[rspec-users] Spec/Test Speed

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Scott Taylor wrote:
> Just wanted to pick some smart people about this topic: What are you  
> guys doing to increase the speed of your specs?
> 
> I'm a big fan of autotest, but right now my current project has 438  
> specs (for rails).  Most of them are in the model, and for all of  
> them we are hitting the database (they are more functional specs than  
> unit-tests).  The whole suite takes 112 seconds (meaning the red to  
> green cycle leaves me learning how to juggle, just like Jim Weirich  
> with make).  Any recommendations, short of mocking/stubbing to get  
> around this?  Some of the suggestions I've heard are:
> 
> - In Memory Database w/ Sqlite.  As far as I know, no one has gotten  
> this to work (with rspec, at least)
> - Using faster hardware.  I don't have the budget right now for a  
> better machine.  One interesting idea is this one: http:// 
> www.dcmanges.com/blog/deep-test-preview, although as far as I know,  
> it doesn't work for rspec.
> - Only running specs per file, and using continous integration to do  
> the rest.  Right now this isn't an option for testing my User model,  
> which has 92 examples, and takes 20 seconds.  Also, I'd really rather  
> not commit before I know the whole test suite passes
> - Other ideas?
> 
> Scott
> 
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1. Use the Ruby profiler to see where it's spending its time.
2. Recompile the Ruby interpreter with full optimization if you haven't 
already. Assuming you're on a platform supported by gcc, download the 
Ruby source and type

   export CFLAGS='-O3 -march=<whatever>'

before the "./configure". <whatever> is your chip architecture, for 
example "pentium3", "pentium4", "athlon-xp", ...

If your test suite and application are fully open source and you don't 
mind someone playing with it, I'm collecting benchmark suites for the 
Ruby interpreter and would love to have a nice heavy "rspec" run as an 
example of real-world Ruby usage. Contact me off-list if you're 
interested, or if you want me to show you how to profile the Ruby 
interpreter itself on your test case.