Test Automation for Perl Programs

Recommendations?

[physics]

I'm looking for recommendations for free/open source tools for managing and automating test cases for Perl code on *nix systems. The Test modules are great but don't allow me to do things like have a unified view where I can see lists of tests and their results, unified logging of automated tests, etc. Also, it would be great to have a tool that could handle running / reporting on tests for other programming languages also. Any recommendations?

[phranque]

i haven't used it myself but i have always heard that Tcl-based Expect [expect.nist.gov] is the way to go for automating tasks and it has an extensive and mature support network that should offer what you are looking for.

expect author don libes even addresses perl in the expect faq:
What about Perl? [expect.nist.gov]

[edited by: phranque at 10:53 am (utc) on Jan. 31, 2009]

[krugs]

I'm not questioning the suggestion that Expect is the way to go, but the discussion you linked to phranque (What about perl?) is 14 years old. The comments may no longer be as valid as they were in 1995. But maybe they are.

I also don't know much about test automation, but a quick google search found the open source STAF:

[staf.sourceforge.net...]

[phranque]

as you might have guessed, test automation isn't in my domain.
this looks promising if you want to roll your own in perl:
STAF Perl User's Guide [staf.sourceforge.net]

[physics]

Thanks phranque and krugs. I'm looking at STAF and it seems very capable - but I can't seem to find one of the parts I'm looking for - a way to see and run tests from a list.
Having a look at Expect now.

[chorny]

Smolder - but it is only a test aggregator. Test::More, Test::Most - tools to test Perl code.
TAP is a standard that is output by Perl testing tools. It is supported by other languages too.

Try also asking this question in perl QA list. And look at Perl QA wiki.

[phranque]

Perl Quality Assurance Projects - qa.perl.org [qa.perl.org]