With Minitest+Guard+Spork, all test suites and support files are being reloaded on each run

Question

I'm running into a problem where everything in my test setup, including Spork's prefork block, is being reloaded and invoked on each run. It is taking 5-8 seconds for a test to fire off after guard picks up a change even though this is a new project so there are minimal tests and I even have an SSD.

Before I realized everything was reloading, I profiled it using the technique described by Jo Liss here and I've included those hanging requires but obviously that didn't help since it's all being reloaded anyway. However, that's when I noticed this:

Loaded Suite test,test/controllers,test/controllers/manage,test/factories,test/functional/manage,test/helpers,test/helpers/manage,test/integration,test/models,test/support

I'm not seeing why it would reload everything. This is my first attempt at setting up minitest+spork+guard (i should have just gone with rspec, sigh) so I'm hoping it's something stupid. I'm including everything in hopes that someone has run into it or can easily spot what I've missed. Thanks in advance!

My files include:

test_helper.rb

require 'spork'
Spork.prefork do
  #MiniTest::Rails.override_testunit!
  ENV["RAILS_ENV"] = "test"
  require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
  require 'guard'
  require 'guard/interactors/readline'
  require 'guard/ui'
  require 'guard/interactors/coolline'
  require 'guard/interactor'
  require 'guard/dsl'
  require 'guard/notifiers/rb_notifu'
  require 'guard/notifier'
  require 'guard/minitest/notifier'
  require 'guard/minitest/runners/default_runner'
  Dir[File.expand_path('test/support/*.rb')].each { |file| require file }
  require "mocha"
  Spork.trap_method(Rails::Application, :reload_routes!)
  Spork.trap_method(Rails::Application::RoutesReloader, :reload!)
end

Guardfile

guard 'bundler' do
  watch('Gemfile')
  # Uncomment next line if Gemfile contain `gemspec' command
  # watch(/^.+\.gemspec/)
end
guard 'spork', :wait => 65, :test_unit => false, :minitest => true, :minitest_env => { 'RAILS_ENV' => 'test' }, :bundler => true do
  watch('config/application.rb')
  watch('config/environment.rb')
  watch(%r{^config/environments/.+\.rb$})
  watch(%r{^config/initializers/.+\.rb$})
  watch('Gemfile')
  watch('Gemfile.lock')
  watch('test/test_helper.rb') { "test" }
end

guard 'minitest' do
  watch(%r|^test/test_helper\.rb|)         { "test" }
  watch(%r|^test/support/(.*)\.rb|)         { "test" }
  watch(%r{^test/.+_test\.rb$})
  watch(%r|^app/models/(.*)\.rb|)          {|m| ["test/models/#{m[1]}_test.rb", "test/integration/#{m[1]}_test.rb"] }
  watch(%r|^app/controllers/(.*)\.rb|)     {|m| ["test/controllers/#{m[1]}_test.rb", "test/integration/#{m[1]}_test.rb"] }
  watch(%r|^app/views/(.*)\.html|)         {|m| "test/integration/#{m[1]}_test.rb" }
  watch(%r|^app/objects/(.*)\.rb|)         {|m| "test/objects/#{m[1]}_object_test.rb" }
end

guard 'livereload' do
  watch(%r{app/.+\.(erb|haml)})
  watch(%r{app/helpers/.+\.rb})
  watch(%r{(public/|app/assets).+\.(css|js|html)})
  watch(%r{(app/assets/.+\.css)\.scss}) { |m| m[1] }
  watch(%r{(app/assets/.+\.js)\.coffee}) { |m| m[1] }
  watch(%r{config/locales/.+\.yml})
end

support/minitest.rb

#require "minitest/autorun"
require "minitest/rails"
require "minitest/spec"
require "minitest/pride"
require "minitest/rails/shoulda"
require "minitest/autorun"
require "capybara/rails"

class RequestSpec < MiniTest::Spec
  include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
  include Capybara::DSL
  include Rails.application.routes.url_helpers
end

MiniTest::Spec.register_spec_type /integration$/i, RequestSpec
#MiniTest::Spec.register_spec_type /object$/, MiniTest::Spec

class MiniTest::Rails::Controller
  include Devise::TestHelpers
end

support/turn.rb

require 'turn'
require 'turn/autorun'
require 'turn/colorize'
require 'turn/reporter'
require 'turn/reporters/pretty_reporter'
Turn.config do |c|
  c.natural = true
  c.ansi = true
  c.format = :pretty
end

Gemfile

source 'https://rubygems.org'

