🍲 Kettle::Test

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Add to your spec/spec_helper.rb:

require "kettle/test/rspec"

Now you have many powerful testing tools at your disposal, all fully documented and tested.

I expect the current release of this gem to be compatible with Ruby 2.3+, and concordant releases of JRuby, and TruffleRuby.

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Install the gem and add to the application's Gemfile by executing:

$ bundle add kettle-test

If bundler is not being used to manage dependencies, install the gem by executing:

$ gem install kettle-test

This gem is cryptographically signed, and has verifiable SHA-256 and SHA-512 checksums by stone_checksums. Be sure the gem you install hasn’t been tampered with by following the instructions below.

Add my public key (if you haven’t already, expires 2045-04-29) as a trusted certificate:

gem cert --add <(curl -Ls https://raw.github.com/galtzo-floss/certs/main/pboling.pem)

You only need to do that once. Then proceed to install with:

gem install kettle-test -P HighSecurity

The HighSecurity trust profile will verify signed gems, and not allow the installation of unsigned dependencies.

If you want to up your security game full-time:

bundle config set --global trust-policy MediumSecurity

MediumSecurity instead of HighSecurity is necessary if not all the gems you use are signed.

NOTE: Be prepared to track down certs for signed gems and add them the same way you added mine.

Add to your spec/spec_helper.rb:

require "kettle/test/rspec"

That's it! Additional customizations can be done by setting environment variables.

Below are the environment variables recognized by kettle-test. Unless otherwise specified, set values to the string "true" to enable a boolean feature, or provide the noted type.

• DEBUG (String: "true"/"false")
  • Overrides default silencing for the entire run; when true, STDOUT/STDERR are not silenced by this library.
  • Default: "false". If KETTLE_TEST_DEBUG is not set, DEBUG is used.
• GLOBAL_TIME_TRAVEL_TIME (String: Date/Time)
  • Global start time for Timecop across examples when using time travel.
  • Example: "2014-11-15" or "2014-11-15 13:45:00".
  • Default: falls back to GLOBAL_TIME_TRAVEL_DATE if set, else today.
• GLOBAL_TIME_TRAVEL_DATE (String: Date)
  • Alternate way to set a global date used when GLOBAL_TIME_TRAVEL_TIME is not provided.
  • Default: today (Date.today.to_s).
• KETTLE_TEST_DEBUG (String: "true"/"false")
  • Same as DEBUG but namespaced for this gem. Takes precedence over DEBUG.
  • Default: "false".
• CI (String: "true"/"false")
  • Signals a CI environment. When true, examples tagged :skip_ci are excluded.
  • Also used as the default for KETTLE_TEST_SILENT when not set.
  • Default: unset/empty → treated as false.
• KETTLE_TEST_SILENT (String: "true"/"false")
  • Controls silencing of STDOUT/STDERR during specs (unless :check_output is used or DEBUG is true).
  • Default: value of CI (true on CI, false locally unless CI=true).
• KETTLE_TEST_VERBOSE (String: "true"/"false")
  • Reserved for future verbose logging toggles. Default: "false".
• KETTLE_TEST_FULL_BACKTRACE (String: "true"/"false")
  • When true, enables RSpec full backtraces.
  • Default: "false".
• KETTLE_TEST_RSPEC_PROFILE_EXAMPLES (Integer as String)
  • When > 0, RSpec will profile the slowest N examples or example groups.
  • Example: KETTLE_TEST_RSPEC_PROFILE_EXAMPLES=10
  • Default: "0" (disabled).
• KETTLE_TEST_TM_SEQUENTIAL (String: "true"/"false")
  • Controls Timecop sequential time machine mode for RSpec examples (see below).
  • Default: "true".
• PARALLEL_TEST_FIRST_IS_1 (String: "true"/"false") and TEST_ENV_NUMBER (String)
  • Used to detect parallel test runs via Kettle::Test.is_parallel_test?. Not generally required to set manually.
  • Default: unset (treated as non-parallel unless provided by your parallel test runner).

Using global time travel will Timecop.travel any example that isn't already time traveling. I.e. example level timecop metadata will take precedence.

GLOBAL_TIME_TRAVEL_TIME=2014-11-15 bundle exec rspec spec/some_directory/

The global time travel can also be skipped. You may want to skip time travel when testing with some external service, such as redis, where you can't modify time the same way as within ruby.

it "some example that can't time travel", :skip_global_travel do
  # Time.now will be real time
end

ENV["KETTLE_TEST_TM_SEQUENTIAL"] = "false"

The regular time machine will run each example at the time specified by the RSpec metadata, or the global travel time.

ENV["KETTLE_TEST_TM_SEQUENTIAL"] = "true"

The sequential time machine is almost the same as the regular time machine, except that it will sometimes resume time travel.

Global travel will always resume from when the previous global traveled example ended. E.g.

# GLOBAL_TIME_TRAVEL_TIME=2014-11-15 bundle exec rspec some_spec.rb

it "example 1" do
  Time.now # => 2014-11-15 00:00:00
  sleep 6
end

it "example 2" do
  Time.now # => 2014-11-15 00:00:06 (resumed from end of previous example)
end

Timecop.travel/freeze any RSpec (describe|context|example) with :travel or :freeze metadata.

