How can I validate exits and aborts in RSpec?

Question

I am trying to spec behaviors for command line arguments my script receives to ensure that all validation passes. Some of my command line arguments will result in abo

Answer 1

try this:

module MyGem
  describe "CLI" do
    context "execute" do

      it "should exit cleanly when -h is used" do
        argv=["-h"]
        out = StringIO.new
        lambda { ::MyGem::CLI.execute( out, argv) }.should raise_error SystemExit
      end

    end
  end
end

Answer 2

Thanks for the answer Markus. Once I had this clue I could put together a nice matcher for future use.

it "should exit cleanly when -h is used" do
  lambda { ::MyGem::CLI.execute( StringIO.new, ["-h"]) }.should exit_with_code(0)
end
it "should exit with error on unknown option" do
  lambda { ::MyGem::CLI.execute( StringIO.new, ["--bad-option"]) }.should exit_with_code(-1)
end

To use this matcher add this to your libraries or spec-helpers:

RSpec::Matchers.define :exit_with_code do |exp_code|
  actual = nil
  match do |block|
    begin
      block.call
    rescue SystemExit => e
      actual = e.status
    end
    actual and actual == exp_code
  end
  failure_message_for_should do |block|
    "expected block to call exit(#{exp_code}) but exit" +
      (actual.nil? ? " not called" : "(#{actual}) was called")
  end
  failure_message_for_should_not do |block|
    "expected block not to call exit(#{exp_code})"
  end
  description do
    "expect block to call exit(#{exp_code})"
  end
end

Answer 3

Its not pretty, but I've been using this:

begin
  do_something
rescue SystemExit => e
  expect(e.status).to eq 1 # exited with failure status
  # or
  expect(e.status).to eq 0 # exited with success status
else
  expect(true).eq false # this should never happen
end

Answer 4

There's no need for custom matchers or rescue blocks, simply:

expect { exit 1 }.to raise_error(SystemExit) do |error|
  expect(error.status).to eq(1)
end

I'd argue that this is superior because it's explicit and plain Rspec.

Answer 5

I had to update the solution @Greg provided due to newer syntax requirements.

RSpec::Matchers.define :exit_with_code do |exp_code|
  actual = nil
  match do |block|
    begin
      block.call
    rescue SystemExit => e
      actual = e.status
    end
    actual and actual == exp_code
  end
  failure_message do |block|
    "expected block to call exit(#{exp_code}) but exit" +
        (actual.nil? ? " not called" : "(#{actual}) was called")
  end
  failure_message_when_negated do |block|
    "expected block not to call exit(#{exp_code})"
  end
  description do
    "expect block to call exit(#{exp_code})"
  end
  supports_block_expectations
end

Answer 6

Using the new RSpec syntax:

expect { code_that_exits }.to raise_error(SystemExit)

If something is printed to STDOUT and you want to test that too, you can do something like:

context "when -h or --help option used" do
  it "prints the help and exits" do
    help = %Q(
      Usage: my_app [options]
        -h, --help                       Shows this help message
    )

    ARGV << "-h"
    expect do
      output = capture_stdout { my_app.execute(ARGV) }
      expect(output).to eq(help)
    end.to raise_error(SystemExit)

    ARGV << "--help"
    expect do
      output = capture_stdout { my_app.execute(ARGV) }
      expect(output).to eq(help)
    end.to raise_error(SystemExit)
  end
end

Where capture_stdout is defined as seen in Test output to command line with RSpec.

Update: Consider using RSpec's output matcher instead of capture_stdout