/ 
CPAN-Reporter-0.99_07
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/ CPAN::Reporter

NAME

CPAN::Reporter - Adds CPAN Testers reporting to CPAN.pm

VERSION

This documentation describes version 0.99_07.

SYNOPSIS

From the CPAN shell:

cpan> install CPAN::Reporter
cpan> reload cpan
cpan> o conf init test_report

DESCRIPTION

The CPAN Testers project captures and analyses detailed results from building and testing CPAN distributions on multiple operating systems and multiple versions of Perl. This provides valuable feedback to module authors and potential users to identify bugs or platform compatibility issues and improves the overall quality and value of CPAN.

One way individuals can contribute is to send a report for each module that they test or install. CPAN::Reporter is an add-on for the CPAN.pm module to send the results of building and testing modules to the CPAN Testers project. Partial support for CPAN::Reporter is available in CPAN.pm as of version 1.88; full support is available in CPAN.pm as of version 1.91_53.

GETTING STARTED

Installation

The first step in using CPAN::Reporter is to install it using whatever version of CPAN.pm is already installed. CPAN.pm will be upgraded as a dependency if necessary.

cpan> install CPAN::Reporter

If CPAN.pm was upgraded, it needs to be reloaded.

cpan> reload cpan

Configuration

If upgrading from a very old version of CPAN.pm, users may be prompted to renew their configuration settings, including the 'test_report' option to enable CPAN::Reporter.

If not prompted automatically, users should manually initialize CPAN::Reporter support. After enabling CPAN::Reporter, CPAN.pm will automatically continue with interactive configuration of CPAN::Reporter options.

cpan> o conf init test_report

Users will need to enter an email address in one of the following formats:

johndoe@example.com
John Doe <johndoe@example.com>
"John Q. Public" <johnqpublic@example.com>

Because cpan-testers uses a mailing list to collect test reports, it is helpful if the email address provided is subscribed to the list. Otherwise, test reports will be held until manually reviewed and approved. Subscribing an account to the cpan-testers list is as easy as sending a blank email to cpan-testers-subscribe@perl.org and replying to the confirmation email.

Users will also be prompted to enter the name of an outbound email server. It is recommended to use an email server provided by the user's ISP or company. Alternatively, leave this blank to attempt to send email directly to perl.org.

Users that are new to CPAN::Reporter should accept the recommended values for other configuration options.

After completing interactive configuration, be sure to commit (save) the CPAN configuration changes.

cpan> o conf commit

See CPAN::Reporter::Config for advanced configuration settings.

Using CPAN::Reporter

Once CPAN::Reporter is enabled and configured, test or install modules with CPAN.pm as usual.

For example, to force CPAN to repeat tests for CPAN::Reporter to see how it works:

cpan> force test CPAN::Reporter

When distribution tests fail, users will be prompted to edit the report to add addition information.

UNDERSTANDING TEST GRADES

CPAN::Reporter will assign one of the following grades to the report:

  • pass -- all tests were successful

  • fail -- one or more tests failed, one or more test files died during testing or no test output was seen

  • na -- tests could not be run on this platform or version of perl

  • unknown -- no test files could be found (either t/*.t or test.pl) or a result could not be determined from test output (e.g tests may have hung and been interrupted)

In returning results to CPAN.pm, "pass" and "unknown" are considered successful attempts to "make test" or "Build test" and will not prevent installation. "fail" and "na" are considered to be failures and CPAN.pm will not install unless forced.

If prerequisites specified in Makefile.PL or Build.PL are not available, no report will be generated and a failure will be signaled to CPAN.pm.

PRIVACY WARNING

CPAN::Reporter includes information in the test report about environment variables and special Perl variables that could be affecting test results in order to help module authors interpret the results of the tests. This includes information about paths, terminal, locale, user/group ID, installed toolchain modules (e.g. ExtUtils::MakeMaker) and so on.

These have been intentionally limited to items that should not cause harmful personal information to be revealed -- it does not include your entire environment. Nevertheless, please do not use CPAN::Reporter if you are concerned about the disclosure of this information as part of your test report.

Users wishing to review this information may choose to edit the report prior to sending it.

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature using the CPAN Request Tracker. Bugs can be submitted through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=CPAN-Reporter

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

SEE ALSO

Information about CPAN::Testers:

Additional Documentation:

AUTHOR

David A. Golden (DAGOLDEN)

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2006, 2007 by David A. Golden

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Files produced as output though the use of this software, including generated copies of boilerplate templates provided with this software, shall not be considered Derivative Works, but shall be considered the original work of the Licensor.

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.