rspec users - Jun 2010 - How to mock/stub a directory of files and their contents?

Hi,

I''m writing a gem that enumerates the files within a specified
directory and sub-directories. It''s a module that has a single class
method that returns an array containing the file names, but that array
will also contain elements that represent metadata about the files.
For example, one element will be a hash that''s computed from the
contents of each file, so that if a file is changed a different hash
will be returned.

I''m pretty new to RSpec and the thing I am struggling with is how to
mock or stub not only the files, but also their contents. I know that
the implementation will use Find.find, but I don''t want to give it a
real directory of fixture files for the specs to use because then how
will I change the contents of a file to test that a different hash is
returned?

These are the pending examples I have so far:

it "should return a list of files within the specified directory"
it "should compute a hash of the files within the specified directory"
it "should compute a different hash if the content of a file changes"
it "shouldn''t include hidden files or directories within the
specified
directory"

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

John

On Jun 1, 2010, at 7:37 AM, John Topley wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I''m writing a gem that enumerates the files within a specified
> directory and sub-directories. It''s a module that has a single
class
> method that returns an array containing the file names, but that array
> will also contain elements that represent metadata about the files.
> For example, one element will be a hash that''s computed from the
> contents of each file, so that if a file is changed a different hash
> will be returned.
> 
> I''m pretty new to RSpec and the thing I am struggling with is how
to
> mock or stub not only the files, but also their contents. I know that
> the implementation will use Find.find, but I don''t want to give it
a
> real directory of fixture files for the specs to use because then how
> will I change the contents of a file to test that a different hash is
> returned?
> 
> These are the pending examples I have so far:
> 
> it "should return a list of files within the specified directory"
> it "should compute a hash of the files within the specified
directory"
> it "should compute a different hash if the content of a file
changes"
> it "shouldn''t include hidden files or directories within the
specified
> directory"
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Take a look at http://github.com/defunkt/fakefs. It stubs the file system for
you, allowing you to create files in an in-memory file system that then gets
blown away after the example.

HTH,
David