RSpec guard allows to automatically & intelligently launch specs when files are modified.

• Compatible with RSpec >= 2.13 (use guard-rspec 1.2.x for older release, including RSpec 1.x)
• Tested against Ruby 1.8.7, 1.9.2, 1.9.3, 2.0.0, Ruby head, REE, JRuby (1.8 mode, 1.9 mode & head) & Rubinius (1.8 mode, 1.9 mode & head).

Please be sure to have Guard installed before continuing.

Install the gem:

$ gem install guard-rspec

Add it to your Gemfile (inside development group):

group :development do
  gem 'guard-rspec'
end

Add guard definition to your Guardfile by running this command:

$ guard init rspec

Please read Guard usage doc.

RSpec guard can be adapted to all kinds of projects.

guard :rspec do
  watch(%r{^spec/.+_spec\.rb$})
  watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb$})     { |m| "spec/lib/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
  watch('spec/spec_helper.rb')  { "spec" }
end

guard :rspec do
  watch('spec/spec_helper.rb')                        { "spec" }
  watch('config/routes.rb')                           { "spec/routing" }
  watch('app/controllers/application_controller.rb')  { "spec/controllers" }
  watch(%r{^spec/.+_spec\.rb$})
  watch(%r{^app/(.+)\.rb$})                           { |m| "spec/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
  watch(%r{^app/(.*)(\.erb|\.haml)$})                 { |m| "spec/#{m[1]}#{m[2]}_spec.rb" }
  watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb$})                           { |m| "spec/lib/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
  watch(%r{^app/controllers/(.+)_(controller)\.rb$})  { |m| ["spec/routing/#{m[1]}_routing_spec.rb", "spec/#{m[2]}s/#{m[1]}_#{m[2]}_spec.rb", "spec/acceptance/#{m[1]}_spec.rb"] }
end

Please read Guard doc for more information about the Guardfile DSL.

You can pass any of the standard RSpec CLI options using the :cli option:

guard 'rspec', :cli => "--color --format nested --fail-fast --drb" do
  # ...
end

By default, Guard::RSpec will only look for spec files within spec in your project root. You can configure Guard::RSpec to look in additional paths by using the :spec_paths option:

guard 'rspec', :spec_paths => ["spec", "vendor/engines/reset/spec"] do
  # ...
end

If you have only one path to look in, you can configure the :spec_paths option with a string:

guard 'rspec', :spec_paths => "test" do
  # ...
end

If you want to set an environment variable, you can configure the :env option with a hash:

guard 'rspec', :env => {'RAILS_ENV' => 'guard'} do
  # ...
end

Turnip is supported (Ruby 1.9.X only), but you must enable it:

guard 'rspec', :turnip => true do
  # ...
end

Spring is supported (Ruby 1.9.X / Rails 3.2+ only), but you must enable it:

guard 'rspec', :spring => true do
  # ...
end

ParallelTests is supported, but you must enable it:

guard 'rspec', :parallel => true, :parallel_cli => '-n 2' do
  # ...
end

Foreman is supported, but you must enable it:

guard 'rspec', :foreman => true do
  # ...
end

Former :color, :drb, :fail_fast and :formatter options are deprecated and no longer have effect.

:cli => "-c -f doc"          # pass arbitrary RSpec CLI arguments, default: "-f progress"
:bundler => false            # use "bundle exec" to run the RSpec command, default: true
:binstubs => true            # use "bin/rspec" to run the RSpec command (takes precedence over :bundle), default: false
:rvm => ['1.8.7', '1.9.2']   # directly run your specs on multiple Rubies, default: nil
:notification => false       # display Growl (or Libnotify) notification after the specs are done running, default: true
:all_after_pass => true     # run all specs after changed specs pass, default: false
:all_on_start => true       # run all the specs at startup, default: false
:keep_failed => true        # keep failed specs until they pass, default: false
:run_all => { :cli => "-p", :parallel => true, :parallel_cli => '-n 2' } # cli arguments to use when running all specs, default: same as :cli; parallel_rspec arguments, default:  same as :parallel_cli
:spec_paths => ["spec"]      # specify an array of paths that contain spec files
:exclude => "spec/foo/**/*"  # exclude files based on glob
:spring => true              # enable spring support; default: false
:turnip => true              # enable turnip support; default: false
:zeus => true                # enable zeus support; default: false
:foreman => true             # enable foreman support; default: false
:focus_on_failed => false    # focus on the first 10 failed specs first, rerun till they pass
:parallel => true            # run all specs in parallel using [ParallelTests](https://github.com/grosser/parallel_tests) gem, default: false
:parallel_cli => "-n 2"      # pass arbitrary Parallel Tests arguments, default: ""

You can also use a custom binstubs directory using :binstubs => 'some-dir'.

When you specify --drb within :cli, guard-rspec will circumvent the rspec command line tool by directly communicating with the RSpec DRb server. This avoids the extra overhead incurred by your shell, bundler and loading RSpec's environment just to send a DRb message. It shaves off a second or two before the specs start to run; they should run almost immediately.

The notification feature is only available for RSpec < 2, and RSpec >= 2.4 (due to the multiple-formatters feature that was present in RSpec 1, was removed in RSpec 2 and reintroduced in RSpec 2.4). So if you are using a version between 2 and 2.4, you should disable the notification with :notification => false. Otherwise, nothing will be displayed in the terminal when your specs will run.

Note that setting the environment variable SPEC_OPTS can cause notifications to fail.

The best solution is still to update RSpec to the latest version!

The :formatter option has been removed since CLI arguments can be passed through the :cli option. If you want to use the former Instafail formatter, you need to use the rspec-instafail gem instead:

# in your Gemfile
gem 'rspec-instafail'

# in your Guardfile
guard 'rspec', :cli => '-r rspec/instafail -f RSpec::Instafail' do
  # ...
end

Default formatter is the progress formatter (same as RSpec default).

The :all_on_start and :all_after_pass options cause all specs located in the spec directory to be run. If there are some specs you want to skip, you can tag them with RSpec metadata (such as :slow => true) and skip them with the cli --tag option (i.e. --tag ~slow).

You can also use option :spec_paths to override paths used when running all specs. You can use this feature to create multiple groups of guarded specs with distinct paths, and execute each in its own process:

# in your Guardfile
group 'acceptance-tests' do
  guard 'rspec', :spec_paths => ['spec/acceptance'] do
    # ...
  end
end

group 'unit-tests' do
  guard 'rspec', :spec_paths => ['spec/models', 'spec/controllers', 'spec/routing'] do
    # ...
  end
end

• Documentation hosted at RubyDoc.
• Source hosted at GitHub.

Pull requests are very welcome! Please try to follow these simple rules if applicable:

• Please create a topic branch for every separate change you make.
• Make sure your patches are well tested. All specs run with rake spec:portability must pass.
• Update the README.
• Please do not change the version number.

For questions please join us in our Google group or on #guard (irc.freenode.net).

Please run rake spec:prepare_fixtures once before launching specs.

Thibaud Guillaume-Gentil (@thibaudgg)

https://github.com/guard/guard-rspec/contributors