how do I test (rspec) a http request that takes too long?

Question

How do I test the behavior if a request takes too long with rspec?

I am thinking of using thread to mock this:

describe "Test" do 
  it "should timeout if the request takes too long" do 
    lambda {
      thread1 = Thread.new { #net::http request to google.com }
      thread2 = Thread.new { sleep(xx seconds) }
      thread1.join 
      thread2.join
    }.should raise_error
  end 
end

I want to make sure that after the request is first made, another thread "kicks in" which in this case is just a sleep for xx seconds. Then I should expect the request to timeout because it takes too long to execute

I think that there are better ways to do this. Given the fact that the url I am requesting is not relevant. I just want to test that it will indeed timeout if it takes too long to execute.

Can I use stub(), expect() or any rspec features to simulate this?

Is there any way that I can pass in a 'block' into stub method

http_request_to_google.stub(:connection).executethisblock(sleep for xx seconds)
.and_throw error ?

any help is appreciated

Answer 1

The below test fails if request doesn't finish in 20 seconds. It also fails if the code in the lambda doesn't raise Timeout::Error.

So, successful scenario is when long_running_stuff raises exception in less than 20 seconds.

require 'timeout'

describe "Test" do 
  it "should timeout if the request takes too long" do 
    Timeout::timeout(20) do # 20 seconds
      lambda {
         long_running_stuff(:timeout => 10.seconds)
      }.should raise_error(Timeout::Error)
    end
  end 
end