Unit testing with Perl

n4nature has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello friends, I have been learning Perl for past week and a half and have written quite a few snippets from "Learning Perl - by Randal Schwartz". I know C/C++ languages and I have started learning Perl, so that Perl would help me test my C/C++ programs. I would like to have an insight into how I would test a C program for eg. Sorting. If a C program sorts a list, and I want to test that program, how would Perl help me automate the test task? I just want ideas, to head in the right direction. Thank you very much. Nick

Comment on Unit testing with Perl

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Re: Unit testing with Perl by arc_of_descent (Hermit) on May 25, 2009 at 13:38 UTC
You should start by using the Test::Simple module in your Perl test scripts. This will give you a good idea on what testing in Perl is about. Its simply just evaluating a condition (in your case, whether the list processed by the C program is sorted), and then declaring a pass/fail. To automate the test script, you have to first write the routines which run the C program (via system possibly), redirect its output to file, read the file into an Perl array, etc. Next, you can read about Test::More and Test::Deep. Here's some sample code: `use Test::More; use Test::Deep; my @input = (5, 8, 12, 9, 78, 1, 5); my @expected = (1, 5, 5, 8, 9, 12, 78); my $i_file = "input.txt"; my $o_file = "output.txt"; my $bin = '/bin/c_program'; write_sample_file(\@input, $i_file); # run the C program system "$bin < $i_file > $o_file"; my @processed = get_data($o_file); cmp_deeply (\@processed, \@expected, 'results are sorted');` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Unit testing with Perl by n4nature (Novice) on May 25, 2009 at 13:50 UTC
This is going to help immensely. Thank you.	[reply]
Re: Unit testing with Perl by dHarry (Abbot) on May 25, 2009 at 13:41 UTC
See Unit testing of C source code.	[reply]
Re: Unit testing with Perl by targetsmart (Curate) on May 25, 2009 at 13:36 UTC
http://www.wgz.org/chromatic/perl/Test-Tutorial.pdf http://qa.perl.org/ http://search.cpan.org/~rgarcia/perl-5.10.0/lib/Test/Tutorial.pod http://qa.perl.org/test-modules.html http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl5/index.cgi?testing http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596100926/ Vivek -- In accordance with the prarabdha of each, the One whose function it is to ordain makes each to act. What will not happen will never happen, whatever effort one may put forth. And what will happen will not fail to happen, however much one may seek to prevent it. This is certain. The part of wisdom therefore is to stay quiet.	[reply]
Re^2: Unit testing with Perl by n4nature (Novice) on May 25, 2009 at 13:48 UTC
Thank you. It will help	[reply]
Re: Unit testing with Perl by ELISHEVA (Prior) on May 26, 2009 at 07:35 UTC
You can directly call your C routines from within Perl test scripts using the CPAN module, Inline::C. Best, beth	[reply]