Easy rcov with Test::Unit and Rails 2

Yesterday, I needed test coverage numbers for an application using Rails 2.3 and plain old Test::Unit (still my test framework of choice). This proved to be a good deal more difficult than I expected: there are so many forks of the original rcov code, and so much disparate advice on how to get it hooked up, that I spent a great deal of unprofitable time reading before I got the right combination. Hopefully this short list will save you from doing the same:

1. Install the relevance-rcov gem. This is the stable and maintained fork.
2. Install the commondream rcov_plugin. This has the best set of working rake tasks I've found.
3. Add coverage/* and test/coverage/* to your .gitignore.
4. Run rake test:coverage to generate coverage results.
5. Open /coverage/index.html in your project to view the results.

Comments

[Chad Humphries]

You can now just install rcov (from gemcutter), since github stopped building gems. relevance-rcov is *rcov* on gemcutter.

[Mike Gunderloy]

Thanks Chad! Even simpler.

[Alex Hoggett]

Yeah this had been a source of confusion to many, and although I had it working through google-fu, it's nice to read this post so you can keep in mind the versioning issues.

[Nola]

Thanks for the post, helped me get going with rcov and testunit!