It's no secret that I use Test::More's no_plan and hate counting my tests. The only reason not to, as far as I can divine, is the worry that your tests might stop part way through without producing a non-zero exit code. For example, the module being tested might have an exit(0) hidden deep in its bowels. I'd like to think that nothing I test would be so rude, but there's no easy way to guarantee it.

I'd like to solve this problem once and for all by writing Test::Finished. This module would add an extra test to the test run which would pass if the test script ran to completion and fail otherwise. The thing is, I'm not sure how to write it, or even if it's possible.

One possibility is to make Test::Finished a source filter. It could add code to the end of the script which toggles a $FINISHED variable. Test::Finished could install an END{} block which checks $FINISHED and fail()s if it's not set.

Another possibility would be to override CORE::exit() and anything else that can exit silently (are there others?). This wouldn't work if the code being tested wants to override exit(), but that's fairly unlikely.

Is there a better way? Or perhaps this problem is already solved in a way I don't know about? Enlighten me, Monks.

-sam

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