Hello Monks. I tried searching for this kind of question before posting, but had no luck, I apologize if it's been asked and answered.

I have a question regarding installing stuff from CPAN. Recently I was installing HTML::TableExtract, and I had a test failure. The test failure was something along the lines of expected "<some><html>" got "<some><slightly><different><html>". This led me to believe that it was a small bug in the code, a small bug in the test, or someone had changed their website. Now if it's the first two, that means that the author of HTML::TableExtract released it knowing their was a bug (Since I'm assuming he runs his own tests). This leads me to believe that whatever the bug was, it wasn't that big of a deal. Likewise if someone changed a website it's not really HTML::TableExtract's fault.

Even so this is not the first time I've had one or two tests fail while the package itself seems to operate fine after it's been installed. I'm wondering if their is a heuristic for deciding when it's "ok" if a test failed. Is a failed test always a sign of some misconfiguration on my end? Or do packages get released with known test failures? Is the fact that their was a release regardless of a failed test assurance enough that the bug "isn't that bad"?

I realize the ultimate answer to all these questions is to read the source of the package in question, but I don't always have the time or the understanding to do that. I thank you for your time, and look forward to your responses.

In reply to Test Failure Best Practices, or when is it ok to "force install" by Anonymous Monk

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