# Timecop.travel
it "some description", travel: Time.new(2014, 11, 15) do
  Time.now # 2014-11-15 00:00:00
  sleep 6
  Time.now # 2014-11-15 00:00:06 (6 seconds later)
end

# Timecop.freeze
it "some description", freeze: Time.new(2014, 11, 15) do
  Time.now # 2014-11-15 00:00:00
  sleep 6
  Time.now # 2014-11-15 00:00:00 (Ruby's time hasn't advanced)
end

Following spec's local travel will resume when specified time is the same as the previous examples specified time. If the time is different, it will start from the current examples specified time.

describe SomeUnit, travel: Time.new(2014, 11, 15) do
  it "example 1" do
    Time.now # => 2014-11-15 00:00:00
    sleep 6
  end

  it "example 2" do
    Time.now # => 2014-11-15 00:00:06 (resumed from end of previous example)
  end

  it "example 3", travel: Time.new(1982, 6, 16) do
    Time.now # => 1982-06-16 00:00:00
  end
end

Use rspec-stubbed_env to safely set and restore environment variables in specs.

RSpec.describe("stubbed env") do
  include_context "with stubbed env"

  before do
    stub_env("FOO" => "is bar")
  end

  it "uses the stubbed value" do
    expect(ENV["FOO"]).to(eq("is bar"))
  end
end

STDOUT/STDERR are silenced by default when KETTLE_TEST_SILENT is true (defaults to true on CI). To assert output from the code under test, tag examples/groups with :check_output, or run with DEBUG=true to disable silencing globally.

RSpec.describe("output", :check_output) do
  it "prints" do
    puts "This will be visible in test output"
    expect(true).to(be(true))
  end
end

Or run:

DEBUG=true bundle exec rspec

Examples or groups tagged with :skip_ci are excluded on CI (CI=true).

RSpec.describe("flaky external call", :skip_ci) do
  it "runs locally but is skipped on CI" do
    # ...
  end
end

Set KETTLE_TEST_RSPEC_PROFILE_EXAMPLES to a positive integer to enable RSpec profiling.

KETTLE_TEST_RSPEC_PROFILE_EXAMPLES=10 bundle exec rspec

Enable full backtraces from RSpec to aid debugging.

KETTLE_TEST_FULL_BACKTRACE=true bundle exec rspec

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
—Anne Frank

I’m driven by a passion to foster a thriving open-source community – a space where people can tackle complex problems, no matter how small. Revitalizing libraries that have fallen into disrepair, and building new libraries focused on solving real-world challenges, are my passions — totaling 79 hours of FLOSS coding over just the past seven days, a pretty regular week for me. I was recently affected by layoffs, and the tech jobs market is unwelcoming. I’m reaching out here because your support would significantly aid my efforts to provide for my family, and my farm (11 🐔 chickens, 2 🐶 dogs, 3 🐰 rabbits, 8 🐈‍ cats).

If you work at a company that uses my work, please encourage them to support me as a corporate sponsor. My work on gems you use might show up in bundle fund.

I’m developing a new library, floss_funding, designed to empower open-source developers like myself to get paid for the work we do, in a sustainable way. Please give it a look.

Floss-Funding.dev: 👉️ No network calls. 👉️ No tracking. 👉️ No oversight. 👉️ Minimal crypto hashing. 💡 Easily disabled nags

See SECURITY.md.

If you need some ideas of where to help, you could work on adding more code coverage, or if it is already 💯 (see below) check reek, issues, or PRs, or use the gem and think about how it could be better.

We so if you make changes, remember to update it.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more detailed instructions.

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Everyone interacting with this project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists agrees to follow the .

Made with contributors-img.

Also see GitLab Contributors: https://gitlab.com/kettle-rb/kettle-test/-/graphs/main

This Library adheres to . Violations of this scheme should be reported as bugs. Specifically, if a minor or patch version is released that breaks backward compatibility, a new version should be immediately released that restores compatibility. Breaking changes to the public API will only be introduced with new major versions.

dropping support for a platform is both obviously and objectively a breaking change
—Jordan Harband (@ljharb, maintainer of SemVer) in SemVer issue 716

I understand that policy doesn't work universally ("exceptions to every rule!"), but it is the policy here. As such, in many cases it is good to specify a dependency on this library using the Pessimistic Version Constraint with two digits of precision.

For example:

spec.add_dependency("kettle-test", "~> 1.0")

SemVer should, but doesn't explicitly, say that dropping support for specific Platforms is a breaking change to an API. It is obvious to many, but not all, and since the spec is silent, the bike shedding is endless.

To get a better understanding of how SemVer is intended to work over a project's lifetime, read this article from the creator of SemVer:

• "Major Version Numbers are Not Sacred"

See CHANGELOG.md for a list of releases.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License . See LICENSE.txt for the official Copyright Notice.

• Copyright (c) 2025 Peter H. Boling, of Galtzo.com , and kettle-test contributors.
• Copyright (c) 2014-2017 Zach Taylor & Avant

Maintainers have teeth, and need to pay their dentists. After getting laid off in an RIF in March, and filled with many dozens of rejections, I'm now spending ~80 hours a week building open source tools. I'm hoping to be able to pay for my kids' health insurance this month, so if you value the work I am doing, please help. I need your support. Please consider sponsoring me.

💌 💌

To say "thanks for maintaining such a great tool" 👇️ Join the Discord or ☝️ send money.

To join the community or get help 👇️ Join the Discord.

Thanks for RTFM. ☺️