How can I test a standalone Perl script?

Question

I have written a small Perl script and now I would like to create a test suite for it. I thought it would be nice to be able to use the script as a module, import t

Answer 1

While making some CGI style perl scripts remotely testable (without looping thru CGI-test modules) I ended up doing something like this:

bin/myscript.pl:

use …;

do {
  return 1 if $ENV{INCLUDED_AS_MODULE};

  … original script without the subs …
};

sub some_sub {
 …
}
sub …
sub …

t/mytest.t:

use Test::More;
use FindBin qw/$Bin/;

BEGIN {
  $ENV{INCLUDED_AS_MODULE} = 1;
  my $filename = "$Bin/../bin/myscript.pl";
  do $filename or die "Unable to open '$filename': $! ($@)";
}

ok some_sub(), 'some sub returns true';
…
done_testing;

This imports the subs into the main namespace of the test and can be tested easily.

EDIT: And after some more searching for what I was looking for, I realize modulinos are basically what I did, but avoiding communicating via ENV, putting all your code in a method and just checking wether there is a caller():

https://www.perlmonks.org/bare/?node_id=537377 (link in a previous answer did not seem to work)