Test::MultiFork 0.6

Test::MultiFork is a test suite that has support for multi-process programs.

SYNOPSIS

use Test::MultiFork;

($name, $letter, $number) = procname([new name])
lockcommon()
@oldvalues = getcommon()
setcommon(@newvalues)
unlockcommon()

use Test::MultiFork qw(groupwait setgroup dofork stderr bail_on_bad_plan)

groupwait([$tag])
$oldgroup = setgroup([$newgroup])
dofork(fork_specification)

This test module is to support creating test suites for programs and modules that run as multiple processes and do mostly blocking I/O.

Test::MultiFork handles the forking so that it can set up each child to coordinate the output. The output from each child fork is redirected to the parent. Each fork produces normal test output -- possibly using normal test modules like Test::Simple. The output is collected and rewritten by the parent process.

Each child fork has a letter and number designation. The forks are created by dofork(). Dofork takes a specifiction on the form: ([a-z](d*))+. That is to say, one or more lower-case letters, each optionally followd by a number. The number says how many children to fork for that letter (default one). The specifier ab2c3 means have one a child (numbered 1); two b children (numbered 1, 2); and three c children (numbered 1, 2, 3).

To aid in writing tests, Test::MultiFork will pass data between the child processes. The data is test-writer defined.