Since you are using POE, you can run the daemon and test client in the same test program. Start the daemon. Start the test client. Run the tests. Shut down the client. Shut down the server.

Hey, can you be more specific? If I start the daemon, it just hang there for connections, how can I test it in the same program?

Sounds like chapter 18 of Perl Best Practices would help you. There are some good guidelines for what you're trying to do there.

-- Burvil

If you're using POE, you can have both a server and its client in the same program at the same time. You are not limited to one or the other. For example:

#!perl

use warnings;
use strict;

use POE qw(Component::Server::TCP Component::Client::TCP);

POE::Component::Server::TCP->new(
  Alias           => "server",
  Port            => 12345,
  ClientConnected => sub {
    print "server got a connection from $_[HEAP]{remote_ip}\n";
    $_[HEAP]{client}->put("Smile from the server!");
  },
  ClientInput => sub {
    my $client_input = $_[ARG0];
    print "server got client input: $client_input\n";
    $client_input =~ tr[a-zA-Z][n-za-mN-ZA-M];
    $_[HEAP]{client}->put($client_input);
  },
);

POE::Component::Client::TCP->new(
  RemoteAddress => "localhost",
  RemotePort    => 12345,
  Connected     => sub {
    print "client connected to server\n";
    $_[HEAP]{server}->put("smile");
  },
  ServerInput => sub {
    my $input = $_[ARG0];
    print "client received from server: $input\n";
    if ($input eq "fzvyr") { # rot13(smile)
      $_[KERNEL]->yield("shutdown");
      $_[KERNEL]->post(server => "shutdown");
    }
  },
);

POE::Kernel->run();
exit;
[download]

The output looks something like this:

server got a connection from 127.0.0.1
client connected to server
server got client input: smile
client received from server: Smile from the server!
client received from server: fzvyr
[download]

--
Rocco Caputo - http://poe.perl.org/ - irc://irc.perl.org/poe