Bacon — small RSpec clone.

   "Truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion."
                                               ---Francis Bacon

Bacon is a small RSpec clone weighing less than 350 LoC but nevertheless providing all essential features.

Whirl-wind tour

    require 'bacon'

    describe 'A new array' do
      before do
        @ary = Array.new
      end

      it 'should be empty' do
        @ary.should.be.empty
        @ary.should.not.include 1
      end

      it 'should have zero size' do
        @ary.size.should.equal 0
        @ary.size.should.be.close 0.1, 0.5
      end

      it 'should raise on trying fetch any index' do
        lambda { @ary.fetch 0 }.
          should.raise(IndexError).
          message.should.match(/out of array/)

        # Alternatively:
        should.raise(IndexError) { @ary.fetch 0 }
      end

      it 'should have an object identity' do
        @ary.should.not.be.same_as Array.new
      end

      # Custom assertions are trivial to do, they are lambdas returning a
      # boolean vale:
      palindrome = lambda { |obj| obj == obj.reverse }
      it 'should be a palindrome' do
        @ary.should.be.a palindrome
      end

      it 'should have super powers' do
        should.flunk "no super powers found"
      end
    end

Now run it:

    $ bacon whirlwind.rb
    A new array
    - should be empty
    - should have zero size
    - should raise on trying fetch any index
    - should have an object identity
    - should be a palindrome
    - should have super powers [FAILED]

    Bacon::Error: no super powers found
        ./whirlwind.rb:39: A new array - should have super powers
        ./whirlwind.rb:38
        ./whirlwind.rb:3

    6 specifications (9 requirements), 1 failures, 0 errors

If you want shorter output, use the Test::Unit format:

    $ bacon -q whirlwind.rb
    .....F
    Bacon::Error: no super powers found
        ./whirlwind.rb:39: A new array - should have super powers
        ./whirlwind.rb:38
        ./whirlwind.rb:3

    6 tests, 9 assertions, 1 failures, 0 errors

It also supports TAP:

    $ bacon -p whirlwind.rb
    ok 1        - should be empty
    ok 2        - should have zero size
    ok 3        - should raise on trying fetch any index
    ok 4        - should have an object identity
    ok 5        - should be a palindrome
    not ok 6    - should have super powers: FAILED
    # Bacon::Error: no super powers found
    #   ./whirlwind.rb:39: A new array - should have super powers
    #   ./whirlwind.rb:38
    #   ./whirlwind.rb:3
    1..6
    # 6 tests, 9 assertions, 1 failures, 0 errors

    $ bacon -p whirlwind.rb | taptap -q
    Tests took 0.00 seconds.
    FAILED tests 6
       6) should have super powers: FAILED

    Failed 1/6 tests, 83.33% okay.

(taptap is available from chneukirchen.org/repos/taptap/)

As of Bacon 1.1, it also supports Knock:

    $ bacon -k whirlwind.rb
    ok - should be empty
    ok - should have zero size
    ok - should raise on trying fetch any index
    ok - should have an object identity
    ok - should be a palindrome
    not ok - should have super powers: FAILED
    # Bacon::Error: no super powers found
    #   ./whirlwind.rb:39: A new array - should have super powers
    #   ./whirlwind.rb:38
    #   ./whirlwind.rb:3

    $ bacon -k whirlwind.rb | kn-sum
    6 tests, 1 failed (83.3333% succeeded)

(knock is available from github.com/chneukirchen/knock/)

Implemented assertions

should.<predicate> and should.be.<predicate>
should.equal
should.match
should.be.identical_to / should.be.same_as
should.raise(*exceptions) { }
should.change { }
should.throw(symbol) { }
should.satisfy { |object| }

Added core predicates

Object#true?
Object#false?
Proc#change?
Proc#raise?
Proc#throw?
Numeric#close?

before/after

before and after need to be defined before the first specification in a context and are run before and after each specification.

As of Bacon 1.1, before and after do nest in nested contexts.

Shared contexts

You can define shared contexts in Bacon like this:

    shared "an empty container" do
      it "should have size zero" do
      end

      it "should be empty" do
      end
    end

    context "A new array" do
      behaves_like "an empty container"
    end

These contexts are not executed on their own, but can be included with behaves_like in other contexts. You can use shared contexts to structure suites with many recurring specifications.

Matchers

Custom matchers are simply lambdas returning a boolean value, for example:

  def shorter_than(max_size)
    lambda { |obj| obj.size < max_size }
  end

  [1,2,3].should.be shorter_than(5)

You can use modules and extend to group matchers for use in multiple contexts.

bacon standalone runner

  -s, --specdox            do AgileDox-like output (default)
  -q, --quiet              do Test::Unit-like non-verbose output
  -p, --tap                do TAP (Test Anything Protocol) output
  -k, --knock              do Knock output
  -o, --output FORMAT      do FORMAT (SpecDox/TestUnit/Tap) output
  -Q, --no-backtrace       don't print backtraces
  -a, --automatic          gather tests from ./test/, include ./lib/
  -n, --name NAME          runs tests matching regexp NAME
  -t, --testcase TESTCASE  runs tests in TestCases matching regexp TESTCASE

If you don‘t want to use the standalone runner, run Bacon.summary_on_exit to install an exit handler showing the summary.

Object#should

You can use Object#should outside of contexts, where the result of assertion will be returned as a boolean. This is nice for demonstrations, quick checks and doctest tests.

    >> require 'bacon'
    >> (1 + 1).should.equal 2
    => true
    >> (6*9).should.equal 42
    => false

Bacon with autotest

Since version 1.0, there is autotest support. You need to tag your test directories (test/ or spec/) by creating an .bacon file there. Autotest then will find it. bin/bacon needs to be in PATH or RUBYPATH.

Converting specs

spec-converter is a simple tool to convert test-unit or dust style tests to test/spec specs.

It can be found at opensource.thinkrelevance.com/wiki/spec_converter.

Thanks to

Michael Fellinger, for fixing Bacon for 1.9 and various improvements.
Gabriele Renzi, for implementing Context#should.
James Tucker, for the autotest support.
Yossef Mendelssohn, for nested contexts.
everyone contributing bug fixes.

History

January 7, 2008: First public release 0.9.
July 6th, 2008: Second public release 1.0.
- Add Context#should as a shortcut for Context#it(‘should ’ + _).
- describe now supports multiple arguments for better organization.
- Empty specifications are now erroneous.
- after-blocks run in the case of exceptions too.
- Autotest support.
- Bug fixes.
November 30th, 2008: Third public release 1.1.
- Nested before/after.
- Add -Q/—no-backtraces to not show details about failed specifications.
- Add Knock output.
- Bug fixes.

Contact

Please mail bugs, suggestions and patches to <chneukirchen@gmail.com>.

Git repository (patches rebased on HEAD are most welcome): github.com/chneukirchen/bacon git://github.com/chneukirchen/bacon.git

Copying

Bacon is freely distributable under the terms of an MIT-style license. See COPYING or www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.

Links

Behavior-Driven Development:	<behaviour-driven.org/>
RSpec:	<rspec.rubyforge.org/>
test/spec:	<test-spec.rubyforge.org/>
Christian Neukirchen:	<chneukirchen.org/>

README