rspec-2.9.0 is released!
March 17th, 2012
rspec-2.9.0 is released wtih lots of bug fixes and a few minor feature improvements as well. Enjoy!
rspec-core-2.9.0 / 2012-03-17
Enhancements
- Support for “X minutes X seconds” spec run duration in formatter. (uzzz)
- Strip whitespace from group and example names in doc formatter.
- Removed spork-0.9 shim. If you’re using spork-0.8.x, you’ll need to upgrade to 0.9.0.
Bug fixes
- Restore
--full_backtraceoption - Ensure that values passed to
config.filter_runare respected when running over DRb (using spork). - Ensure shared example groups are reset after a run (as example groups are).
- Remove
rescue falsefrom calls to filters represented as Procs - Ensure described_class gets the closest constant (pyromaniac)
- In “autorun”, don’t run the specs in the at_exit hook if there was an exception (most likely due to a SyntaxError). (sunaku)
- Don’t extend groups with modules already used to extend ancestor groups.
itscorrectly memoizes nil or false values (Yamada Masaki)
rspec-expectations-2.9.0 / 2012-03-17
Enhancements
- Move built-in matcher classes to RSpec::Matchers::BuiltIn to reduce pollution of RSpec::Matchers (which is included in every example).
- Autoload files with matcher classes to improve load time.
Bug fixes
- Align
respond_to?andmethod_missingin DSL-defined matchers. - Clear out user-defined instance variables between invocations of DSL-defined matchers.
- Dup the instance of a DSL generated matcher so its state is not changed by subsequent invocations.
- Treat expected args consistently across positive and negative expectations (thanks to Ralf Kistner for the heads up)
rspec-mocks-2.9.0 / 2012-03-17
Enhancements
- Support order constraints across objects (preethiramdev)
Bug fixes
- Allow a
as_null_objectto be passed towith - Pass proc to block passed to stub (Aubrey Rhodes)
- Initialize child message expectation args to match any args (#109 - preethiramdev)
rspec-rails-2.9.0 / 2012-03-17
Enhancments
- add description method to RouteToMatcher (John Wulff)
- Run “db:test:clone_structure” instead of “db:test:prepare” if Active Record’s schema format is “:sql”. (Andrey Voronkov)
Bug fixes
mock_model(XXX).as_null_object.unknown_methodreturns self again- Generated view specs use different IDs for each attribute.
rspec-rails-2.8.1 is released
January 5th, 2012
Bug fix release
The rails-3.2.0.rc2 release broke stub_model in rspec-rails-2.0.0 > 2.8.0.
The rspec-rails-2.8.1 release fixes this issue, but it means that when you
upgrade to rails-3.2.0.rc2 or greater, you’ll have to upgrade to
rspec-rails-2.8.1 or greater.
Because rspec-rails-2.8.1 supports all versions of rails since 3.0, I recommend that you upgrade to rspec-rails-2.8.1 first, and then upgrade to rails-3.2.0.rc2 (or 3.2.0 once it’s out).
Changelog
http://rubydoc.info/gems/rspec-rails/file/Changelog.md
Docs
http://rubydoc.info/gems/rspec-rails
http://relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-rails
rspec-2.7.0 is released!
October 16th, 2011
We’re pleased to announce the release of rspec-2.7.0. Release notes for each gem are listed below, but here are a couple of highlights:
Just type rspec
With the the 2.7.0 release, if you keep all of your specs in the conventional
spec directory, you don’t need to follow the rspec command with a path.
Just type rspec.
If you keep your specs in a different directory, just set the --default_path
option to that directory on the command line, or in a .rspec config file.
The rake task now lets Bundler manage Bundler
The RSpec::Core::RakeTask invokes the rspec command in a subshell. In
recent releases, it assumed that you wanted it prefixed with bundle exec if
it saw a Gemfile. We then added gemfile and skip_bundler options to the
task, so you could manage this in different ways.
It turns out that Bundler manages this quite well without any help from RSpec.
If you activate Bundler in the parent shell, via the command line or
Bundler.setup, it sets environment variables that activate Bundler in the
subshell with the correct gemfile.
The gemfile and skip_bundler options are therefore deprecated and have no
effect.
