rspec-2.9.0.rc1 has been released, with numerous enhancements and bug fixes:
### rspec-core-2.9.0.rc1 / 2012-03-11 [full changelog](http://github.com/rspec/rspec-core/compare/v2.8.0...v2.9.0.rc1)
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_backtrace` option * Ensure that values passed to `config.filter_run` are respected when running over DRb (using spork). * Ensure shared example groups are reset after a run (as example groups are). * Remove `rescue false` from 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.
### rspec-expectations-2.9.0.rc1 / 2012-03-11 [full changelog](http://github.com/rspec/rspec-expectations/compare/v2.8.0...v2.9.0.rc1)
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? and method_missing in 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.rc1 / 2012-03-11 [full changelog](http://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks/compare/v2.8.0...v2.9.0.rc1)
Enhancements
* Support order constraints across objects (preethiramdev)
Bug fixes
* Allow a `as_null_object` to be passed to `with` * 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.rc1 / 2012-03-11 [full changelog](http://github.com/rspec/rspec-mocks/compare/v2.8.1...v2.9.0.rc1)
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_method returns self again * Generated view specs use different IDs for each attribute.