Using the testing environment with yacsmoke.pl, testers are able to report a distribution's test result, which is sent to the mailing list using an uniform format.

If you correctly configure CPANPLUS, it will prompt you to submit a report every time you install a distribution manually. However, for the full CPAN Tester experience, you will need to download, test and submit reports automatically. This is what CPAN-YACSmoke was written for.

CPAN-YACSmoke, even without any configuration, can begin automated testing with the following command:

perl yacsmoke.pl

For each distribution tested, a grade is recorded within a database by CPAN-YACSmoke. If the grade is one of pass, fail, unknown or na, a report is sent using Test::Reporter automatically.

Using the default mechanism of Test::Reporter, reports are sent straight away. However, for some fail reports, it would be prudent for testers to double-check if it is really the module's problem. For example, if there's no I<libgtk> on your system, a report about failing to install Gtk should not be sent. At the moment there is no batch mode within Test::Reporter to allow for reviewing of reports before sending, although a patch may be forthcoming in the future.