Release Notes
rspec-core-2.7.0
NOTE: RSpec’s release policy dictates that there should not be any backward incompatible changes in minor releases, but we’re making an exception to release a change to how RSpec interacts with other command line tools.
As of 2.7.0, you must explicity require "rspec/autorun" unless you use the
rspec command (which already does this for you).
Enhancements
- Add example.exception (David Chelimsky)
--default_pathcommand line option (Justin Ko)- support multiple
--line_numberoptions (David J. Hamilton)- also supports
path/to/file.rb:5:9(runs examples on lines 5 and 9)
- also supports
- Allow classes/modules to be used as shared example group identifiers (Arthur Gunn)
- Friendly error message when shared context cannot be found (Sławosz Sławiński)
- Clear formatters when resetting config (John Bintz)
- Add
xspecifyand xexample as temp-pending methods (David Chelimsky) - Add
--no-drboption (Iain Hecker) - Provide more accurate run time by registering start time before code is loaded (David Chelimsky)
- Rake task default pattern finds specs in symlinked dirs (Kelly Felkins)
- Rake task no longer does anything to invoke bundler since Bundler already handles it for us. Thanks to Andre Arko for the tip.
- Add
--failure-exit-codeoption (Chris Griego)
Bug fixes
- Include
Rake::DSLto remove deprecation warnings in Rake > 0.8.7 (Pivotal Casebook) - Only eval
letblock once even if it returnsnil(Adam Meehan) - Fix
--patternoption (wasn’t being recognized) (David Chelimsky) - Only implicitly
require "rspec/autorun"with therspeccommand (David Chelimsky) - Ensure that rspec’s
at_exitdefines the exit code (Daniel Doubrovkine) - Show the correct snippet in the HTML and TextMate formatters (Brian Faherty)
- Include
rspec-expectations-2.7.0
Enhancements
- HaveMatcher converts argument using
to_i(Alex Bepple & Pat Maddox) - Improved failure message for the
have_xxxmatcher (Myron Marston) - HaveMatcher supports
count(Matthew Bellantoni) - Change matcher dups
Enumerablebefore the action, supporting customEnumerabletypes likeCollectionProxyin Rails (David Chelimsky)
- HaveMatcher converts argument using
Bug fixes
- Fix typo in
have(n).xyzdocumentation (Jean Boussier) - fix
safe_sortfor ruby 1.9.2 (Kernelnow defines<=>for Object) (Peter van Hardenberg)
- Fix typo in
rspec-mocks-2.7.0
Enhancements
- Use
__send__rather thansend(alextk) - Add support for
any_instance.stub_chain(Sidu Ponnappa) - Add support for
any_instanceargument matching based onwith(Sidu Ponnappa and Andy Lindeman)
- Use
Changes
- Check for
failure_message_for_shouldorfailure_messageinstead ofdescriptionto detect a matcher (Tibor Claassen)
- Check for
Bug fixes
- pass a hash to
any_instance.stub. (Justin Ko) - allow
to_aryto be called without raisingNoMethodError(Mikhail Dieterle) any_instanceproperly restores private methods (Sidu Ponnappa)
- pass a hash to
rspec-rails-2.7.0
Enhancments
ActiveRecord::Relationcan use the=~matcher (Andy Lindeman)- Make generated controller spec more consistent with regard to ids (Brent J. Nordquist)
- Less restrictive autotest mapping between spec and implementation files (José Valim)
require 'rspec/autorun'from generatedspec_helper.rb(David Chelimsky)- add
bypass_rescue(Lenny Marks) route_toaccepts query string (Marc Weil)
Internal
- Added specs for generators using ammeter (Alex Rothenberg)
Bug fixes
- Fix configuration/integration bug with rails 3.0 (fixed in 3.1) in which
fixure_file_uploadreads fromActiveSupport::TestCase.fixture_pathand misses RSpec’s configuration (David Chelimsky) - Support nested resource in view spec generator (David Chelimsky)
- Define
primary_keyon class generated bymock_model("WithAString")(David Chelimsky)
- Fix configuration/integration bug with rails 3.0 (fixed in 3.1) in which
Avoid stubbing methods invoked by a framework
September 22nd, 2011
In a github issue reported to the rspec-mocks project, the user had run into a problem in a Rails’ controller spec in which an RSpec-generated test double didn’t behave as expected. What follows is an edited version of the issue and my response, with the hope that it reaches a wider audience and/or sparks some conversation.
