minitest-suite

The minitest-suite gem modifies the way Minitest shuffles the order in which Minitest::Test subclasses are run by allowing you to organize them into sub-suites or groups.

This can be handy when you want to (usually for performance reasons) run one logical grouping of tests at a time before moving onto the next group.

Add the gem to your Gemfile:

gem "minitest-suite"

And then require the gem near the top of your test helper:

require "minitest/suite"

Just pass a suite name to suite in the class body of each test to group that test with others of the same named suite:

class SweetTest < Minitest::Test
  suite :sugary

  def test_blood_sugar
    #
  end
end

Normally, Minitest will shuffle the order of all your test classes. But if minitest-suite is loaded, your tests will be grouped by any suites you've defined: your suites will be shuffled first, then the test classes within each of those suites will be shuffled.

For example, suppose you have 4 test classes, two fruits and two vegetables:

class Broccoli < Minitest::Test
  suite :veggie
  def test_it() = puts("🥦")
end

class Pear < Minitest::Test
  suite :fruit
  def test_it() = puts("🍐")
end

class Pepper < Minitest::Test
  suite :veggie
  def test_it() = puts("🌶")
end

class Apple < Minitest::Test
  suite :fruit
  def test_it() = puts("🍎")
end

By declaring their suite above, you're guaranteed the two fruits will run next to each other and the two vegetables will run next to each other (even though the order will still be randomized):

# Running:

🍐
.🍎
.🥦
.🌶
.

To wit, the above strategy will ensure you'd never see this test order: 🍐,🌶,🍎,🥦.

Looking for more? Check out this repo's example test.

Since you're going to the trouble of organizing your tests into logical suites, you may as well have a little additional control over which suites run and in what order. Below are a few handy things you can do once you're set up.

A very sensible strategy is to optimize the speed of your feedback loop by run your fastest tests first so your tests can fail fast.

As a typical example, suppose you want to run your pure Ruby unit tests, then your Rails model tests, then your other (presumably slower) integration tests. Near the top of your test helper, before your tests have started running, set the order like this:

Minitest::Suite.order = [:unit, :model]

With this set, any test classes that call suite :unit will be shuffled and run first, then any tests with suite :model, and then the rest of your suites and tests.

(Fail-fast behavior is available for Minitest via the minitest-fail-fast gem or the Rails test runner's -f flag.)

If you want to run only tests belonging to a certain suite or set of suites, just set the environment variable MINITEST_SUITE_ONLY to a comma-delimited string of suite names to run:

$ MINITEST_SUITE_ONLY="unit,model" bin/rake test

When using this option, note that test classes that don't call suite will not be run.

If there's a suite of tests you don't want to run, set the environment variable MINITEST_SUITE_EXCEPT to a comma-delimited string of suite names to skip:

$ MINITEST_SUITE_EXCEPT="integration,browser" bin/rake test

When using this option, note that test classes that don't call suite will be run.

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