TEST2::TOOLS::EXPORTS(3perl)

💖 Test2::Tools::Exports — the perl manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, this is Test2::Tools::Exports(3perl) from the Perl Programmers Reference Guide, and it's lowkey one of the most useful little test helpers ever. it's giving "did that import actually happen" energy. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

Test2::Tools::Exports — tools for validating exporters. no cap, that's the whole job: checking that your imports actually landed.

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

these are the tools you reach for when you need to check that symbols have been imported into your namespace. that's it. that's the vibe. you said use Something qw/foo/ and now you wanna prove foo is really sitting there in your package. iconic behavior honestly. 👑

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

use Test2::Tools::Exports

use Data::Dumper;
imported_ok qw/Dumper/;
not_imported_ok qw/dumper/;

see how Dumper passes and dumper doesn't? case sensitivity said "not today" 💅

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🎀 EXPORTS 🎀

all subs are exported by default. free. gifted. no strings attached. ✨

imported_ok(@SYMBOLS)

check that the specified symbols exist in the current package.

okay so important caveats, bestie, don't skip these:

• this will not find inherited subs.
• this will only find symbols in the current package's symbol table.
• this WILL NOT confirm that the symbols were defined outside of the package itself.

imported_ok( '$scalar', '@array', '%hash', '&sub', 'also_a_sub' );

@SYMBOLS can contain any number of symbols. each item in the array must be a string. the string should be the name of a symbol. if a sigil is present then it will search for that specified type; if no sigil is specified it will be used as a sub name. simple as that 🍓

not_imported_ok(@SYMBOLS)

check that the specified symbols do not exist in the current package.

same disclaimers, same energy:

• this will not find inherited subs.
• this will only look at symbols in the current package's symbol table.

not_imported_ok( '$scalar', '@array', '%hash', '&sub', 'also_a_sub' );

@SYMBOLS can contain any number of symbols. each item in the array must be a string. the string should be the name of a symbol. if a sigil is present, then it will search for that specified type. if no sigil is specified, it will be used as a sub name. 🧚

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😭 CAVEATS 😭

okay this is the part where we get real. buckle up.

before Perl 5.10, it is very difficult to distinguish between a package scalar that is undeclared vs declared and undefined. currently imported_ok and not_imported_ok cannot see package scalars declared using our $var unless the variable has been assigned a defined value. 💀

this will pass on recent perls, but fail on perls older than 5.10:

use Test2::Tools::Exports;

our $foo;

# Fails on perl onlder than 5.10
imported_ok(qw/$foo/);

(yes, "onlder" — that typo is straight from the source, we keep the facts and the typos, fr fr 🙈)

if $foo is imported from another module, or imported using use vars qw/$foo/; then it will work on all supported perl versions. slay. ✨

use Test2::Tools::Exports;

use vars qw/$foo/;
use Some::Module qw/$bar/;

# Always works
imported_ok(qw/$foo $bar/);

so like. use vars is the cheat code for old perls. iykyk 🌈

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🔥 SOURCE 🔥

the source code repository for Test2-Suite can be found at: https://github.com/Test-More/test-more/

go look at it. main character repo behavior. 👑

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💜 MAINTAINERS 💜

• Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>

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🌟 AUTHORS 🌟

• Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

Copyright Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>.

this program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

see http://dev.perl.org/licenses/

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀 this one shipped as part of perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-17. thank you for coming to my ted talk, go write some tests, drink water, and remember: imported_ok is not a vibe check on where the symbol came from, it's just a vibe check on whether it's there. mwah 💖🫶✨