Perl's module tools make it easy to bundle, distribute, and install software, most of the time. Other tools make it fairly easy to test software too. Of course, the tools for end-users lag somewhat behind the tools for developers, especially in places where developers are happy with their tools.
If you're a Perl-savvy developer and tests fail in a module you're installing, you know what your options are. Consider what a non-developer could do, though. Yet developers who ship their tests for end-users to run rely on receiving feedback about failures so that they can fix the code, the tests, the assumptions, or whatever's not right.
I've just released Module::Build::TestReporter which runs the tests as usual, hijacks their output, keeps a log of any failures and their diagnostics, and tells users what to do to report any failures to the developers. If you think this will solve a problem for you, give it a whirl. (I'd love to have feedback before I release it to the CPAN in a week or so.)
I haven't had time to look at your module, but I certainly like the idea of a better test capture and reporting mechanism for M::B. CPANPLUS has a wrapper around EU::MM to get its results, but it has been a little harder to get at with M::B.
Re:M::B, tests & CPANPLUS
chromatic on 2005-06-01T17:06:19
M::B::TR doesn't currently capture success reports, but it uses Test::Harness::Straps, so reporting successes and failures is fairly easy.
