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Speedup Test::Unit + RSpec + Cucumber + Spinach by running parallel on multiple CPU cores.
ParallelTests splits tests into even groups (by number of lines or runtime) and runs each group in a single process with its own database.

Setup for Rails

RailsCasts episode #413 Fast Tests

Install

# Gemfile
gem "parallel_tests", group: :development

Add to config/database.yml

ParallelTests uses 1 database per test-process.

Process number123
ENV['TEST_ENV_NUMBER']'''2''3'
test:
  database: yourproject_test<%= ENV['TEST_ENV_NUMBER'] %>

Create additional database(s)

rake parallel:create

Copy development schema (repeat after migrations)

rake parallel:prepare

Run!

rake parallel:test          # Test::Unit
rake parallel:spec          # RSpec
rake parallel:features      # Cucumber
rake parallel:features-spinach       # Spinach

rake parallel:test[1] --> force 1 CPU --> 86 seconds
rake parallel:test    --> got 2 CPUs? --> 47 seconds
rake parallel:test    --> got 4 CPUs? --> 26 seconds
...

Test by pattern (e.g. use one integration server per subfolder / see if you broke any 'user'-related tests)

rake parallel:test[^test/unit] # every test file in test/unit folder
rake parallel:test[user]  # run users_controller + user_helper + user tests
rake parallel:test['user|product']  # run user and product related tests

Example output

2 processes for 210 specs, ~ 105 specs per process
... test output ...

843 examples, 0 failures, 1 pending

Took 29.925333 seconds

Run an arbitrary task in parallel

RAILS_ENV=test parallel_test -e "rake my:custom:task"
# or
rake parallel:rake[my:custom:task]

Running things once

# effected by race-condition: first process may boot slower the second
# either sleep a bit or use a lock for example File.lock
ParallelTests.first_process? ? do_something : sleep(1)

at_exit do
  if ParallelTests.first_process?
    ParallelTests.wait_for_other_processes_to_finish
    undo_something
  end
end

Loggers

Even test group run-times

RSpec

Add the RuntimeLogger to log how long each test takes to run. This log file will be loaded on the next test run, and the tests will be grouped so that each process should finish around the same time.

Rspec: Add to your .rspec_parallel (or .rspec) :

--format progress
--format ParallelTests::RSpec::RuntimeLogger --out tmp/parallel_runtime_rspec.log

Test::Unit & Minitest 4/5

Add to your test_helper.rb:

require 'parallel_tests/test/runtime_logger' if ENV['RECORD_RUNTIME']

results will be logged to tmp/parallel_runtime_test.log when RECORD_RUNTIME is set, so it is not always required or overwritten.

RSpec: SummaryLogger

Log the test output without the different processes overwriting each other.

Add the following to your .rspec_parallel (or .rspec) :

--format progress
--format ParallelTests::RSpec::SummaryLogger --out tmp/spec_summary.log

RSpec: FailuresLogger

Produce pasteable command-line snippets for each failed example.

E.g.

rspec /path/to/my_spec.rb:123 # should do something

Add the following to your .rspec_parallel (or .rspec) :

--format progress
--format ParallelTests::RSpec::FailuresLogger --out tmp/failing_specs.log

Cucumber: FailuresLogger

Log failed cucumber scenarios to the specified file. The filename can be passed to cucumber, prefixed with '@' to rerun failures.

Usage:

cucumber --format ParallelTests::Cucumber::FailuresLogger --out tmp/cucumber_failures.log

Or add the formatter to the parallel: profile of your cucumber.yml:

parallel: --format progress --format ParallelTests::Cucumber::FailuresLogger --out tmp/cucumber_failures.log

Note if your cucumber.yml default profile uses <%= std_opts %> you may need to insert this as follows parallel: <%= std_opts %> --format progress...

To rerun failures:

cucumber @tmp/cucumber_failures.log

Setup for non-rails

gem install parallel_tests
# go to your project dir
parallel_test test/
parallel_rspec spec/
parallel_cucumber features/
parallel_spinach features/
  • use ENV['TEST_ENV_NUMBER'] inside your tests to select separate db/memcache/etc.

