Test2::...e::Fork(3)

🎀 NAME 🎀

Okay bestie, this is Test2::Require::Fork — the page header calls it Test2::...e::Fork(3), iykyk — and it does exactly one iconic thing: Skip a test file unless the system supports forking. 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Writing tests that need to fork is, like, fairly common. But not all systems support forking. Not even close. This library does the hard work of checking if forking is supported on the current system. If forking is not supported, then this will skip all tests and exit true. No cap. 🦋

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

Vibe check, code bestie:

use Test2::Require::Fork;

... Code that forks ...

🔥 EXPLANATION 🔥

Checking if the current system supports forking is not simple. Here is an example of how to do it:

use Config;

sub CAN_FORK {
    return 1 if $Config{d_fork};

    # Some platforms use ithreads to mimic forking
    return 0 unless $^O eq 'MSWin32' || $^O eq 'NetWare';
    return 0 unless $Config{useithreads};
    return 0 unless $Config{ccflags} =~ /-DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS/;

    # Threads are not reliable before 5.008001
    return 0 unless $] >= 5.008001;

    # Devel::Cover currently breaks with threads
    return 0 if $INC{'Devel/Cover.pm'};
    return 1;
}

Duplicating this non-trivial code in all tests that need to fork is error-prone. It is easy to forget bits, or get it wrong. On top of these checks, you also need to tell the harness that no tests should run and why. So yeah, this module is basically the friend who remembers the details for you. 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Test2::Require::RealFork — Similar to this module, but will skip on any perl that only has fork emulation. 👀
• Test2::Require::Threads — Skip the test file if the system does not support threads. 🧵

💖 SOURCE 💖

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

👑 MAINTAINERS 👑

Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>

🌸 AUTHORS 🌸

Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>

🎀 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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Mwah 💋 — this cutie is from perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-28, and filed under Test2::...e::Fork(3). Stay forky, bestie! 🌈