How do you run a single test/spec file in RSpec?

I want to be able to run a single spec file's tests — for the one file I'm editing, for example. rake spec executes all the specs. My project is not a Rails project, so rake spec:doc doesn't work.

Don't know if this matters, but here is my directory structure.

./Rakefile
./lib
./lib/cushion.rb
./lib/cushion
./lib/cushion/doc.rb
./lib/cushion/db.rb
./spec
./spec/spec.opts
./spec/spec_helper.rb
./spec/db_spec.rb

Or you can skip rake and use the 'rspec' command:

bundle exec rspec path/to/spec/file.rb

In your case I think as long as your ./spec/db_spec.rb file includes the appropriate helpers, it should work fine.

If you're using an older version of rspec it is:

bundle exec spec path/to/spec/file.rb

The raw invocation:

rake spec SPEC=spec/controllers/sessions_controller_spec.rb 

SPEC_OPTS="-e "should log in with cookie""

Now figure out how to embed this into your editor.

This question is an old one, but it shows up at the top of Google when searching for how to run a single test. I don't know if it's a recent addition, but to run a single test out of a spec you can do the following:

rspec path/to/spec:<line number>

where -line number- is a line number that contains part of your test. For example, if you had a spec like:

1: 
2: it "should be awesome" do
3:   foo = 3
4:   foo.should eq(3)
5: end
6:

Let's say it's saved in spec/models/foo_spec.rb. Then you would run:

rspec spec/models/foo_spec.rb:2

and it would just run that one spec. In fact, that number could be anything from 2 to 5.

Hope this helps!

You can also use the actual text of the example test case with -e !

So for:

it "shows the plane arrival time"

you can use

rspec path/to/spec/file.rb -e 'shows the plane arrival time'
./scripts/spec path/to/spec/file.rb -e 'shows the plane arrival time'

no need for rake here.

from help (spec -h):

-l, --line LINE_NUMBER           Execute example group or example at given line.
                                 (does not work for dynamically generated examples)

Example: spec spec/runner_spec.rb -l 162

To run all of your rspec files: rspec

note: you must be in the root of your project

To run one rspec file: rspec 'path_to/spec.rb'

note: replace 'path_to/spec.rb' with your path. Quotation marks optional.

To run one rspec test from one file: rspec 'path_to/spec.rb:7'

note: :7 is the line number where the test starts

If you installed rspec as a plugin rather than as a gem, then you won't have the spec executable.

At any rate, All you need to do is run the file using ruby. The rspec code is clever enough to run the tests for you.

eg:

ruby myclass_spec.rb

http://github.com/grosser/single_test lets you do stuff like..

rake spec:user          #run spec/model/user_spec.rb (searches for user*_spec.rb)
rake test:users_c       #run test/functional/users_controller_test.rb
rake spec:user:token    #run the first spec in user_spec.rb that matches /token/
rake test:user:token    #run all tests in user_test.rb that match /token/
rake test:last
rake spec:last

Ruby 1.9.2 and Rails 3 have an easy way to run one spec file:

ruby -I spec spec/models/user_spec.rb

Explanation:

• ruby command tends to be faster than the rake command
• -I spec means "include the 'spec' directory when looking for files"
• spec/models/user_spec.rb is the file we want to run.

I was having trouble getting any of these examples to work, maybe because the post is old and the commands have changed?

After some poking around I found this works:

rspec spec/models/user_spec.rb

That will run just the single file and provides useful output in the terminal.

Although many great answers were written to this question, none of them uses the Rspec tags approach.

I use tags to run one or more specs in different files -- only those related to my current development task.

For example, I add the tag "dev" with the value "current":

it "creates an user", dev: :current do
  user = create(:user)
  expect(user.persisted?).to be_truthy
end

then I run

bundle exec rspec . --tag dev:current

Different tags/values can be set in individual specs or groups.

specky.vim

Alternatively, have a look at autotest.

Running autotest in a command window will mean that the spec file will be executed whenever you save it. Also, it will be run whenever the file you are speccing is run.

For instance, if you have a model spec file called person_spec.rb, and a model file that it is speccing called person.rb, then whenever you save either of these files from your editor, the spec file will be executed.

Lets say, you're running test for creating todo. You can always run that specific todo spec code using the file crete_spec.rb file as below.

      rspec/spec/features/controller/spec_file_name.rb
 
   Example:

   Creating  rspec spec/features/todos/create_spec.rb
   Editing   rspec spec/features/todos/edit_spec.rb
   Deleting  rspec spec/features/todos/destroy_spec.rb

If you want to run all the specs in one single short.

   rspec 

If you want to run all the specs in a specific controller user this.

  rspec/spec/feaures/controller_name

  Example:   rspec/spec/features/todos

Hope it gives you more understanding!

And you can run specific line into your test file

rspec spec/models/model_spec.rb:47