Test2::Util(3pm)

📦
version 5.42.3 · 15 versions
, in alpine 3.24

💅 Test2::Util — the group chat version 💅

ok so this is Test2::Util, straight out of the Perl Programmers Reference Guide (section 3pm for those keeping score 🎀). She's the utility drawer that Test2 and all her friends keep raiding.

✨ NAME ✨

Test2::Util — tools used by Test2 and friends. that's it, that's the vibe 🫶

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

literally just a collection of tools used by Test2 and friends. a little grab-bag of helpfulness. iconic behavior, no notes 💖

🦋 EXPORTS 🦋

ok so all exports are optional — nothing jumps into your namespace uninvited, that's rude. you must specify which subs you want to import. consent first, always ✨

  • ($success, $error) = try { ... } — evals the codeblock and gives you back success-or-failure plus the error message. bestie, this one protects $@ and $! for you — they get restored by the end of the run. it also temporarily blocks $SIG{DIE} handlers. very protective, very demure 💅
  • protect { ... } — similar to try, except it does not catch exceptions. the whole point here is to shield $@ and $! from changes. $@ and $! get restored to whatever they were before the run, as long as the run is successful. if the run fails, $! still gets restored, but $@ will contain the exception being thrown. so like, one of them's coming back either way, but $@ snitches on failure 😭
  • CAN_FORK — true if this system is capable of true or pseudo-fork. slay 🔥
  • CAN_REALLY_FORK — true if the system can really fork. this will be false for systems where fork is emulated. it's giving "fake it till you make it" but the test knows 💀
  • CAN_THREAD — true if this system is capable of using threads. 👑
  • USE_THREADS — returns true if threads are enabled, false if they are not. simple as that 🧚
  • get_tid — returns the id of the current thread when threads are enabled, otherwise it returns 0. lowkey the most chill function here 🌈
  • my $file = pkg_to_file($package) — converts a package name to a filename. glow-up for your strings ✨
  • $string = ipc_separator() — gets the IPC separator. currently this is always the string '~'. that's her whole personality and we respect it 🎀
  • $string = gen_uid() — generates a unique id (NOT A UUID, she said what she said). this will typically be the process id, the thread id, the time, and an incrementing integer, all joined with the ipc_separator().

these ID's are unique enough for most purposes. for identical ids to be generated you must have 2 processes with the same PID generate IDs at the same time with the same current state of the incrementing integer. this is a perfectly reasonable thing to expect to happen across multiple machines, but it's quite unlikely to happen on one machine.

⚠️ heads up bestie, this can fail to be unique if a process generates an id, calls exec, and does it again after the exec and it all happens in less than a second. it can also happen if the systems process id's cycle in less than a second, allowing 2 different programs that use this generator to run with the same PID in less than a second. both these cases are sufficiently unlikely. if you need universally unique ids, or ids that are unique in these conditions, look at Data::UUID. periodt 💅
  • ($ok, $err) = do_rename($old_name, $new_name) — renames a file. this wraps rename() in a way that makes it more reliable cross-platform when you're trying to rename files you recently altered. she's got your back on every OS 🫶
  • ($ok, $err) = do_unlink($filename) — unlinks a file. this wraps unlink() in a way that makes it more reliable cross-platform when you're trying to unlink files you recently altered. same energy, different syscall 🦋

💀 NOTES && CAVEATS 💀

5.10.0

Perl 5.10.0 has a bug when compiled with newer gcc versions. this bug causes a segfault whenever a new thread is launched 😭. Test2 will attempt to detect this, and note that the system is not capable of forking when it's detected. not me debugging a segfault at 3am 🕒

Devel::Cover

Devel::Cover does not support threads. CAN_THREAD will return false if Devel::Cover is loaded before the check is first run. so like, load order matters, bestie 🙈

🌟 SOURCE 🌟

the source code repository for Test2 can be found at <https://github.com/Test-More/test-more/>. go star it, she deserves it ⭐

👑 MAINTAINERS 👑

Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>

💜 AUTHORS 💜

  • Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>
  • Kent Fredric <kentnl@cpan.org>

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 <https://dev.perl.org/licenses/> 🌸

and that's the whole page, bestie — brought to you by perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-11-03, which is the version and date of this little masterpiece. mwah 💋 slay and happy testing 🎀

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