RSpec Testing Framework for Shell

Qualified supports the RSpec behavior-driven testing framework.

These notes are adopted from rspec-core.

Basic Example

RSpec uses the words "describe" and "it" so we can express concepts like a conversation:

"Describe the adder script."
"It adds two numbers."

describe 'adder script' do
  it "adds two numbers" do
    test = run_shell args: [2, 3]
    expect(test).to eq('5')
  end
end

The describe method creates an ExampleGroup. Within the block passed to describe you can declare examples using the it method.

Under the hood, an example group is a class in which the block passed to describe is evaluated. The blocks passed to it are evaluated in the context of an instance of that class.

Get Started

Start with a simple example of behavior you expect from your system:

describe 'subtractor script' do
  it "subtracts two numbers" do
    test = run_shell args: [5, 2]
    expect(test).to eq('3')
  end
end

Run this by clicking the VALIDATE TEST CASES in the challenge creator, or RUN TESTS when taking a challenge, and you will see a failure similar to:

  subtractor script
  subtracts two numbers
✘ expected: "3"
     got: ""

(compared using ==)

Address the failure by defining the script:

#!/bin/bash

echo $(($1 - $2))

Now run the spec again, and watch it pass:

adder script
  #subtracts two numbers
    Test Passed

Learn More

You can learn how to use it on the RSpec Website.