{"slug": "cram", "name": "Cram", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.788, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2026-05-20", "latest": "2026-10-06", "why": "Was particularly good for easy-to-write, easy-to-review tests of unix utilities.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Was particularly good for easy-to-write, easy-to-review tests of unix utilities.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "bitheap.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://bitheap.org/cram/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Cram", "cram"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799627456, "item_id": 49976716, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49976716", "by": "exceptione", "date": "2026-10-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Impressive read-speed, roughly operates at the same speed as native DRAM. Orders faster than zstd.", "excerpt": "Link to slides at the bottom. Impressive read-speed, roughly operates at the same speed as native DRAM. Orders faster than zstd. See also: - https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-CRAM-Compressed-RAM - https://lwn.net/Articles/1059885/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cram \u2013 A Compressed RAM Service"}, {"id": 771529504, "item_id": 48220594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48220594", "by": "Saser", "date": "2026-05-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Cram tests, they can be so readable!", "excerpt": "I love Cram tests, they can be so readable! Being essentially shell scripts, though, they can be a bit hard to integrate into any given language's regular testing framework though. I get the sense that \"expect tests\", also known as \"inline snapshots tests\", are becoming more and more popular. I think that many, including myself, first learned about it from the Jane Street blog post \"What if writing tests was a joyful", "context": "", "use_case": "shell-based testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Markdown-based test suite"}, {"id": 771501728, "item_id": 48218858, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48218858", "by": "eichin", "date": "2026-05-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Was particularly good for easy-to-write, easy-to-review tests of unix utilities.", "excerpt": "Anybody remember \"cram\"? From about 10 years ago, https://bitheap.org/cram/ basically a markdown syntax (making heavy use of code-blocks) for documenting and writing tests as \"shell commands and expected output\" (with a bunch of the sharp edges filed off, like line endings and partial matches.) Was particularly good for easy-to-write, easy-to-review tests of unix utilities. (It's the kind of thing that you only stumb", "context": "", "use_case": "Shell tests in Markdown", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Markdown-based test suite"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["shell-based testing", "shell tests in markdown"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48183678", "title": "A Markdown-based test suite", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49976715", "title": "Cram \u2013 A Compressed RAM Service", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 799627456, "item_id": 49976716, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49976716", "by": "exceptione", "date": "2026-10-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Impressive read-speed, roughly operates at the same speed as native DRAM. Orders faster than zstd.", "excerpt": "Link to slides at the bottom. Impressive read-speed, roughly operates at the same speed as native DRAM. Orders faster than zstd. See also: - https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-CRAM-Compressed-RAM - https://lwn.net/Articles/1059885/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cram \u2013 A Compressed RAM Service"}, {"id": 771529504, "item_id": 48220594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48220594", "by": "Saser", "date": "2026-05-21", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Cram tests, they can be so readable!", "excerpt": "I love Cram tests, they can be so readable! Being essentially shell scripts, though, they can be a bit hard to integrate into any given language's regular testing framework though. I get the sense that \"expect tests\", also known as \"inline snapshots tests\", are becoming more and more popular. I think that many, including myself, first learned about it from the Jane Street blog post \"What if writing tests was a joyful", "context": "", "use_case": "shell-based testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Markdown-based test suite"}, {"id": 771501728, "item_id": 48218858, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48218858", "by": "eichin", "date": "2026-05-20", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Was particularly good for easy-to-write, easy-to-review tests of unix utilities.", "excerpt": "Anybody remember \"cram\"? From about 10 years ago, https://bitheap.org/cram/ basically a markdown syntax (making heavy use of code-blocks) for documenting and writing tests as \"shell commands and expected output\" (with a bunch of the sharp edges filed off, like line endings and partial matches.) Was particularly good for easy-to-write, easy-to-review tests of unix utilities. (It's the kind of thing that you only stumb", "context": "", "use_case": "Shell tests in Markdown", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Markdown-based test suite"}]}