# README

Path: | README
Last Update: | Sat Jun 02 18:36:09 CDT 2007

## 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 examples of how your code should work.

## 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 RSpec‘s 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

Once those are all installed, you should be able to run the suite with the following steps:

- svn co svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/rspec/trunk rspec
- cd rspec
- rake install_dependencies
- cd example_rails_app
- export RSPEC_RAILS_VERSION=1.2.3
- rake rspec:generate_mysql_config
- mysql -u root < db/mysql_setup.sql
- cd ..
- rake pre_commit

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.

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