The reported problem: ActiveSupport::JSON::Encoding::CircularReferenceError using doubles
This spec …
require 'spec_helper' describe ListsController do let(:list) { double("List") } describe "GET 'index'" do let(:expected) { [{id: "1", name: "test"}] } before do list.stub(:id){ "1" } list.stub(:name){ "test" } List.stub(:select){ [ list ] } end it "should return the list of lists" do get :index, format: :json response.body.should == expected.to_json end end end
… plus this implementation …
class ListsController < ApplicationController respond_to :json expose(:lists) { List.select("id, name") } def index respond_with(lists) end end
… produces this failure:
Failure/Error: get :index, format: :json
ActiveSupport::JSON::Encoding::CircularReferenceError:
object references itselfThe deeper problem: this is a great example of when not to use stubs.
Here’s why: there are three incorrect assumptions hiding behind the stubs!
selecttakes an Array:List.select(["id","name"]), but the example stubs it incorrectly.- the id is numeric, but the example uses String.
- the json is wrapped:
{"list":{"id":1,"name":"test"}}, but the example doesn’t wrap it.
Even if the stubs were properly aligned with reality, the reason for the error
is that respond_with(lists) eventually calls as_json on the list object,
which, in this example, is an RSpec double that doesn’t implement as_json.
We need to either use a stub_model (which does implement as_json), or
explicitly stub it in the example:
list.stub(:as_json) { { list: {id: 1, name: "test"} } }
But I’d avoid stubs altogether in this case. Stubs are great for well defined
(and understood) public APIs which are invoked by the code being specified.
In this case, we’re stubbing an API (as_json) that is invoked by the Rails
framework, not the code being specified. If the Rails framework ever changes
how it renders json, this example would continue to pass, but it would be a
false positive.
One possible remedy
Here’s how I’d approach this outside-in (based on my own flow, design preferences, and target outcomes. YMMV.)
Start with a request spec:
require 'spec_helper' describe "Lists" do describe "GET 'index.json'" do it "returns the list of lists" do list = List.create!(name: "test") get "/lists.json" response.body.should == [{list: {id: list.id, name: "test"}}].to_json end end end
This shows exactly what to expect, so when working on clients we can refer directly to this without having to dig into internals.
Run this and it fails with uninitialized constant List, so generate the list
resource:
rails generate resource list name:string rake db:migrate rake db:test:prepare
Run it again and it fails with ActionView::MissingTemplate. Now we have a
couple of choices. The purist view says “write a controller spec”, but some
people say controller specs are unnecessary if there are already request specs
(or cukes) as they just add duplication.
For me, the answer depends upon the complexity of the requirement as it
compares to what we get for free from Rails. In this case, the only difference
between the requirement and what Rails gives us for free is that we constrain
the fields to id and name This is something we can implement in the model,
so I’d just implement this very simple controller code and move on:
class ListsController < ApplicationController respond_to :json def index respond_with List.all end end
Now the request spec fails with:
expected: "[{\"list\":{\"id\":1,\"name\":\"test\"}}]"
got: "[{\"list\":{\"created_at\":\"2011-08-27T14:56:19Z\",\"id\":1,\"name\":\"test\",\"updated_at\":\"2011-08-27T14:56:19Z\"}}]"We’re getting more key/value pairs than we want. I want the model responsible for constraining the keys in the json (Rails implements json transformations in the context of the model, so why shouldn’t we?), so I’d add a model spec:
require 'spec_helper' describe List do describe "#as_json" do it "constrains keys to id and name" do list = List.new(:name => "things") list.as_json['list'].keys.should eq(%w[id name]) end end end
This fails with:
expected ["id", "name"]
got ["created_at", "name", "updated_at"]I expect to see created_at and updated_at, but I’m surprised (initially) to
see that id is missing. Thinking this through, it makes sense because the
example generates the list using new, so no id is generated. To get id
to show up in the list of keys, we can use create instead of new, or we can
explicitly set it. I’m going to go with setting the id explicitly to avoid the
db hit, accepting the self-imposed leaky abstraction. It’s all trade-offs.
