trunk/doc/perltest.txt

The perltest program
--------------------

The perltest program tests Perl's regular expressions; it has the same
specification as pcretest, and so can be given identical input, except that
input patterns can be followed only by Perl's lower case modifiers and /+ (as
used by pcretest), which is recognized and handled by the program.

The data lines are processed as Perl double-quoted strings, so if they contain
" \ $ or @ characters, these have to be escaped. For this reason, all such
characters in testinput1 and testinput3 are escaped so that they can be used
for perltest as well as for pcretest, and the special upper case modifiers such
as /A that pcretest recognizes are not used in these files. The output should
be identical, apart from the initial identifying banner.

The perltest script can also test UTF-8 features. It works as is for Perl 5.8
or higher. It recognizes the special modifier /8 that pcretest uses to invoke
UTF-8 functionality. The testinput5 file can be fed to perltest to run UTF-8
tests.

For Perl 5.6, perltest won't work unmodified for the UTF-8 tests. You need to
uncomment the "use utf8" lines that it contains. It is best to do this on a
copy of the script, because for non-UTF-8 tests, these lines should remain
commented out.

The testinput2 and testinput4 files are not suitable for feeding to perltest,
since they do make use of the special upper case modifiers and escapes that
pcretest uses to test some features of PCRE. The first of these files also
contains malformed regular expressions, in order to check that PCRE diagnoses
them correctly. Similarly, testinput6 tests UTF-8 features that do not relate
to Perl.

Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk>
August 2002
1	nigel	41	The perltest program
2			--------------------
3
4			The perltest program tests Perl's regular expressions; it has the same
5			specification as pcretest, and so can be given identical input, except that
6			input patterns can be followed only by Perl's lower case modifiers and /+ (as
7			used by pcretest), which is recognized and handled by the program.
8
9			The data lines are processed as Perl double-quoted strings, so if they contain
10			" \ $ or @ characters, these have to be escaped. For this reason, all such
11			characters in testinput1 and testinput3 are escaped so that they can be used
12			for perltest as well as for pcretest, and the special upper case modifiers such
13			as /A that pcretest recognizes are not used in these files. The output should
14			be identical, apart from the initial identifying banner.
15
16	nigel	63	The perltest script can also test UTF-8 features. It works as is for Perl 5.8
17			or higher. It recognizes the special modifier /8 that pcretest uses to invoke
18			UTF-8 functionality. The testinput5 file can be fed to perltest to run UTF-8
19			tests.
20	nigel	49
21	nigel	63	For Perl 5.6, perltest won't work unmodified for the UTF-8 tests. You need to
22			uncomment the "use utf8" lines that it contains. It is best to do this on a
23			copy of the script, because for non-UTF-8 tests, these lines should remain
24			commented out.
25
26	nigel	41	The testinput2 and testinput4 files are not suitable for feeding to perltest,
27			since they do make use of the special upper case modifiers and escapes that
28			pcretest uses to test some features of PCRE. The first of these files also
29			contains malformed regular expressions, in order to check that PCRE diagnoses
30	nigel	49	them correctly. Similarly, testinput6 tests UTF-8 features that do not relate
31			to Perl.
32	nigel	41
33			Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk>
34	nigel	63	August 2002