We have a large slow test suite at work (Test::Class, 225 classes, about 45 minutes run time). Many of the tests start by loading a bunch of the same modules. Obviously we could speed things up if we could share that loading cost.
I'm aware of Test::Aggregate and Test::Aggregate::Nested, but a number of our tests run into the caveats (e.g. they change singletons -- yes, this is not ideal, but also not easily changeable). I thought of an alternative to Test::Aggregate called "preforking prove", or pfprove, which does the following: * Accepts the same arguments as prove * Preloads the module(s) in -M * Launches a Starman server in the background * For each test file, makes a request to the Starman server. The Starman child runs the test and exits. The idea is that you preload all the common stuff in the Starman parent, so that forking each child and running each test is fast (at least on Linux). Potential advantages over Test::Aggregate: * runs one test per process, so avoids some caveats * keeps the TAP in traditional form (one TAP stream per file) * works well with parallel prove Potential disadvantages: * lots of extra complexity (requires Starman or similar, need to make sure it shuts down, need to handle errors, etc.) Curious what you think. Is there something like this out there already? Potential problems? If I do this I might call it Test::Aggregate::Preforking, just to keep it in the same category. Thanks! Jon
