RSpec use_transactional_fixtures=false not working

Question

Setting use_transactional_fixtures=false in my spec_helper.rb file, though when I look at the output of my test log, it appears a transaction is still being used? Why is that the case and how do I eliminate the transaction?

rails_helper.rb...

# This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
require 'spec_helper'
require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
require 'rspec/rails'
# Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!

ActiveRecord::Migration.maintain_test_schema!

RSpec.configure do |config|
  # Remove this line if you're not using ActiveRecord or ActiveRecord fixtures
  config.fixture_path = "#{::Rails.root}/spec/fixtures"

  config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
  config.infer_spec_type_from_file_location!

  config.include FactoryGirl::Syntax::Methods
end

spec_helper.rb...

require 'devise'
require "paperclip/matchers"
require 'simplecov'
require 'database_cleaner'
require 'capybara/rspec'

SimpleCov.start 'rails'

module SphinxHelpers
  def index
    ThinkingSphinx::Test.index
    # Wait for Sphinx to finish loading in the new index files.
    sleep 0.25 until index_finished?
  end

  def index_finished?
    Dir[Rails.root.join(ThinkingSphinx::Test.config.indices_location, '*.{new,tmp}*')].empty?
  end
end

RSpec.configure do |config|

  config.include SphinxHelpers

  config.before(:suite) do
    # Ensure sphinx directories exist for the test environment
    ThinkingSphinx::Test.init
    # Configure and start Sphinx, and automatically
    # stop Sphinx at the end of the test suite.
    ThinkingSphinx::Test.start_with_autostop
  end

  config.before(:each) do |example|
    index
  end

  config.include Paperclip::Shoulda::Matchers
  config.include Devise::TestHelpers, :type => :controller
  config.raise_errors_for_deprecations!

  config.before(:suite) do
    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
  end

  config.around(:each) do |example|
    DatabaseCleaner.cleaning do
      example.run
    end
  end

  config.expect_with :rspec do |expectations|
    expectations.include_chain_clauses_in_custom_matcher_descriptions = true
  end

  config.mock_with :rspec do |mocks|
    mocks.verify_partial_doubles = true
  end
end

RSpec::Matchers.define :accept_nested_attributes_for do |association|
  match do |model|
    @model = model
    @nested_att_present = model.respond_to?("#{association}_attributes=".to_sym)
    if @nested_att_present && @reject
      model.send("#{association}_attributes=".to_sym,[@reject])
      @reject_success = model.send("#{association}").empty?
    end
    if @nested_att_present && @accept
      model.send("#{association}_attributes=".to_sym,[@accept])
      @accept_success = ! (model.send("#{association}").empty?)
    end
    @nested_att_present && ( @reject.nil? || @reject_success ) && ( @accept.nil? || @accept_success )
  end

  failure_message_for_should do
    messages = []
    messages << "expected #{@model.class} to accept nested attributes for #{association}" unless @nested_att_present
    messages << "expected #{@model.class} to reject values #{@reject.inspect} for association #{association}" unless @reject_success
    messages << "expected #{@model.class} to accept values #{@accept.inspect} for association #{association}" unless @accept_success
    messages.join(", ")
  end

  description do
    desc = "accept nested attributes for #{expected}"
    if @reject
      desc << ", but reject if attributes are #{@reject.inspect}"
    end
  end

  chain :but_reject do |reject|
    @reject = reject
  end

  chain :and_accept do |accept|
    @accept = accept
  end
end

a spec that displays the problem....

require 'rails_helper'

RSpec.describe "The homepage", :type => :feature do
  it "displays articles" do    
    article = create(:article)
    visit "/"
    assert page.has_css?(".article")
  end
end

the test log output when running the spec (note the transaction)...

