Spork <img src=“https://travis-ci.org/sporkrb/spork.png” alt=“Build Status” />¶ ↑

• Repository: github.com/sporkrb/spork

• Issues: github.com/sporkrb/spork/issues

• Changes: github.com/sporkrb/spork/blob/master/History.txt

• Mailing list: groups.google.com/group/sporkgem

• Wiki: wiki.github.com/sporkrb/spork

Spork is Tim Harper’s implementation of test server (similar to the script/spec_server that used to be provided by rspec-rails), except rather than using the Rails constant unloading to reload your files, it forks a copy of the server each time you run your tests. The result? Spork runs more solid: it doesn’t get corrupted over time, it can work with any ruby framework, and it properly handles modules and any voodoo meta programming you may have put in your app.

Spork runs on POSIX systems using fork. It also runs on windows by pre-populating a pool of ready processes (referred to here as the “magazine” strategy).

• Rspec

• Cucumber

• Test::Unit (via ‘gem install spork-testunit’)

Spork can work with any application framework, but needs work to prevent application files from being eager loaded.

See github.com/sporkrb/spork/wiki/Supported-Application-Frameworks for a list of supported frameworks and their gems.

NOTICE:

• Rails support (and other app frameworks) have been extracted. If using spork with rails, you’ll want to use spork-rails gem, github.com/sporkrb/spork-rails.

• If you wish to use the stable verson of spork 0.9, refer to github.com/sporkrb/spork/tree/v0.9.x

Add to your Gemfile:

gem 'spork', '~> 1.0rc'

From a terminal, change to your project directory.

Then, bootstrap your test helper file. If running rspec,

spork rspec --bootstrap

Cucumber:

spork cucumber --bootstrap

TestUnit:

(Install the spork-testunit gem)
spork test_unit --bootstrap

(If you don’t specifiy a test framework, spork will find one and pick it.)

Follow the instructions.

Finally, run spork. A spec DRb server will be running!

spork

Initially, you may find that a few files don’t reload automatically. This is because they are being loaded during Spork startup. To identify which project files are being pre-loaded, and why, run:

spork --diagnose | less
(or spork -d, for short)

It will output a lot of stuff. At the top you’ll find a summary of all project files loaded. Down below, the stack trace for each file (how it got loaded). Spork hooks into Rails and does some magic (TM) to prevent ApplicationController observers, etc from pre-loading. Similar hooks for other ruby frameworks may come as support demands.

Some project changes will require a spork restart, and you shouldn’t expect them to not (IE: modifying your project gem dependencies or core application config). Any file that is loaded during Spork start-up will be cached until Spork is restarted. You can restart spork by sending a USR2 signal to the server process. This could be automated with a gem such as Kicker (github.com/alloy/kicker). Since a native hook is required for each operating system to efficiently watch for filesystem changes, automatic restarting has not been built into Spork.

You may find this wiki page useful for common ways to battle a variety of common pre-loading issues: github.com/sporkrb/spork/wiki/Spork.trap_method-Jujutsu

To get the TextMate RSpec bundle to use spork, go to config->advanced->shell variables, and add:

TM_RSPEC_OPTS=--drb.

To run from the command line, use:

rspec --drb spec/lib/my_spec.rb

Or, you could add the following flag to your spec.opts (or .rspec depending on your version of rspec) file.

--drb

Cucumber has DRb support (see wiki.github.com/cucumber/cucumber/spork-and—drb)

cucumber --drb features/my.feature

Use this as a guideline when “Sporking” your features/support/env.rb file

http://gist.github.com/123370

If you wish to hack on spork, you will want to run the automated test suite to make sure your changes don’t break anything. Spork uses bundler to manage and install dependencies. To start:

bundle install

Then, to run the specs:

bundle exec rspec spec/

(or, alternatively…)

bundle exec rake

Essentially:

bundle exec cucumber features

See wiki.github.com/sporkrb/spork/troubleshooting

• Ben Mabey - help with documentation, testing, suggestions, patches, and bringing Cucumber support.

• David Chelimsky - for the fine RSpec testing framework, and the original rspec-rails spec_server implementation, which Spork has built upon.

• LeadTune - just for being an awesome place to work.

• Aslak Hellesøy - for the fine Cucumber testing framework, and for much collaboration getting cucumber working with spork.

• Roger Pack - JRuby support / Windows

• Donald Parish - Windows support (Magazine strategy)

Spork © 2012 Tim Harper, released under the MIT license