php - How do I test a command-line program with PHPUnit? -

how test command-line program phpunit? see plenty of using phpunit command line, none testing command-line program phpunit.

this comes because writing command-line programs in php , joomla, don't see way test output, when errors occur (because cannot test error output using phpunit's expectoutputstring()).

(edit: note bulk of code in classes tested phpunit -- i'm looking way test command-line (wrapper) program's logic.)

one way use backtick operator (`) capture output of program, examine output. works under unix/linux-style oses, can capture error outputs stderr. (it more painful under windows, can done (especially using cygwin).)

for example:

public function testhelp() {         $output = `./add-event --help 2>&1`;         $this->assertregexp(    '/^usage:/m',                $output, 'no message?' );         $this->assertregexp(    '/where:/m',                 $output, 'no message?' );         $this->assertnotregexp( '/where event types are:/m', $output, 'no message?' ); } 

you can see both stdout , stderr captured $output, regex assertions used test whether output resembled correct output.