2.7 KiB
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Urchin is a test framework for shell. It is implemented in portable /bin/sh and should work on GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and other Unix platforms.
Try it out
Urchin's tests are written in Urchin, so you can run them to see what Urchin is like. Clone the repository
git clone git://github.com/scraperwiki/urchin.git
Run the tests
cd urchin
./urchin tests
The above command will run the tests in your systems default shell, /bin/sh (on recent Ubuntu this is dash, but it could be ksh or bash on other systems); to test cross-shell compatibility, run this:
cd urchin
./cross-shell-tests
Globally
Download Urchin like so (as root) (or use npm, below):
cd /usr/local/bin
wget https://raw.github.com/scraperwiki/urchin/master/urchin
chmod +x urchin
Can be installed with npm too:
npm install -g urchin
Now you can run it.
urchin <test directory>
Writing tests
Make a root directory for your tests. Inside it, put executable files that
exit 0 on success and something else on fail. Non-executable files and hidden
files (dotfiles) are ignored, so you can store fixtures right next to your
tests. Run urchin from inside the tests directory.
Urchin only cares about the exit status, so you can actually write your tests in any language, not just shell.
More about writing tests
Tests are organized recursively in directories, where the names of the files and directories have special meanings.
tests/
setup
setup_dir
bar/
setup
test_that_something_works
teardown
baz/
jack-in-the-box/
setup
test_that_something_works
teardown
cat-in-the-box/
fixtures/
thingy.pdf
test_thingy
teardown
Directories are processed in a depth-first order. When a particular directory
is processed, setup_dir is run before everything else in the directory, including
subdirectories. teardown_dir is run after everything else in the directory.
A directory's setup file, if it exists, is run right before each test file
within the particular directory, and the teardown file is run right after.
Files are only run if they are executable, and files beginning with . are
ignored. Thus, fixtures and libraries can be included sloppily within the test
directory tree. The test passes if the file exits 0; otherwise, it fails.
Alternatives to Urchin
Alternatives to Urchin are discussed in this blog post.