  • Only run selected files & folders:

    parallel_test test/bar test/baz/foo_text.rb

  • Pass test-options and files via --:

    parallel_test -- -t acceptance -f progress -- spec/foo_spec.rb spec/acceptance

Options are:

-n [PROCESSES]                   How many processes to use, default: available CPUs
-p, --pattern [PATTERN]          run tests matching this pattern
    --group-by [TYPE]            group tests by:
      found - order of finding files
      steps - number of cucumber/spinach steps
      scenarios - individual cucumber scenarios
      filesize - by size of the file
      runtime - info from runtime log
      default - runtime when runtime log is filled otherwise filesize
-m, --multiply-processes [FLOAT] use given number as a multiplier of processes to run
-s, --single [PATTERN]           Run all matching files in the same process
-i, --isolate                    Do not run any other tests in the group used by --single(-s)
    --only-group INT[, INT]
-e, --exec [COMMAND]             execute this code parallel and with ENV['TEST_ENV_NUMBER']
-o, --test-options '[OPTIONS]'   execute test commands with those options
-t, --type [TYPE]                test(default) / rspec / cucumber / spinach
    --serialize-stdout           Serialize stdout output, nothing will be written until everything is done
    --combine-stderr             Combine stderr into stdout, useful in conjunction with --serialize-stdout
    --non-parallel               execute same commands but do not in parallel, needs --exec
    --no-symlinks                Do not traverse symbolic links to find test files
    --ignore-tags [PATTERN]      When counting steps ignore scenarios with tags that match this pattern
    --nice                       execute test commands with low priority.
    --runtime-log [PATH]         Location of previously recorded test runtimes
    --verbose                    Print more output
-v, --version                    Show Version
-h, --help                       Show this.

You can run any kind of code in parallel with -e / --exec

parallel_test -n 5 -e 'ruby -e "puts %[hello from process #{ENV[:TEST_ENV_NUMBER.to_s].inspect}]"'
hello from process "2"
hello from process ""
hello from process "3"
hello from process "5"
hello from process "4"
1 Process2 Processes4 Processes
RSpec spec-suite18s14s10s
Rails-ActionPack88s53s44s

TIPS

  • [RSpec] add a .rspec_parallel to use different options, e.g. no --drb
  • Spring does not work with parallel_tests, use DISABLE_SPRING=1 rake parallel:spec if you have spring hardcoded in your binaries
  • [RSpec] remove --loadby from .rspec
  • [RSpec] Instantly see failures (instead of just a red F) with rspec-instafail
  • [Cucumber] add a parallel: foo profile to your config/cucumber.yml and it will be used to run parallel tests
  • Capybara setup
  • Sphinx setup
  • Capistrano setup let your tests run on a big box instead of your laptop
  • [SQL schema format] use :ruby schema format to get faster parallel:prepare`
  • export PARALLEL_TEST_PROCESSORS=X in your environment and parallel_tests will use this number of processors by default
  • [ZSH] use quotes to use rake arguments rake "parallel:prepare[3]"
  • email_spec and/or action_mailer_cache_delivery
  • [Memcached] use different namespaces e.g. config.cache_store = ..., namespace: "test_#{ENV['TEST_ENV_NUMBER']}"
  • zeus-parallel_tests
  • Distributed parallel test (e.g. Travis Support)
  • Debug errors that only happen with multiple files using --verbose and cleanser
  • Shell alias: alias prspec='parallel_rspec -m 2 --'
  • Contribute your own gotaches to the Wiki or even better open a PR :)

TODO

  • fix tests vs cucumber >= 1.2 unknown option --format
  • add unit tests for cucumber runtime formatter
  • make windows compatible

Authors

inspired by pivotal labs

Michael Grosser
[email protected]
License: MIT
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Rails: 2 CPUs = 2x Testing Speed for RSpec, Test::Unit and Cucumber

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