Basic Rspec operation questions

[weyus]

With Rails, is “rake spec” supposed to automatically run under the test
environment? I have to do “rake spec RAILS_ENV=test” in order to get
the environments/test.rb file to load.

Also, are the standard Test::Unit fixtures automatically loaded before
each test in each spec file? This appears to be the case based on my
current spec’s behavior, but wanted to verify.

Thanks,
Wes

[weyus]

In your spec/spec_helper.rb file you should see a line at the to which
says RAILS_ENV=“test”. If you haven’t modified your spec_helper.rb
file I would remove it and re-run “script/generate rspec”. It should
be there. I just generated a new Rails project with rspec and
rspec-rails gems. Here’s the top of my spec/spec_helper.rb:

This file is copied to ~/spec when you run 'ruby script/generate

rspec’

from the project root directory.

ENV[“RAILS_ENV”] = “test”
require File.expand_path(File.dirname(FILE) +
“/…/config/environment”)
require ‘spec’
require ‘spec/rails’

Zach

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 3:15 PM, Wes G. [email protected] wrote:

---

rspec-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

–
Zach D.
http://www.continuousthinking.com

Homepage | Mutually Human

[weyus]

Zach,

Zach D. wrote:

This file is copied to ~/spec when you run ‘ruby script/generate rspec’

from the project root directory.

ENV[“RAILS_ENV”] = “test”
require File.expand_path(File.dirname(FILE) + “/…/config/environment”)
require ‘spec’
require ‘spec/rails’

This is exactly what the top of my spec_helper.rb file looks like.

I have several specs, and the success of running them is different
depending on what I do. I’m really just trying to figure out how to
take advantage of the “rake spec” task.

I’m on Windows XP. Rails 2.1.0. Rspec and Rspec-Rails 1.1.8 gems. No
Rspec plugins. Freshly generate rspec stuff using “ruby script/generate
rspec”

1. If I run each of my specs separately on the command line using “spec
   spec/whatever.rb” they run fine.

2. If I run “spec spec/*spec.rb”, then all but one run without error
   (note that the one that files can be run successfully using a direct
   call to it as in #1 above).

3. If I run “rake spec”, I get multiple failures, all because the
   config/environments/test.rb file is not loaded (I know this because they
   fail due to the lack of a variable that is set only in test.rb). The
   spec that failed in #2 works in this case.

4. If I run “rake spec RAILS_ENV=test”, all but one run without error
   (same error as in #2).

I draw the following conclustions:

1. I only get the color output if I use “rake spec” (not sure why)

2. spec loads test.rb by default, but “rake spec” does not and that’s
   why I have to pass RAILS_ENV=test to the “rake” command.

Wes

rspec 1.1.8 gem
rspec-rails 1.1.8 gem

[weyus]

Correction to above:

Wes G. wrote:

2. If I run “spec spec/*spec.rb”, then all but one run without error
   (note that the one that fails can be run successfully using a direct
   call to it as in #1 above).

[weyus]

David C. wrote:

“/…/config/environment”)
Rspec plugins. Freshly generate rspec stuff using "ruby script/generate
config/environments/test.rb file is not loaded (I know this because they

2. spec loads test.rb by default, but “rake spec” does not and that’s why I
   have to pass RAILS_ENV=test to the “rake” command.

What is test.rb?

config/environments/test.rb - has test specific stuff set in it.

As for getting different results if you run files individually, with
the spec command or with the rake command, that is usually a sign
that there is some state leaking between examples. ‘rake spec’ and
‘spec spec’ don’t load the files in the same order, so the fact that
you also get different failures from each of those also supports this
theory in your case.

I agree with this although it is still unclear to me what the state
problems are.

Thanks,
Wes

[weyus]

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Wes G. [email protected] wrote:

require ‘spec/rails’

that failed in #2 works in this case.

4. If I run “rake spec RAILS_ENV=test”, all but one run without error
   (same error as in #2).

I draw the following conclustions:

1. I only get the color output if I use “rake spec” (not sure why)

2. spec loads test.rb by default, but “rake spec” does not and that’s why I
   have to pass RAILS_ENV=test to the “rake” command.

What is test.rb?

As for getting different results if you run files individually, with
the spec command or with the rake command, that is usually a sign
that there is some state leaking between examples. ‘rake spec’ and
‘spec spec’ don’t load the files in the same order, so the fact that
you also get different failures from each of those also supports this
theory in your case.

Do you have a spec/spec.opts file? What does that look like?

