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I would extract a module from your script and unit test the module directly via Test::More and the prove command. I like to keep my script mainlines as short as is practicable, with all the heavy lifting done in (unit-tested) module/s. There are many examples of this general approach on the CPAN; see, for example, the perltidy command, part of the Perl-Tidy distribution and the perlcritic command, part of the Perl-Critic distribution.

As an alternative, and perhaps a bit less work, you could re-structure your script as a "modulino", that is, a script that can masquerade as a module for ease of testing. This approach is described at:

How a script becomes a module by brian_d_foy
Effective Perl Programming, 2nd edition: Item 91, "Write programs as modulinos for easy testing"
Dr Dobbs article by brian_d_foy
Modulino: both script and module in Perl (perlmaven) by szabgab

... though modulinos are too sneaky/clever for my tastes ("scripts should use modules, not pretend to be modules").

References Added Later

Modulino-Demo on CPAN by brian_d_foy
Modulino-Demo code (brian's source code on github)

Rescue legacy code with modulinos by brian_d_foy (perl.com article 2014)
A quick pitch about perl modulinos by Fergus McMenemie, London PM 2019 (youtube: 4:38)

PM Nodes:

Modulinos and CPAN-appropriateness (2007)
Modulino trick for cgi scripts (2008)
How do you test end-user scripts? (2010)
Modulino, perl -d question. (2012)
modulino and $VERSION (2014)
modulino and perldoc (2014)
Using guards for script execution? (2017)

Re: Perl doesn't give error when module is not found 2 by soonix (2024)

TDD of non-module code by davies (2012)
Re: printing output of a perl script to the Email body by davies (2021)
[Solved] Parameter injection for testing by davies (2022)
Modulino to report ip address changes by davies (2022)
Unable to release modulino to CPAN by davies (2022)

Running modulino inside BEGIN by LanX (2024)

Updated: Many extra references were added long after the original reply was made.

In reply to Re: Looking for help for unit tests and code coverage on an existing perl script (modulino References) by eyepopslikeamosquito
in thread Looking for help for unit tests and code coverage on an existing perl script by tizatron

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