Why is my test failing?

jaldhar has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I decided to update my DateTime::Calendar::Discordian but the CPAN Testers are reporting lots of failures with the new version like e.g. this:

t/04-perl-critic.....................Can't locate Test/Perl/Critic.pm 
+in
@INC (@INC contains:
/usr/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/.cpan/build/DateTime-Calendar-
+Disc
ordian-0.9.5-R6NHvJ/blib/lib
/usr/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/.cpan/build/DateTime-Calendar-
+Disc
ordian-0.9.5-R6NHvJ/blib/arch
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/5.10.0/i386-freebsd-thread-mul
+ti
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/5.10.0/i386-freebsd-thread-mul
+ti
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/5.10.0
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/site_perl/5.10.0/i386-freebsd-
+thre
ad-multi
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/site_perl/5.10.0/i386-freebsd-
+thre
ad-multi /home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/site_perl/5.10.0 .
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/5.10.0/i386-freebsd-thread-mul
+ti
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/5.10.0
/home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/site_perl/5.10.0/i386-freebsd-
+thre
ad-multi /home/david/cpantesting/perl-5.10.0/lib/site_perl/5.10.0 .) a
+t
t/04-perl-critic.t line 14.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at t/04-perl-critic.t line 14.
# Looks like your test died before it could output anything.
dubious
[download]

...on lots of different perl versions and OS's.

The failing test looks like this:

use strict;
use warnings;
use English qw(-no_match_vars);
use Test::More;

if ( not $ENV{TEST_AUTHOR} ) {
    my $msg = 'Author test.  Set $ENV{TEST_AUTHOR} to a true value to 
+run.';
    plan( skip_all => $msg );
}

eval { use Test::Perl::Critic (-profile => 't/perlcriticrc'); };

if ( $EVAL_ERROR ) {
    my $msg = 'Test::Perl::Critic required to criticise code';
    plan( skip_all => $msg );
}

all_critic_ok()
[download]

What gives? The eval should catch if Test::Perl::Critic is not installed right?

I am using a similar idiom for tests using Test::Pod and Test::Pod::Coverage and they aren't causing problems.

--
જલધર

Comment on Why is my test failing? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Why is my test failing? by haoess (Curate) on Mar 06, 2008 at 11:21 UTC
`eval { use Test::Perl::Critic (-profile => 't/perlcriticrc'); };` What gives? The eval should catch if Test::Perl::Critic is not installed right? No. You are using `eval BLOCK` syntax, so the `use` statement is executed at compile time. To get this catched use `eval STRING` as in `eval "use Test::Perl::Critic (-profile => 't/perlcriticrc')";` [download] -- Frank	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Why is my test failing? by thospel (Hermit) on Mar 06, 2008 at 11:28 UTC
It's a bug in the test. `use` happens at compile time (during the interpretation of the code) and fails at that point. The `eval` would catch runtime failures, but the code never gets to runtime. The test should probably use `require` and do an import by hand, something like (untested): `eval { require Test::Perl::Critic; Test::Perl::Critic->import(-profile => 't/perlcriticrc'); ... };` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Why is my test failing? by jaldhar (Vicar) on Mar 06, 2008 at 11:55 UTC
Doh! thanks haoess and thospel. I was actually using string eval in my other tests but somehow my eyes glazed over that small but crucial difference. A new version of the module will be uploaded shortly. -- જલધર	[reply]
Re^2: Why is my test failing? by CountZero (Bishop) on Mar 07, 2008 at 06:30 UTC
somehow my eyes glazed over It must have been the hand of Eris touching you. Fnord CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James	[reply]


"be consistent"
	PerlMonks