[weyus]

David C. wrote:

“/…/config/environment”)

As for getting different results if you run files individually, with
the spec command or with the rake command, that is usually a sign
that there is some state leaking between examples. ‘rake spec’ and
‘spec spec’ don’t load the files in the same order, so the fact that
you also get different failures from each of those also supports this
theory in your case.

I agree with your statement, but I can reproduce a case where I can run
all of my specs using the “spec” command using “spec spec/**/*_spec.rb”
and one of them will fail. I can either leave in or remove the
“–reverse” option in my spec.opts file and get that failure.

But…when I run the spec standalone, using “spec
spec/<specific_spec_name>.rb” it works fine.

So this is a difference in behavior within the spec command and the only
difference is that it’s one test (SUCCESS) vs. 22 tests (FAIL). To the
best of my knowledge, the other tests don’t even touch the stuff that is
under test in the spec that fails, so I can’t figure out where the state
would be leaking.

(Argh - of course if I reverse the order of the 22 tests, while in both
cases the individual spec that I’m talking about always fails, if I
reverse the order, one set is a lot more successful than the other.
Sigh.)

Wes

Wes

[weyus]

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 6:42 PM, Wes G. [email protected] wrote:

This file is copied to ~/spec when you run 'ruby script/generate

This is exactly what the top of my spec_helper.rb file looks like.

1. If I run each of my specs separately on the command line using "spec
   fail due to the lack of a variable that is set only in test.rb). The
2. spec loads test.rb by default, but “rake spec” does not and that’s why
   the spec command or with the rake command, that is usually a sign
   that there is some state leaking between examples. ‘rake spec’ and
   ‘spec spec’ don’t load the files in the same order, so the fact that
   you also get different failures from each of those also supports this
   theory in your case.

I agree with this although it is still unclear to me what the state problems
are.

Based on the other thread you started about the environment - it might
be the lack of environments/test.rb being loaded (rather than a state
problem).

Make sure every _spec.rb file requires spec_helper.rb and see if that
solves the problem.

Cheers,
David

[weyus]

Wes G. wrote:

Zach D. wrote:

I’m on Windows XP. Rails 2.1.0. Rspec and Rspec-Rails 1.1.8
error
spec
2) spec loads test.rb by default, but “rake spec” does not and
As for getting different results if you run files individually, with
Make sure every _spec.rb file requires spec_helper.rb and see if that
etc.). 21 tests will pass and the 1 test will fail.
end
end

This is pretty straight forward - it’s just testing the presence of a
fixture. Now, this fixture is under the test/fixtures directory.
Note that I have NOT changed the fixture path in spec_helper.rb from
spec/fixtures to text/fixtures, and I have not asked for a fixture to
be loaded in any test. However, why would all of my other tests work
if no fixtures were ever being loaded?
ANSWER: The other specs are actually using Watir (the IE GUI test
framework), and these tests are implicit hitting a server running in
development. So, there’s no need to load the data that those test use
into the test database using fixtures (we probably need to fix this,
etc.). So, my oddball test that was breaking was in fact, the only test
hitting the test database that needed any fixture data loaded, and as we
see above, it wasn’t getting it. Adding “fixtures :users” in the
describe block worked like you would expect.

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

Wes

[weyus]

David C. wrote:

rspec"
3) If I run “rake spec”, I get multiple failures, all because the

1. I only get the color output if I use “rake spec” (not sure why)

Make sure every _spec.rb file requires spec_helper.rb and see if that
solves the problem.

Interesting. So I made sure that the first line in every spec file was

“require File.join(File.dirname(FILE), ‘spec_helper.rb’)” [ and I
assume that this should be a Cardinal Rule to live by ]

and now my 22 tests behave the same way with or without the spec.opts
file in play (either in alphabetical order or by mtime and reversed,
etc.). 21 tests will pass and the 1 test will fail.

Here’s the offending spec.

describe “User account fixtures” do
it “should exist” do
existing=User.all.map(&:login)

["admin", "bor_admin", "dell_admin", "ibm_admin", "ibm_user1",

“proc”, “van_admin”].each do |login|
existing.include?(login).should==true
end
end
end

This is pretty straight forward - it’s just testing the presence of a
fixture. Now, this fixture is under the test/fixtures directory. Note
that I have NOT changed the fixture path in spec_helper.rb from
spec/fixtures to text/fixtures, and I have not asked for a fixture to be
loaded in any test. However, why would all of my other tests work if no
fixtures were ever being loaded?

I’m still looking into this. Will report results.

Wes