Skip to main content

Creating a rake task

RSpec ships with a rake task with a number of useful options.

We recommend you wrap this in a rescue clause so that you can use your Rakefile in an environment where RSpec is unavailable (for example on a production server). e.g:

begin
  require 'rspec/core/rake_task'
  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec)
rescue LoadError
end

Default options with passing spec (prints command and exit status is 0)​

Given a file named "Rakefile" with:


begin
  require 'rspec/core/rake_task'

  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec)

  task :default => :spec
rescue LoadError
  # no rspec available
end

And a file named "spec/thing_spec.rb" with:

RSpec.describe "something" do
  it "does something" do
    # pass
  end
end

When I run rake

Then the output should match:

(ruby(\d\.\d(.\d)?)?|rbx) -I\S+ [\/\S]+\/exe\/rspec

Then the exit status should be 0.

Default options with failing spec (exit status is 1)​

Given a file named "Rakefile" with:

begin
  require 'rspec/core/rake_task'

  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec)

  task :default => :spec
rescue LoadError
  # no rspec available
end

And a file named "spec/thing_spec.rb" with:

RSpec.describe "something" do
  it "does something" do
    fail
  end
end

When I run rake

Then the exit status should be 1.

Setting fail_on_error = false with failing spec (exit status is 0)​

Given a file named "Rakefile" with:

begin
  require 'rspec/core/rake_task'

  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec) do |t|
    t.fail_on_error = false
  end

  task :default => :spec
rescue LoadError
  # no rspec available
end

And a file named "spec/thing_spec.rb" with:

RSpec.describe "something" do
  it "does something" do
    fail
  end
end

When I run rake

Then the exit status should be 0.

Passing arguments to the rspec command using rspec_opts​

Given a file named "Rakefile" with:

begin
  require 'rspec/core/rake_task'

  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec) do |t|
    t.rspec_opts = "--tag fast"
  end
rescue LoadError
  # no rspec available
end

And a file named "spec/thing_spec.rb" with:

RSpec.describe "something" do
  it "has a tag", :fast => true do
    # pass
  end

  it "does not have a tag" do
    fail
  end
end

When I run rake spec

Then the exit status should be 0

Then the output should match:

(ruby(\d\.\d(.\d)?)?|rbx) -I\S+ [\/\S]+\/exe\/rspec --pattern spec[\/\\*{,}]+_spec.rb --tag fast

Passing rake task arguments to the rspec command via rspec_opts​

Given a file named "Rakefile" with:

begin
  require 'rspec/core/rake_task'

  RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec, :tag) do |t, task_args|
    t.rspec_opts = "--tag #{task_args[:tag]}"
  end
rescue LoadError
  # no rspec available
end

And a file named "spec/thing_spec.rb" with:

RSpec.describe "something" do
  it "has a tag", :fast => true do
    # pass
  end

  it "does not have a tag" do
    fail
  end
end

When I run rake spec[fast]

Then the exit status should be 0

Then the output should match:

(ruby(\d\.\d(.\d)?)?|rbx) -I\S+ [\/\S]+\/exe\/rspec --pattern spec[\/\\*{,}]+_spec.rb --tag fast