it "constrains fields to id and name" do list = List.new(:name => "things") list.id = 37 list.as_json['list'].keys.should eq(%w[id name]) end
Now it fails with:
expected ["id", "name"]
got ["created_at", "id", "name", "updated_at"]Now we can implement the constraint:
class List < ActiveRecord::Base def as_json super({ only: %w[id name]}) end end
Now the model spec passes, but the request spec fails with:
ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)
This is because the as_json implementation fails to honor the Rails
API:
as_json(options = nil)
as_json is called by the Rails framework with an options hash. Had we done
this without the request spec and weren’t aware of this information, we’d have
a bunch of passing specs but the app would blow up. Hooray for testing at
multiple levels!
So we add a new example to the model spec:
it "honors the submitted options hash" do list = List.new(:name => "things") list.id = 37 list.as_json(:only => :name)['list'].keys.should eq(%w[name]) end
This fails with wrong number of arguments (1 for 0) as well, so now we adjust
the model implementation:
def as_json(opts={}) super({ only: %w[id name]}.merge(opts)) end
Now the model spec passes again, and so does the request spec! DONE!
The result is a very nice balance of clarity, speed (in spite of the one db hit in the request spec) and flexibility. Any new endpoints we add will get the same json representation because it is expressed in the model (heeding the principle of least surprise). The model spec not only specifies how the model should represent itself as json, but it helps to explain how the rails framework uses the model. All of this with no stubbing at all, and especially no stubbing of APIs our code isn’t invoking.
rspec-rails-2.6.1 is released!
May 25th, 2011
This is a bug fix release that is compatible with the rails-3.0.0 to 3.0.7, 3.0.8.rc1, and 3.1.0.rc1 (it is mostly, but not fully compatible with but not rails-3.1.0.beta1).
rspec-rails-2.6.1 / 2011-05-25
- Bug fixes
- fix controller specs with anonymous controllers with around filters
- exclude spec directory from rcov metrics (Rodrigo Navarro)
- guard against calling prerequisites on nil default rake task (Jack Dempsey)
rspec-rails-2.6.1.beta1 is released!
May 22nd, 2011
This is a beta release intended to provide something that works with
rails-3.1.0.rc1. It is not compatible with rails-3.1.0.beta1 or
rake-0.9.0 (make sure you specify rake-0.8.7 in your Gemfile), but it is
compatible with every other release of rails from 3.0.0 through
3.1.0.rc1.
rspec-rails-2.6.1.beta1 / 2011-05-22
This release is compatible with rails-3.1.0.rc1, but not rails-3.1.0.beta1
- Bug fixes
- fix controller specs with anonymous controllers with around filters
- exclude spec directory from rcov metrics
- guard against calling prerequisites on nil default rake task (Jack Dempsey)
rspec-2.6.0.rc3 is released!
April 30th, 2011
UPDATE: there was a problem related to rubygems that made this release uninstallable, so it’s been yanked and rc4 has been released.
This release addresses issues that were raised in the rspec-core-2.6.0.rc2 release.
rspec-core-2.6.0.rc3
Enhancements
- Clean up messages for filters/tags.
rspec-mocks-2.6.0.rc3
Bug fixes
- Support multiple calls to any_instance in the same example (Sidu Ponnappa)
rspec-rails-2.6.0.rc3
Enhancements
- Update the controller spec generated by the rails scaffold generator:
- Add documentation to the generated spec
- Use
any_instanceto avoid stubbing finders - Use real objects instead of
mock_model
- Update capybara integration to work with capy 0.4 and 1.0.0.beta
- Decorate paths passed to
[append|prepend]_view_pathswith empty templates unless rendering views. (Mark Turner)
rspec-2.6.0.rc2 is released!
April 18th, 2011
We’re releasing rspec-2.6.0.rc2 as a release candidate as there are some internal changes that we’d like to see put through their paces before doing a final release. Note that the changes I speak of are internal. There are no new deprecations in this release, nor any backward-incompatible changes.
