Using autotest with RailsEdit
An older version of these notes (for use with versions of ZenTest prior to 3.6.0) can be found at "Using autotest with Rails (with ZenTest prior to 3.6.0)".
Installing is considerably easier now than it was in the past. It basically consists of installing ZenTest, installing RSpec and starting development. This is described in detail in the RSpec 1.0.3 release announcement posted to the rspec-users mailing list.
Prerequisites
- ZenTest (see "Setting up autotest")
- diff-lcs (already installed in my case)
- RSpec (again, already installed in my case)
Installing the RSpec Rails plugin
At the time of writing the latest notes I’ve made on this subject can be found at "Upgrading to RSpec 1.0.3 on Mac OS X Tiger".
Configuration
It is no longer necessary to customize your ~/.autotest file.
Starting autotest
autotest
Tweaks
autotest
It’s no longer necessary to perform any tweaks to ZenTest as in the past. First, the RSpec developers put back in the old -s switch for compatibility with ZenTest. And as of ZenTest 3.6.0, inspection reveals that it has been updated to use the new -e switch anyway.
Additional Rails configuration
It was previously necessary to do some configuration as described by David Chelimsky in this rspec-users mailing list post; it was recommended to remove the following lines from the spec/spec.opts file:
--format
failing_examples:previous_failures.txt
--example
previous_failures.txt
This prevented the tests from failing continuously when an example fails; autotest will run the specs again automatically once changes have been made. But it appears that as of RSpec 1.0.3 it is no longer necessary to make this change.