RSpec

RSpec is a Behaviour Definition Framework intended for use in Behaviour Driven Development. RSpec plays the same role that a unit testing framework would play in a Test Driven Development environment, but does so using words and structures that better support BDD.

RSpec ships with four modules:

Spec::Matchers provides Expression Matchers for use with Spec::Expectations and Spec::Mocks.

Spec::Expectations supports setting expectations on your objects so you can do things like:

result.should equal(expected_result)

Spec::Mocks supports creating Mock Objects, Stubs, and adding Mock/Stub behaviour to your existing objects.

Spec::Runner provides a very small but powerful DSL for writing executable specifications.

Installation

The simplest approach is to install the gem:

gem install -r rspec #mac users must sudo

Building the RSpec gem

If you prefer to build the gem locally, check out source from svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/rspec/trunk. Then do the following:

rake gem
gem install pkg/rspec-0.x.x.gem (you may have to sudo)

Running the specs ==

In order to run RSpec’s full suite of specs (rake pre_commit) you must install the following gems:

• rake # Runs the build script

• rcov # Verifies that the code is 100% covered by specs

• webgen # Generates the static HTML website

• RedCloth # Required by webgen

• syntax # Required by our own custom webgen extension to highlight ruby code

• diff-lcs # Required if you use the –diff switch

• win32console # Required by the –colour switch if you’re on Windows

• meta_project # Required in order to make releases at RubyForge

• heckle # Required if you use the –heckle switch

Note that RSpec itself - once built - doesn’t have any dependencies outside the Ruby core and stdlib - with a few exceptions:

• The spec command line uses diff-lcs when –diff is specified.

• The spec command line uses heckle when –heckle is specified.

• The Spec::Rake::SpecTask needs RCov if RCov is enabled in the task.

See rspec.rubyforge.org for further documentation.