There are, however, some new features that we’re really excited about. Please do check it out and please do report any issues to the appropriate github issue tracker:
rspec-core-2.6.0.rc2
Enhancements
shared_context(Damian Nurzynski)- extend groups matching specific metadata with:
- method definitions
- subject declarations
- let/let! declarations
- etc (anything you can do in a group)
- extend groups matching specific metadata with:
its([:key])works for any subject with #[]. (Peter Jaros)treat_symbols_as_metadata_keys_with_true_values(Myron Marston)- Print a deprecation warning when you configure RSpec after defining an example. All configuration should happen before any examples are defined. (Myron Marston)
- Pass the exit status of a DRb run to the invoking process. This causes specs run via DRb to not just return true or false. (Ilkka Laukkanen)
- Refactoring of ConfigurationOptions#parse_options (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)
- Report excluded filters in runner output (tip from andyl)
Bug fixes
- Don’t stumble over an exception without a message (Hans Hasselberg)
- Remove non-ascii characters from comments that were choking rcov (Geoffrey Byers)
- Fixed backtrace so it doesn’t include lines from before the autorun at_exit hook (Myron Marston)
- Include RSpec::Matchers when first example group is defined, rather than just before running the examples. This works around an obscure bug in ruby 1.9 that can cause infinite recursion. (Myron Marston)
- Don’t send example_group_[started|finished] to formatters for empty groups.
- Get specs passing on jruby (Sidu Ponnappa)
- Fix bug where mixing nested groups and outer-level examples gave unpredictable :line_number behavior (Artur Małecki)
- Regexp.escape the argument to –example (tip from Elliot Winkler)
- Correctly pass/fail pending block with message expectations
rspec-expectations-2.6.0.rc2
Enhancments
changematcher accepts Regexps (Robert Davis)- better descriptions for have_xxx matchers (Magnus Bergmark)
Bug fixes
- Removed non-ascii characters that were choking rcov (Geoffrey Byers)
- change matcher dups arrays and hashes so their before/after states can be compared correctly.
- Fix the order of inclusion of RSpec::Matchers in Test::Unit::TestCase and MiniTest::Unit::TestCase to prevent a SystemStackError (Myron Marston)
rspec-mocks-2.6.0.rc2
Enhancements
- Add support for any_instance.stub and any_instance.should_receive (Sidu Ponnappa and Andy Lindeman)
Bug fixes
- fix bug in which multiple chains with shared messages ending in hashes failed to return the correct value
rspec-rails-2.6.0.rc2
Enhancments
- rails 3 shortcuts for routing specs (Joe Fiorini)
- support nested resources in generators (Tim McEwan)
- require ‘rspec/rails/mocks’ to use
mock_modelwithout requiring the whole rails framework
Bug fixes
- fix typo in “rake spec:statsetup” (Curtis Schofield)
- expose named routes in anonymous controller specs (Andy Lindeman)
- error when generating namespaced scaffold resources (Andy Lindeman)
rspec-2.5.0 is released!
February 6th, 2011
rspec-2.5 is a minor upgrade, and is fully backward compatible with rspec-2.4. It includes several bug fixes, enhancements, and one deprecation. See the changelog below for details.
We had a little glitch publishing the docs to http://relishapp.com/rspec, so the 2.5 docs won’t be up for another day or two, so I’ll detail the noticable differences here.
Autotest/Bundler integration
UPDATE: the –skip-bundler option does not work, and is removed from rspec-core-2.5.1. See the post on the 2.5.1 release for more information.
–skip-bundler
RSpec’s Autotest integration assumes that you want bundle exec in the shell command generated by Autotest if you have a Gemfile. This works fine for some situations, but not all, so we added an opt-out for rspec-2.5:
autotest -- --skip-bundler
Autotest ignores everything after the initial --, so RSpec’s Autotest extension handles the --skip-bundler option.
Autotest’s bundler plugin
Autotest ships with a plugin for bundler. Just add the following to a .autotest file in the project’s root directory, or your home directory:
require 'autotest/bundler'
This prefixes the generated shell command with ‘bundle exec’.
UPDATE: The implicit detection of Gemfile is removed from rspec-core-2.5.1. See the post on the 2.5.1 release for more information.
