Question

I’m working on a personal Perl module to build a basic script framework and to help me learn more about the language. I’ve created a new module called "AWSTools::Framework" with ExtUtils::ModuleMaker via the command line tool modulemaker. I’m trying to figure out the appropriate way to test it during development.

The directory structure that was created includes the following:

./AWSTOOLS/Framework/lib/AWSTools/Framework.pm
./AWSTOOLS/Framework/t/001_load.t

The autogenerated 001_load.t file looks like this:

# -*- perl -*-

# t/001_load.t - check module loading and create testing directory

use Test::More tests => 2;

BEGIN { use_ok( 'AWSTools::Framework' ); }

my $object = AWSTools::Framework->new ();
isa_ok ($object, 'AWSTools::Framework');

If I try to run the script directly (either from the command line or inside my TextMate editor), it fails with:

Can't locate AWSTools/Framework.pm in @INC....

If I try to run prove in the ./AWSTOOLS/Framework directory, it fails as well.

The question is: What is the proper way to run the tests on Perl modules while developing them?

Answer 1

If you want to run a single test file, you need to tell perl where to find your modules just like you would for any other program. I use the blib to automatically add the right paths:

 $ perl Makefile.PL; make; perl -Mblib t/some_test.t

You can also use prove to do the same thing. I don’t use prove, but you can read its documentation to figure it out. The -b switch should do that, but I’ve had problems with it not doing the right thing (could just be my own idiocy).