Test::Exception in the same way as use Test::More. See the Test::More manpage for details.

dies_ok

Checks that a piece of code dies, rather than returning normally. For example:

    sub div {
        my ($a, $b) = @_;
        return( $a / $b );
    };

    dies_ok { div(1, 0) } 'divide by zero detected';
    # or if you don't like prototypes
    dies_ok( sub { div(1, 0) }, 'divide by zero detected' );

A true value is returned if the test succeeds, false otherwise. On exit $@ is guaranteed to be the cause of death (if any).

The test description is optional, but recommended.

lives_ok

Checks that a piece of code exits normally, and doesn't die. For example:

    sub read_file {
        my $file = shift;
        local $/ = undef;
        open(FILE, $file) or die "open failed ($!)\n";
        $file = <FILE>;
        close(FILE);
        return($file);
    };

    my $file;
    lives_ok { $file = read_file('test.txt') } 'file read';
    # or if you don't like prototypes
    lives_ok( sub { $file = read_file('test.txt') }, 'file read' );

Should a lives_ok() test fail it produces appropriate diagnostic messages. For example:

    not ok 1 - file read
    #     Failed test (test.t at line 15)
    # died: open failed (No such file or directory)

A true value is returned if the test succeeds, false otherwise. On exit $@ is guaranteed to be the cause of death (if any).

The test description is optional, but recommended.

throws_ok

Tests to see that a specific exception is thrown. throws_ok() has two forms:

  throws_ok BLOCK REGEX, TEST_DESCRIPTION
  throws_ok BLOCK CLASS, TEST_DESCRIPTION

In the first form the test passes if the stringified exception matches the give regular expression. For example:

    throws_ok { 
        read_file('unreadable') 
    } qr/No such file/, 'no file';

If your perl does not support qr// you can also pass a regex-like string, for example:

    throws_ok { 
        read_file('unreadable') 
    } '/Permission denied/', 'no permissions';

The second form of throws_ok() test passes if the exception is of the same class as the one supplied, or a subclass of that class. For example:

    throws_ok {$foo->bar} "Error::Simple", 'simple error';

Will only pass if the bar method throws an Error::Simple exception, or a subclass of an Error::Simple exception.

You can get the same effect by passing an instance of the exception you want to look for. The following is equivalent to the previous example:

    my $SIMPLE = Error::Simple->new();
    throws_ok {$foo->bar} $SIMPLE, 'simple error';

Should a throws_ok() test fail it produces appropriate diagnostic messages. For example:

    not ok 3 - simple error
    #     Failed test (test.t at line 48)
    # expecting: Error::Simple exception
    # found: normal exit

Like all other Test::Exception functions you can avoid protypes by passing a subroutine explicitly:

    throws_ok( sub {$foo->bar}, "Error::Simple", 'simple error' );

A true value is returned if the test succeeds, false otherwise. On exit $@ is guaranteed to be the cause of death (if any).

A description of the exception being checked is used if no optional test description is passed.

lives_and

Run a test that may throw an exception. For example, instead of doing:

  my $file;
  lives_ok { $file = read_file('answer.txt') } 'read_file worked';
  is $file, "42", 'answer was 42';

You can use lives_and() like this:

  lives_and { is read_file('answer.txt'), "42" } 'answer is 42';
  # or if you don't like prototypes
  lives_and(sub {is read_file('answer.txt'), "42"}, 'answer is 42');

Which is the same as doing

  is read_file('answer.txt'), "42\n", 'answer is 42';

unless read_file('answer.txt') dies, in which case you get the same kind of error as lives_ok()

  not ok 1 - answer is 42
  #     Failed test (test.t at line 15)
  # died: open failed (No such file or directory)

A true value is returned if the test succeeds, false otherwise. On exit $@ is guaranteed to be the cause of death (if any).

The test description is optional, but recommended.

BUGS

None known at the time of writing.

If you find any please let me know by e-mail, or report the problem with http://rt.cpan.org/.

COMMUNITY

perl-qa

If you are interested in testing using Perl I recommend you visit http://qa.perl.org/ and join the excellent perl-qa mailing list. See http://lists.perl.org/showlist.cgi for details on how to subscribe.

perlmonks

You can find users of Test::Exception, including the module author, on http://www.perlmonks.org/. Feel free to ask questions on Test::Exception there.

CPAN::Forum

The CPAN Forum is a web forum for discussing Perl's CPAN modules. The Test::Exception forum can be found at http://www.cpanforum.com/dist/Test-Exception.

TO DO

If you think this module should do something that it doesn't (or does something that it shouldn't) please let me know.

You can see my current to do list at http://adrianh.tadalist.com/lists/public/15421, with an RSS feed of changes at http://adrianh.tadalist.com/lists/feed_public/15421.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

Thanks to chromatic and Michael G Schwern for the excellent Test::Builder, without which this module wouldn't be possible.

Thanks to Michael G Schwern, Mark Fowler, Janek Schleicher, chromatic, Peter Scott, Aristotle, Andy Lester, David Wheeler, Jos I. Boumans, Jim Keenan & Perrin for comments, suggestions, bug reports and patches.

AUTHOR

Adrian Howard <adrianh@quietstars.com>

If you can spare the time, please drop me a line if you find this module useful.

LICENCE

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

Test::Exception - Test exception based code