# core
gem 'rails', '3.2.8'
gem 'thin'


# infrastructure
gem 'heroku'
gem 'foreman', :groups => [:development, :test]

# application monitoring
gem 'airbrake'
gem 'newrelic_rpm'


# view engine
gem 'haml', '>= 3.1.7'
gem 'haml-rails', '>= 0.3.5'
gem 'redcarpet' # markdown


# data persistence
gem 'mongoid', '>= 3.0.5'
gem 'redis'
gem 'redis-store'
gem 'redis-rails'


# email
gem 'sendgrid'
gem 'mailcatcher', :group => [:development]


# authentication and authorization
gem 'devise', '>= 2.1.2'
gem 'omniauth', '>= 1.0'
#gem 'authority'
gem 'cancan'
gem 'rolify', '>= 3.2.0'


# view helpers
gem 'bootstrap-generators', '~> 2.1', :group => [:development]
gem 'jquery-rails'
gem 'simple_form', '>= 2.0.2'
gem 'rails3-jquery-autocomplete'


# file attachments
gem 'rmagick'
gem 'fog'
gem 'carrierwave'
gem 'carrierwave-mongoid', :require => 'carrierwave/mongoid'


# url helpers
gem 'mongoid_slug'


# console tools
gem 'ansi',             :groups => [:development, :test]
gem 'rack-livereload',  :groups => [:development]
gem 'pry-rails',        :groups => [:development]
gem 'growl',            :groups => [:development, :test]
gem 'turn',             :groups => [:test]
gem 'awesome_print'
gem 'progress_bar',     :groups => [:test]


# supporting libraries
gem 'bson_ext'
gem 'nokogiri',                  :group => :test
gem 'ruby_parser', '>= 2.3.1',   :group => :test
gem 'rb-fsevent', '~> 0.9.1',    :group => :development


# assets
gem 'less-rails',                 :group => :assets
gem 'therubyracer', '>= 0.10.2',  :group => :assets
gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3',       :group => :assets


# guard
gem 'guard',                     :group => :development
gem 'guard-livereload',          :group => :development
gem 'guard-spork',               :group => :development
gem 'guard-minitest',            :group => :development
gem 'guard-bundler',             :group => :development


# minitest
gem 'spork-minitest',           :group => :test
gem 'minitest-rails',           :group => :test
gem 'minitest-rails-shoulda',   :group => :test,  :git => 'git://github.com/rawongithub/minitest-rails-shoulda.git' 
gem 'capybara_minitest_spec',   :group => :test


# mocking
gem 'mocha', :group => :test


# http testing
gem 'vcr',      :group => :test
gem 'webmock',  :group => :test


# factories
gem 'factory_girl_rails'

Answer 1

It appears that Spork and Minitest were actually not working as expected. In order to fix this, the following changes had to be made:

Inside of the Guardfile, :drb => true had to be added to minitest:

guard 'minitest', :drb => true do
  #...
end

However that alone will break guard/minitest/spork because it tries to force feed it the -r -e options which are not currently supported. You'll run into the following error:

Running: test/models/business_test.rb
Running tests with args ["-r", "/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/guard-minitest-0.5.0/lib/guard/minitest/runners/default_runner.rb", "-e", "::GUARD_NOTIFY=true", "test/test_helper.rb", "./test/models/business_test.rb"]...
Exception encountered: #<LoadError: cannot load such file -- -r>
backtrace:
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-3.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:251:in `require'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-3.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:251:in `block in require'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-3.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:236:in `load_dependency'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-3.2.8/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:251:in `require'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-minitest-0.0.3/lib/spork/test_framework/minitest.rb:13:in `block in run_tests'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-minitest-0.0.3/lib/spork/test_framework/minitest.rb:12:in `each'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-minitest-0.0.3/lib/spork/test_framework/minitest.rb:12:in `run_tests'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-0.9.2/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:13:in `block in run'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-0.9.2/lib/spork/forker.rb:21:in `block in initialize'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-0.9.2/lib/spork/forker.rb:18:in `fork'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-0.9.2/lib/spork/forker.rb:18:in `initialize'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-0.9.2/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:9:in `new'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-0.9.2/lib/spork/run_strategy/forking.rb:9:in `run'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/spork-0.9.2/lib/spork/server.rb:48:in `run'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1548:in `perform_without_block'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1508:in `perform'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1586:in `block (2 levels) in main_loop'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1582:in `loop'
/Users/chance/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/drb/drb.rb:1582:in `block in main_loop'
Done.

Fortunately, there is a pull request for spork-minitest that fixes it.

Once the gem was pointed over to the repo, it took a nice cut out of the load times. It isn't anywhere near as fast as node.js and mocha, but it is at least faster than rspec.