Add a failing spec for #1343.

[myronmarston]

Not sure how to fix this yet. Pushing it to start the conversation.

[JonRowe]

Is it worth considering --require spec_helper or any file in the spec folder as a "delayed" require?

The other option is to somehow process the formatter loading without the requires having been processed, some sort of placeholder formatter?

[myronmarston]

Is it worth considering --require spec_helper or any file in the spec folder as a "delayed" require?

That's one solution. I don't like changing when a --require file is loaded based on what directory it is in, though....that feels hacky. Other solution ideas:

• Change when we setup the default formatters, and change our generated spec_helper so that it puts the code that sets the formatter to doc into a before(:suite), so that it is delayed until before the specs are run. I tried part of this (moving the code into before(:suite)) but the default formatters were already set up so it was too late.
• Expose a first class API for this: config.fallback_formatter = 'doc' (or something like that).
• Do something similar to Fix for #1280 #1289, where we set the passed formatter config to configuration early and then load it lazily.

I'm leaning towards the 1st or 2nd ideas. Thoughts?

[JonRowe]

I'm thinking we push formatter loading before --require and that if we can't load a formatter class immediately wrap it in something to defer it's loading? The alternative is your third suggestion were we process and cache formatter names, but defer their initialisation until later?

I don't mind your first suggestion, but it doesn't fix the issue, just avoids it. The second suggestion doesn't really fit the bill, as this is an override of a formatter, not a fallback.

[myronmarston]

The second suggestion doesn't really fit the bill, as this is an override of a formatter, not a fallback.

I would definitely consider this a fallback. The idea of the generated spec_helper is to use the doc formatter when two conditions are met:

• No other formatter has been set anywhere
• Only one spec file is being run

It's a fallback because this config is only intended to take affect if nothing else sets a formatter.

The more I think about that option, the more I like it.

[JonRowe]

Oh I see, you're suggesting we change it so the default formatter when there's only one file to run, yeah ok I'm on board with that.

[myronmarston]

Oh I see, you're suggesting we change it so the default formatter when there's only one file to run, yeah ok I'm on board with that.

That's the entire point of this line of code:

rspec-core/lib/rspec/core/project_initializer/spec_helper.rb

Lines 36 to 39 in 1e5ea31

	# Use the documentation formatter for detailed output,
	# unless a formatter has already been configured
	# (e.g. via a command-line flag).
	config.formatter = 'doc' if config.formatters.none?

[JonRowe]

Yes, but the issue is how that interacts with the overridden formatter, this issue of there being "no formatters" would still exist ;)

[myronmarston]

Yes, but the issue is how that interacts with the overridden formatter, this issue of there being "no formatters" would still exist ;)

Sure, but the goals of making --require load files as early as possible (so they can do early things not possible by requiring files from your spec files) and making all configs available in a spec_helper loaded in this fashion are at odds. I really only care about this in as much as it's useful to be able to configure a fallback formatter and before now there wasn't an API for that so I was using formatters.none?.

[myronmarston]

@JonRowe -- I just pushed my implementation of this...care to review?

[myronmarston]

Oh yeah, this needs a changelog still -- I'll take care of that later.

[JonRowe]

LGTM