format: v1
name: C TAP Harness
maintainer: Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>
version: '4.0'
synopsis: C harness for running TAP-compliant tests
license:
name: Expat
copyrights:
- holder: Russ Allbery <eagle@eyrie.org>
years: 2000-2001, 2004, 2006-2016
- holder: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
years: 2006-2009, 2011-2013
build:
autoconf: '2.64'
automake: '1.11'
autotools: true
cplusplus: true
install: false
manpages: true
suffix: |
Installing C TAP Harness is not normally done. Instead, see the section
on using the harness below.
type: Autoconf
valgrind: true
distribution:
section: devel
tarname: c-tap-harness
version: c-tap-harness
support:
email: eagle@eyrie.org
github: rra/c-tap-harness
web: https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/c-tap-harness/
vcs:
browse: https://git.eyrie.org/?p=devel/c-tap-harness.git
github: rra/c-tap-harness
openhub: https://www.openhub.net/p/c-tap-harness
type: Git
url: https://git.eyrie.org/git/devel/c-tap-harness.git
docs:
api:
- name: bail
title: bail and sysbail
- name: bmalloc
title: bmalloc, bcalloc, brealloc, bstrdup, and bstrndup
- name: breallocarray
title: breallocarray
- name: diag
title: diag and sysdiag
- name: diag_file_add
title: diag_file_add and diag_file_remove
- name: is_int
title: is_bool, is_int, is_double, is_string, and is_hex
- name: ok
title: ok, okv, and ok_block
- name: plan
title: plan and plan_lazy
- name: skip
title: skip and skip_block
- name: skip_all
title: skip_all
- name: test_cleanup_register
title: test_cleanup_register
- name: test_file_path
title: test_file_path and test_file_path_free
- name: test_tmpdir
title: test_tmpdir and test_tmpdir_free
user:
- name: writing
title: Writing TAP tests
- name: runtests
title: runtests manual page
blurb: |
C TAP Harness is a pure-C implementation of TAP, the Test Anything
Protocol. TAP is the text-based protocol used by Perl's test suite. This
package provides a harness similar to Perl's Test::Harness for running
tests, with some additional features useful for test suites in packages
that use Autoconf and Automake, and C and shell libraries to make writing
TAP-compliant test programs easier.
description: |
This package started as the runtests program I wrote for INN in 2000 to
serve as the basis for a new test suite using a test protocol similar to
that used for Perl modules. When I started maintaining additional C
packages, I adopted runtests for the test suite driver of those as well,
resulting in further improvements but also separate copies of the same
program in different distributions. The C TAP Harness distribution merges
all the various versions into a single code base that all my packages can
pull from.
C TAP Harness provides a full TAP specification driver (apart from a few
possible edge cases) and has additional special features for supporting
builds outside the source directory. It's mostly useful for packages
using Autoconf and Automake and because it doesn't assume or require Perl.
The runtests program can be built with knowledge of the source and build
directory and pass that knowledge on to test scripts, and will search for
test scripts in both the source and build directory. This makes it easier
for packages using Autoconf and Automake and supporting out-of-tree builds
to build some test programs, ship others, and run them all regardless of
what tree they're in. It also makes it easier for test cases to find
their supporting files when they run.
Also included in this package are C and shell libraries that provide
utility functions for writing test scripts that use TAP to report results.
The C library also provides a variety of utility functions useful for test
programs running as part of an Automake-built package: finding test data
files, creating temporary files, reporting output from external programs
running in the background, and similar common problems.
requirements: |
C TAP Harness requires a C compiler to build. Any ISO C89 or later C
compiler on a system supporting the Single UNIX Specification, version 3
(SUSv3) should be sufficient. This should not be a problem on any modern
system. The test suite and shell library require a Bourne-compatible
shell. Outside of the test suite, C TAP Harness has no other
prerequisites or requirements.
To run the test suite, you will need Perl plus the Perl module Test::More,
which comes with Perl 5.8 or later. The following additional Perl modules
will be used by the test suite if present:
* Test::Pod
* Test::Spelling
All are available on CPAN. Those tests will be skipped if the modules are
not available.
sections:
- title: Using the Harness
body: |
While there is an install target that installs runtests in the
default binary directory (`/usr/local/bin` by default) and installs
the man pages, one normally wouldn't install anything from this
package. Instead, the code is intended to be copied into your
package and refreshed from the latest release of C TAP Harness for
each release.
