0 errors with 'autotest' BUT 30 errors with 'rake test:units'

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi group,

My test suites don't behave by the book. I've been scratching my head for hours in vain. I hope you can help me solve this mystery.

1/ With autotest, and 2/ when run manually, class by class

   they all pass

BUT

3/ With 'rake test:units' + transactional fixture => 25 errors 4/ With 'rake test:units' withouth transactional fixture => 33 errors (not 25)

     130 tests, 232 assertions, 3 failures, 25 errors and   130 tests, 220 assertions, 4 failures, 33 errors

AND IN BOTH CASEs (autotest + rake)

5/ tables/models are not empty when they should (in the setup methods), even when I use no fixtures.

   ==> this setup code fails

    def setup         assert_equal 0, Production.count     end

6/ I get 2 dozens warnings like:      ./test/unit/lib/grid_calendar/../../../test_helper.rb:101: warning: already initialized constant CANT_BE_BLANK

Any idea? I'm lost.

  - I use Edge Rails + simply_bdd (and a dozen other plugins)   - All the tables are InnoDB (transactional), and I work with MySql4 + Locomotive).   - I can't tell when this started happening, as I've been using autotest for weeks.

TIA

Alain

2

Alain Ravet wrote:

My test suites don't behave by the book. I've been scratching my head for hours in vain. I hope you can help me solve this mystery.

You don't have isolated test cases. Data from one test case is most likely leaking into the next one.

1/ With autotest, and 2/ when run manually, class by class

What's rake test:recent do?

What's ruby/test/functional/some_controller_test.rb do?

When you get that far, use -n test_my_favorite_test to run them one at a time.

  they all pass

BUT

3/ With 'rake test:units' + transactional fixture => 25 errors 4/ With 'rake test:units' withouth transactional fixture => 33 errors (not 25)

The unit tests might depend on the data left over from the functional tests in the last run. Try rake test:functional test:units

5/ tables/models are not empty when they should (in the setup methods), even when I use no fixtures.

When you use no fixtures, nothing erases the existing data. Use fixtures, and/or write setup code that zilches everything you don't want to be there.

  ==> this setup code fails

   def setup        assert_equal 0, Production.count    end

6/ I get 2 dozens warnings like:     ./test/unit/lib/grid_calendar/../../../test_helper.rb:101: warning: already initialized constant CANT_BE_BLANK

That's different. Autotest runs each test run within its own, single, Ruby context. This is a bad design decision (again due to test isolation concerns), and it should shell to a Ruby with a line like system("rake test:recent"). But that's an internal affair for Autotest, and I know what will happen if I try to discuss ZenTest with its authors...

I think you can put unless defined? CANT_BE_BLANK after those lines...

- I can't tell when this started happening, as I've been using autotest for weeks.

Oops. Always run the Grand-Wazoo Test before commits, and always use test:recent after edits in several areas to make sure their tests can mix-and-match.

Read this; it has a link back to a simpler (stoopider) autotester that shells to ruby instead of keeps one in memory:

http://phlip.eblogs.com/growl-driven-development

3

[Solved] or rather [Worked around] (but 2 mysteries remain)

   > What's rake test:recent do?

Bingo: that's the sleuthing tool I needed

Debriefing :