How can I clear class variables between rspec tests in ruby

Question

I have the following class: I want to ensure the class url is only set once for all instances.

class DataFactory   @@url = nil    def initialize() begin     if @@url.nil?        Rails.logger.debug "Setting url"        @@url = MY_CONFIG["my value"]     end rescue Exception   raise DataFactoryError, "Error!" end   end end 

I have two tests:

it "should log a message" do   APP_CONFIG = {"my value" => "test"}   Rails.stub(:logger).and_return(logger_mock)   logger_mock.should_receive(:debug).with "Setting url"    t = DataFactory.new   t = nil end  it "should throw an exception" do   APP_CONFIG = nil    expect {     DataFactory.new   }.to raise_error(DataFactoryError, /Error!/) end 

The problem is the second test never throws an exception as the @@url class variable is still set from the first test when the second test runs. Even though I have se the instance to nil at the end of the first test garbage collection has not cleared the memory before the second test runs:

Any ideas would be great! I did hear you could possibly use Class.new but I am not sure how to go about this.

Answer 1

describe DataFactory   before(:each) { DataFactory.class_variable_set :@@url, nil }   ... end