(0.2ms)  ALTER TABLE "annotations" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "categories" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "schema_migrations" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "articles" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "comments" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "contents" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "galleries" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "gallery_images" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "users" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL
(13.5ms)  TRUNCATE TABLE "annotations", "categories", "articles", "comments", "contents", "galleries", "gallery_images", "users" RESTART IDENTITY CASCADE;
(0.7ms)  ALTER TABLE "annotations" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "categories" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "schema_migrations" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "articles" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "comments" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "contents" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "galleries" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "gallery_images" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "users" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL
ActiveRecord::SchemaMigration Load (0.3ms)  SELECT "schema_migrations".* FROM "schema_migrations"
(0.6ms)  ALTER TABLE "annotations" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "categories" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "schema_migrations" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "articles" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "comments" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "contents" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "galleries" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "gallery_images" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "users" DISABLE TRIGGER ALL
(1.0ms)  select table_name from information_schema.views where table_schema = 'site_test'
(23.8ms)  TRUNCATE TABLE "annotations", "categories", "articles", "comments", "contents", "galleries", "gallery_images", "users" RESTART IDENTITY CASCADE;
(0.7ms)  ALTER TABLE "annotations" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "categories" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "schema_migrations" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "articles" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "comments" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "contents" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "galleries" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "gallery_images" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL;ALTER TABLE "users" ENABLE TRIGGER ALL
(0.1ms)  BEGIN
(0.1ms)  COMMIT
(0.1ms)  BEGIN
(0.1ms)  SAVEPOINT active_record_1
User Exists (0.5ms)  SELECT  1 AS one FROM "users"  WHERE "users"."username" = 'testuser' LIMIT 1
User Exists (0.2ms)  SELECT  1 AS one FROM "users"  WHERE "users"."email" = '[email protected]' LIMIT 1
User Exists (0.2ms)  SELECT  1 AS one FROM "users"  WHERE "users"."email" = '[email protected]' LIMIT 1
SQL (0.7ms)  INSERT INTO "users" ("created_at", "email", "encrypted_password", "updated_at", "username") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5) RETURNING "id"  [["created_at", "2015-03-08 20:48:58.017027"], ["email", "[email protected]"], ["encrypted_password", "$2a$04$vHQdcMEuRC2mdrNebemS5e9zMOUaloIhcIBEHlu6z7ms8Rh2NJ0F."], ["updated_at", "2015-03-08 20:48:58.017027"], ["username", "testuser"]]
(0.2ms)  RELEASE SAVEPOINT active_record_1
Command :: file -b --mime '/var/folders/px/vlftvj1j43j7369cy2_sz_j40000gn/T/aacb8db341826e828273a80db5d60d5220150308-5197-hsarwm.png'
Command :: identify -format '%wx%h,%[exif:orientation]' '/var/folders/px/vlftvj1j43j7369cy2_sz_j40000gn/T/aacb8db341826e828273a80db5d60d5220150308-5197-hlhno1.png[0]' 2>/dev/null
Command :: identify -format %m '/var/folders/px/vlftvj1j43j7369cy2_sz_j40000gn/T/aacb8db341826e828273a80db5d60d5220150308-5197-hlhno1.png[0]'
Command :: convert '/var/folders/px/vlftvj1j43j7369cy2_sz_j40000gn/T/aacb8db341826e828273a80db5d60d5220150308-5197-hlhno1.png[0]' -auto-orient -resize "100%" '/var/folders/px/vlftvj1j43j7369cy2_sz_j40000gn/T/aacb8db341826e828273a80db5d60d5220150308-5197-hlhno120150308-5197-1j86yzw'
Command :: file -b --mime '/var/folders/px/vlftvj1j43j7369cy2_sz_j40000gn/T/aacb8db341826e828273a80db5d60d5220150308-5197-hlhno120150308-5197-1j86yzw'
(0.1ms)  SAVEPOINT active_record_1
Command :: file -b --mime '/var/folders/px/vlftvj1j43j7369cy2_sz_j40000gn/T/aacb8db341826e828273a80db5d60d5220150308-5197-h4xfii.png'
Article Exists (0.5ms)  SELECT  1 AS one FROM "articles"  WHERE "articles"."title" = 'Article Title' LIMIT 1
SQL (6.4ms)  INSERT INTO "articles" ("body", "created_at", "description", "header_one", "header_two", "photo_content_type", "photo_file_name", "photo_file_size", "photo_updated_at", "posted_at", "title", "updated_at", "url", "user_id") VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10, $11, $12, $13, $14) RETURNING "id"  [["body", "This is the article body."], ["created_at", "2015-03-08 20:48:58.218394"], ["description", "This is a test article!"], ["header_one", "Article Header One"], ["header_two", "Article Header Two"], ["photo_content_type", "image/png"], ["photo_file_name", "test_image.png"], ["photo_file_size", 96884], ["photo_updated_at", "2015-03-08 20:48:58.036313"], ["posted_at", "2015-03-08 20:48:51.398651"], ["title", "Article Title"], ["updated_at", "2015-03-08 20:48:58.218394"], ["url", "http://www.testurl.com"], ["user_id", 1]]
(0.2ms)  RELEASE SAVEPOINT active_record_1
Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2015-03-08 16:48:58 -0400
Processing by SiteController#index as HTML
Sphinx Query (9.3ms)  SELECT * FROM `article_core` WHERE `sphinx_deleted` = 0 ORDER BY `created_at` DESC LIMIT 0, 5
Sphinx  Found 0 results
Rendered articles/_pagination.html.erb (0.7ms)
Rendered articles/_list.html.erb (13.0ms)
Category Load (0.3ms)  SELECT "categories".* FROM "categories"
Rendered site/homepage/_filters.html.erb (1.3ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_search.html.erb (57.1ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_twitter.html.erb (0.5ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_sidebar.html.erb (61.2ms)
Rendered site/index.html.erb within layouts/application (76.3ms)
Rendered site/_head.html.erb (19.8ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_social_media.html.erb (0.5ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_social_media.html.erb (0.1ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_social_media.html.erb (0.1ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_social_media.html.erb (0.1ms)
Rendered site/homepage/_menu.html.erb (8.0ms)
Content Load (0.4ms)  SELECT  "contents".* FROM "contents"  WHERE "contents"."name_slug" = 'footer_left'  ORDER BY "contents"."id" ASC LIMIT 1
Content Load (0.3ms)  SELECT  "contents".* FROM "contents"  WHERE "contents"."name_slug" = 'footer_middle'  ORDER BY "contents"."id" ASC LIMIT 1
Rendered site/_footer.html.erb (8.6ms)
Rendered site/_ga.html.erb (0.4ms)
Completed 200 OK in 128ms (Views: 116.4ms | ActiveRecord: 2.2ms)
(0.2ms)  ROLLBACK

Answer 1

When you set config.use_transactional_fixtures = false you are telling RSpec to not bother cleaning the database each time it starts a new example. Sometimes I set this to false because I instead use database_cleaner (GitHub) to handle it.

So, based on your logs, I believe RSpec is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing.

You can read about this setting in the RSpec manual