[Nagiosplug-devel] Preparation for release 1.4.11

[Andreas Ericsson]

Ton Voon wrote:
> On 11 Dec 2007, at 21:12, Andreas Ericsson wrote:
> 
>> In short though, it works like this:
>>
>> --%<---%<---%<---
>> . test-lib.sh
>> test_description 'A simple test for sed'
>>
>> test_expect_success 'Test single char substitution' \
>> '
>> 	var=$(echo foo | sed s/f//)
>> 	test "$var" = "oo"
>> '
>>
>> test_done
>> ---%<---%<---%<---
>>
>> Which would produce the following output
>>
>> *   ok 1: Test single char substitution
>> * passed all 1 test(s)
>>
>> with the last line printed in green when all tests pass, and in red
>> when any of them fail.
> 
> 
> You just described something exceedingly similar to perl's Test  
> Anything Protocol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Anything_Protocol  
> and http://search.cpan.org/dist/TAP-1.00/TAP.pm).
> 

It's similar, but not identical. Its output could be made identical
pretty easy, but for git's purposes the current design is quite
alright and a bit more pleasant than the machine-parsable strict
TAP-standard.

> 
> I can see a place for running shell commands instead of via perl  
> (which is only just invoking executables anyway), but which shell do  
> you program against? Assuming sh is going to be too restrictive. In  
> fact, perl was designed to be a cross platform shell! So it makes  
> sense to stick with that.
> 
> If you think a tutorial is required for understanding the plugins'  
> test system, then say that - I can see there is probably a hole in  
> this regard: http://nagiosplugins.org/node/12.
> 

It's more along the lines of "I as a programmer have absolutely no
idea of how to add a test". I could do some research, but it's not
entirely clear where, or what to look for (I'm a lazy bastard, like
everyone else, and started by looking at an existing test). Since
I saw Thomas talking about the test-suite on the list, I offered a
quick view into the simplest and best-designed testing library for
small-ish command-line programs I've seen.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson at op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231