Play! framework: customize which tests are run

Question

I have a Play! 2 for Scala application, and I am using Specs2 for tests. I can run all tests with the test command, or a particular specification with test-only MyParticularSpec.

What I would like to do is mark some particular specifications, or even single methods inside a specification, in order to do things like:

• running all tests that are not integration (that is, that do not access external resources)
• running all tests that do not access external resources in write mode (but still running the reading tests)
• running all tests but a given one

and so on.

I guess something like that should be doable, perhaps by adding some annotations, but I am not sure how to go for it.

Does there exist a mechanism to selectively run some tests and not other ones?

EDIT I have answered myself when using test-only. Still the command line option does not work for the test task. Following the sbt guide I have tried to create an additional sbt configuration, like

object ApplicationBuild extends Build {
  // more settings
  lazy val UnitTest = config("unit") extend(Test)
  lazy val specs = "org.scala-tools.testing" %% "specs" % "1.6.9" % "unit"

  val main = PlayProject(appName, appVersion, appDependencies, mainLang = SCALA)
    .configs(UnitTest)
    .settings(inConfig(UnitTest)(Defaults.testTasks) : _*)
    .settings(
      testOptions in UnitTest += Tests.Argument("exclude integration"),
      libraryDependencies += specs
    )
}

This works when I pass arguments without options, for instance when I put Test.Argument("plan"). But I was not able to find how to pass a more complex argument. I have tried

Tests.Argument("exclude integration")
Tests.Argument("exclude=integration")
Tests.Argument("-exclude integration")
Tests.Argument("-exclude=integration")
Tests.Argument("exclude", "integration")
Tests.Argument("exclude \"integration\"")

and probably more. Still not any clue what is the correct syntax.

Does anyone know how to pass arguments with options to specs2 from sbt?

Answer 1

First, following the specs2 guide one must add tags to the specifications, like this

class MySpec extends Specification with Tags {
  "My spec" should {
    "exclude this test" in {
      true
    } tag ("foo")

    "include this one" in {
      true
    }
  }
}

The command line arguments to include are documented here

Then one can selectively include or exclude test with

test-only MySpec -- exclude foo
test-only MySpec -- include foo

Answer 2

You can also use without any change to your build

test-only * -- exclude integration

Tested in Play 2.1-RC3