cram 0.1

A simple testing framework for command line applications

======================
Cram: It's test time
======================

Cram is a functional testing framework for command line applications
based on Mercurial_'s `unified test format`_.

Here's a snippet from ``cram.t`` in `Cram's own test suite`_::

The $PYTHON environment variable should be set when running this
test from Python.

$ [ -n "$PYTHON" ] || PYTHON=python
$ if [ -n "$COVERAGE" ]; then
> coverage erase
> alias cram='coverage run -a cram.py'
> else
> alias cram="$PYTHON cram.py"
> fi

Usage:

$ cram -h
[Uu]sage: cram \[OPTIONS\] TESTS\.\.\.

[Oo]ptions:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-v, --verbose Show filenames and test status
$ cram
[Uu]sage: cram \[OPTIONS\] TESTS\.\.\.
[1]

The format in a nutshell:

* Cram tests use the ``.t`` file extension.

* Lines beginning with two spaces, a dollar sign, and a space are run
in the shell.

* Lines beginning with two spaces, a greater than sign, and a space
allow multi-line commands.

* All other lines beginning with two spaces are considered command
output.

* Command output in the test is first matched literally with the
actual output. If it doesn't match, it's then compiled and matched
as a `Perl-compatible regular expression`_.

* Anything else is a comment.

.. _Mercurial: http://mercurial.selenic.com/
.. _unified test format: http://www.selenic.com/blog/?p=663
.. _Cram's own test suite: http://bitbucket.org/brodie/cram/src/tip/tests/cram.t
.. _Perl-compatible regular expression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_Compatible_Regular_Expressions


Download
--------

* cram-0.1.tar.gz_ (13 KB, requires Python 2.4-2.7 or Python 3.1)

.. _cram-0.1.tar.gz: http://bitheap.org/cram/cram-0.1.tar.gz

Installation
------------

You can use pip_ to install Cram::

$ sudo pip install cram

Or you can install Cram the old fashioned way::

$ wget http://bitheap.org/cram/cram-0.1.tar.gz
$ tar zxvf cram-0.1.tar.gz
$ cd cram-0.1.tar.gz
$ sudo python setup.py install

.. _pip: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip


Usage
-----

Cram will print a dot for each passing test. If a test fails, a
`unified context diff`_ is printed showing the test's expected output
and the actual output.

For example, if we run cram on `its own example tests`_::

$ cram examples
..
--- examples/fail.t
+++ examples/fail.t.out
@@ -3,11 +3,11 @@
$ echo 1
1
$ echo 1
- 2
+ 1
$ echo 1
1

Invalid regex:

$ echo 1
- +++
+ 1
..

Cram will also write the test with its actual output to
``examples/fail.t.err``. This makes it easy to merge output back into
the test file using when writing a test for the first time. You can
run ``diff examples/fail.t{,.err}`` and use ``patch -p0`` to apply the
patch.

.. _unified context diff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff#Unified_format
.. _its own example tests: http://bitbucket.org/brodie/cram/src/tip/examples/

Development
-----------

Download the official development repository using Mercurial_::

hg clone http://bitbucket.org/brodie/cram

Test Cram using Cram::

make tests

Get a test coverage report using coverage.py_::

make coverage

Visit Bitbucket_ if you'd like to fork the project, watch for new
changes, or report issues.

.. _Mercurial: http://mercurial.selenic.com/
.. _coverage.py: http://nedbatchelder.com/code/coverage/
.. _Bitbucket: http://bitbucket.org/brodie/cram