Implicit detection of Gemfile is deprecated
Given that Autotest has its own way of dealing with Bundler (see above), we deprecated the implicit assumption that Gemfile means “use bundler”. You’ll see a deprecation notice if you are relying on that, but it still works. It’s just a deprecation warning. To silence the warning, either use the --skip-bundler option or Autotest’s bundler plugin, described above.
HTML Formatter
The HTML formatter now has a set of checkboxes in the header that allow you to filter what you’re looking at:

to not, or not to not
Are you the sort of person for whom “expect this block of code to not raise an error” is like nails on chalkboard? If so, relief has arrived. You may now type either of the following, and RSpec will happily service you:
expect { ... }.to_not raise_error
expect { ... }.not_to raise_error
Changelog
rspec-core-2.5.0
Enhancements
- Autotest::Rspec2 parses command line args passed to autotest after ‘–’
- –skip-bundler option for autotest command
- Autotest regexp fixes (Jon Rowe)
- Add filters to html and textmate formatters (Daniel Quimper)
- Explicit passing of block (need for JRuby 1.6) (John Firebaugh)
Bug fixes
- fix dom IDs in HTML formatter (Brian Faherty)
- fix bug with –drb + formatters when not running in drb
- include –tag options in drb args (monocle)
- fix regression so now SPEC_OPTS take precedence over CLI options again (Roman Chernyatchik)
- only call its(:attribute) once (failing example from Brian Dunn)
- fix bizarre bug where rspec would hang after
String.alias :to_int :to_i(Damian Nurzynski)
Deprecations
- implicit inclusion of ‘bundle exec’ when Gemfile present (use autotest’s bundler plugin instead)
rspec-expectations-2.5.0
Enhancements
should existworks withexist?orexists?(Myron Marston)expect { ... }.not_to do_something(in addition toto_not)
Documentation
- improved docs for
raise_errormatcher (James Almond)
- improved docs for
rspec-mocks-2.5.0
- Bug fixes
- message expectation counts now work in combination with a stub (Damian Nurzynski)
- fix failure message when message received with incorrect args (Josep M. Bach)
rspec-rails-2.5.0
Enhancements
- use
index_helperinstead oftable_namewhen generating specs (Reza Primardiansyah)
- use
Bug fixes
- fixed bug in which
render_viewsin a nested group set the value in its parent group. - only include MailerExampleGroup when it is defiend (Steve Sloan)
mock_model.as_null_object.attribute.blank?returnsfalse(Randy Schmidt)- fix typo in request specs (Paco Guzman)
- fixed bug in which
rspec-2.4.0 is released!
January 2nd, 2011
Changes in rspec-core and rspec-rails are listed below. There are no changes to rspec-mocks and rspec-expectations for this release.
rspec-core-2.4.0 / 2011-01-02
Enhancements
- start the debugger on -d so the stack trace is visible when it stops (Clifford Heath)
- apply hook filtering to examples as well as groups (Myron Marston)
- support multiple formatters, each with their own output
- show exception classes in failure messages unless they come from RSpec matchers or message expectations
- before(:all) { pending } sets all examples to pending
Bug fixes
- fix bug due to change in behavior of reject in Ruby 1.9.3-dev (Shota Fukumori)
- fix bug when running in jruby: be explicit about passing block to super (John Firebaugh)
- rake task doesn’t choke on paths with quotes (Janmejay Singh)
- restore –options option from rspec-1
- require ‘ostruct’ to fix bug with its([key]) (Kim Burgestrand)
- –configure option generates .rspec file instead of autotest/discover.rb
rspec-rails-2.4.0 / 2011-01-02
Enhancements
- include ApplicationHelper in helper object in helper specs
- include request spec extensions in files in spec/integration
- include controller spec extensions in groups that use :type => :controller
- same for :model, :view, :helper, :mailer, :request, :routing
Bug fixes
- restore global config.render_views so you only need to say it once
- support overriding render_views in nested groups
- matchers that delegate to Rails’ assertions capture ActiveSupport::TestCase::Assertion (so they work properly now with should_not in Ruby 1.8.7 and 1.9.1)
Deprecations
include_self_when_dir_matches

