First a point of clarification I don't mean portable modules; these are not a problem. For general purpose modules I advocate trying to make them as portable as possible. The test suite should run on all platforms, and the module should be useable on all platforms.

What I mean by portability modules are those which enable the caller to write portable code. Such modules need to do things which behave differently on different platforms, and involve testing $^O etc.

My question concerns how to get good test coverage of such modules. Devel::Cover only seems able to report on the test suite for a single platform, and not an aggregate coverage across multiple platforms (correct me if I'm wrong). Faking $^O would be tricky, and faking another operating system's behaviour even more so.

I am currently looking at my module Filesys::Type, which uses Module::Pluggable to access plug-ins for the guts of the code. Any suggestions for how to achieve this would be welcome.

--

Oh Lord, won’t you burn me a Knoppix CD ?
My friends all rate Windows, I must disagree.
Your powers of persuasion will set them all free,
So oh Lord, won’t you burn me a Knoppix CD ?
(Missquoting Janis Joplin)

2005-09-27 Retitled by g0n, as per Monastery guidelines
Original title: 'Best practice for portability modules'

In reply to Best practice for testing portability modules by rinceWind

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