You can obviously copy the code and integrate it however works best
for your package and your build system. Here's how I do it for my
packages as an example:
* Create a tests directory and copy tests/runtests.c into it.
Create a `tests/tap` subdirectory and copy the portions of the TAP
library (from `tests/tap`) that I need for that package into it.
The TAP library is designed to let you drop in additional source
and header files for additional utility functions that are useful
in your package.
* Add code to my top-level `Makefile.am` (I always use a
non-recursive Makefile with `subdir-objects` set) to build
`runtests` and the test library:
```make
check_PROGRAMS = tests/runtests
tests_runtests_CPPFLAGS = -DC_TAP_SOURCE='"$(abs_top_srcdir)/tests"' \
-DC_TAP_BUILD='"$(abs_top_builddir)/tests"'
check_LIBRARIES = tests/tap/libtap.a
tests_tap_libtap_a_CPPFLAGS = -I$(abs_top_srcdir)/tests
tests_tap_libtap_a_SOURCES = tests/tap/basic.c tests/tap/basic.h \
tests/tap/float.c tests/tap/float.h tests/tap/macros.h
```
Omit `float.c` and `float.h` from the last line if your package
doesn't need the `is_double` function. Building the build and
source directories into runtests will let `tests/runtests -o
<test>` work for users without requiring that they set any other
variables, even if they're doing an out-of-source build.
Add additional source files and headers that should go into the
TAP library if you added extra utility functions for your package.
* Add code to `Makefile.am` to run the test suite:
```make
check-local: $(check_PROGRAMS)
cd tests && ./runtests -l $(abs_top_srcdir)/tests/TESTS
```
See the `Makefile.am` in this package for an example.
* List the test programs in the `tests/TESTS` file. This should
have the name of the test executable with the trailing "-t" or
".t" (you can use either extension as you prefer) omitted.
Test programs must be executable.
For any test programs that need to be compiled, add build rules
for them in `Makefile.am`, similar to:
```make
tests_libtap_c_basic_LDADD = tests/tap/libtap.a
```
and add them to `check_PROGRAMS`. If you include the `float.c`
add-on in your libtap library, you will need to add `-lm` to the
`_LDADD` setting for all test programs linked against it.
A more complex example from the remctl package that needs
additional libraries:
```make
tests_client_open_t_LDFLAGS = $(GSSAPI_LDFLAGS)
tests_client_open_t_LDADD = client/libremctl.la tests/tap/libtap.a \
util/libutil.la $(GSSAPI_LIBS)
```
If the test program doesn't need to be compiled, add it to
`EXTRA_DIST` so that it will be included in the distribution.
* If you have test programs written in shell, copy
`tests/tap/libtap.sh` the tap subdirectory of your tests directory
and add it to `EXTRA_DIST`. Shell programs should start with:
```sh
. "${C_TAP_SOURCE}/tap/libtap.sh"
```
and can then use the functions defined in the library.
* Optionally copy `docs/writing-tests` into your package somewhere,
such as `tests/README`, as instructions to contributors on how to
write tests for this framework.
If you have configuration files that the user must create to enable
some of the tests, conventionally they go into `tests/config`.
If you have data files that your test cases use, conventionally they
go into `tests/data`. You can then find the data directory relative
to the `C_TAP_SOURCE` environment variable (set by `runtests`) in
your test program. If you have data that's compiled or generated by
Autoconf, it will be relative to the `BUILD` environment variable.
Don't forget to add test data to `EXTRA_DIST` as necessary.
For more TAP library add-ons, generally ones that rely on additional
portability code not shipped in this package or with narrower uses,
see [the rra-c-util
package](https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/rra-c-util/). There
are several additional TAP library add-ons in the `tests/tap`
directory in that package. It's also an example of how to use this
test harness in another package.
test:
override: |
C TAP Harness comes with a test suite, which you can run after
building with:
```
make check
```
If a test fails, you can run a single test with verbose output via:
```
./runtests -b `pwd`/tests -s `pwd`/tests -o <name-of-test>
```
Do this instead of running the test program directly since it will
ensure that necessary environment variables are set up. You may need
to change the `-s` option argument if you build with a separate build
directory from the source directory.