_____         _            ____ ____ ___       
  |_   _|__  ___| |_   _ _   / ___/ ___|_ _|  _ _ 
    | |/ _ \/ __| __| (_|_) | |  | |  _ | |  (_|_)
    | |  __/\__ \ |_   _ _  | |__| |_| || |   _ _ 
    |_|\___||___/\__| (_|_)  \____\____|___| (_|_)
                                                  
   _____      _                        _ 
  | ____|_  _| |_ ___ _ __ _ __   __ _| |
  |  _| \ \/ / __/ _ \ '__| '_ \ / _` | |
  | |___ >  <| ||  __/ |  | | | | (_| | |
  |_____/_/\_\\__\___|_|  |_| |_|\__,_|_|
                                         


This is the README for Test::CGI::External version 0.04.

Test::CGI::External is a "module" for the Perl computer programming language, a
library of computer code to install on a computer.  This document contains four
sections:

1. About - what the module does

2. Documentation - how to learn more about the module

3. Installation - how to install this module on a computer

4. Help - what to do if you get stuck

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1. ABOUT

Test::CGI::External - run tests on an external CGI program

Test::CGI::External is a tool for running basic checks of the
operation of a CGI (common gateway interface) program. It is meant to
be used for "sanity checks" of CGI program operation. For example if a
CGI program prints stuff on standard output before it prints its
headers, this causes an obscure server error message when running from
behind a server, so Test::CGI::External is meant for the testing stage
before the program is put onto a web server. One of the main errors
this module catches for the author is stray printf statements. If a
program with stray printf statements is uploaded to the web server and
run as a CGI program, the browser will show only a 500 Server Error
message. Another typical mistake is forgetting to make the CGI program
executable; again, this results in a weird server error.

The tested CGI program can be in any language, not just Perl;
Test::CGI::External is meant to test external programs which are
completely independent of itself. Test::CGI::External was originally
created to check the operation of CGI programs written in the C
programming language.

Test::CGI::External runs CGI programs as stand-alone programs, under a
faked CGI-like environment created by manipulating environment
variables.

In a Perl script,

    my $tester = Test::CGI::External->new ();
    $tester->set_cgi_executable ('example.cgi');
    my %options;
    $tester->run (\%options);

For example, say there is a program called "example.cgi" and it is
required to test that example.cgi produces a correct "Content-Type"
header, does not print out ill-formed headers (for example, print
debugging messages on standard output), or test whether "example.cgi"
exits with a zero status, or does not print error messages during
normal operations.

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2. DOCUMENTATION

You can read the documentation for the module online at the following websites:

    * http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Test::CGI::External
    * http://metacpan.org/release/Test-CGI-External

(These links go to the latest version of the module.)

After installing the module, you can read the documentation on your computer
using

    perldoc Test::CGI::External

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3. INSTALLATION

This module requires Perl version 5.0.6 or later.

To install the module from CPAN, use

    cpan Test::CGI::External

If you have the App::cpanminus installer, you may prefer

    cpanm Test::CGI::External

To install the module from the source file, Test-CGI-External-0.04.tar.gz,
follow this sequence of commands:

    tar xfz Test-CGI-External-0.04.tar.gz
    cd Test-CGI-External-0.04
    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make install

If you want to test the module before installing it, use "make test" after
"make" and before "make install".

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4. HELP

To get help with the module, you can email the author, Ben Bullock, at
<bkb@cpan.org>. If you think there is a problem in the module, you can report a
bug at 

<https://github.com/benkasminbullock/test-cgi-external/issues>,

or if you want to alter the source code of Test::CGI::External, try the public
repository on github at 

<https://github.com/benkasminbullock/test-cgi-external>. 

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This README was written on Wed Apr 16 10:53:07 2014.

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