This is a mix-and-match set of utilities that you can use to write test harnesses and frameworks that communicate with one another using the Test Anything Protocol.

If you don't yet know what TAP is, you better ask somebody.

Default Usage:

1. Make a directory. Maybe call it 'test'. That'd be nice and obvious.
2. Put a bunch of test scripts in there. If they're node programs, then they should be ".js". Anything else is assumed to be some kind of shell script, which should have a shebang line.
3. npm install tap
4. Update package.json scripts.test to include tap ./test example gist
5. npm test

The output will be TAP-compliant.

For extra special bonus points, you can do something like this:

var test = require("tap").test
test("make sure the thingie is a thing", function (t) {
  t.equal(thingie, "thing", "thingie should be thing")
  t.deepEqual(array, ["foo", "bar"], "array has foo and bar elements")
  t.strictDeepEqual(object, {foo: 42, bar: "thingie"}, "object has foo (Number) and bar (String) property")
  t.type(thingie, "string", "type of thingie is string")
  t.ok(true, "this is always true")
  t.notOk(false, "this is never true")
  t.test("a child test", function (t) {
    t.equal(this, superEasy, "right!?")
    t.similar(7, 2, "ever notice 7 is kinda like 2?", {todo: true})
    t.test("so skippable", {skip: true}, function (t) {
      t.plan(1) // only one test in this block
      t.ok(true, "but when the flag changes, it'll pass")
      // no need to end, since we had a plan.
    })
    t.end()
  })
  t.ok(99, "can also skip individual assertions", {skip: true})
  // end lets it know it's over.
  t.end()
})
test("another one", function (t) {
  t.plan(1)
  t.ok(true, "It's ok to plan, and also end.  Watch.")
  t.end() // but it must match the plan!
})

Node-tap is actually a collection of several modules, any of which may be mixed and matched however you please.

If you don't like this test framework, and think you can do much much better, I strongly encourage you to do so! If you use this library, however, at least to output TAP-compliant results when process.env.TAP is set, then the data coming out of your framework will be much more consumable by machines.

You can also use this to build programs that consume the TAP data, so this is very useful for CI systems and such.

• tap-assert: A collection of assert functions that return TAP result objects.
• tap-consumer: A stream interface for consuming TAP data.
• tap-producer: A class that produces a TAP stream by taking in result objects.
• tap-results: A class for keeping track of TAP result objects as they pass by, counting up skips, passes, fails, and so on.
• tap-runner: A program that runs through a directory running all the tests in it. (Tests which may or may not be TAP-outputting tests. But it's better if they are.)
• tap-test: A class for actually running tests.
• tap-harness: A class that runs tests. (Tests are also Harnesses, which is how sub-tests run.)
• tap-global-harness: A default harness that provides the top-level support for running TAP tests.

TAP_COV=1 tap ./test [--cover=./lib,foo.js] [--coverage-dir=./coverage]

This feature is experimental, and will most likely change somewhat before being finalized. Feedback welcome.