Guard problems

Guardfile

guard 'spork', :cucumber_env => { 'RAILS_ENV' => 'test' }, :rspec_env => { 'RAILS_ENV' => 'test' } 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('spec/spec_helper.rb') { :rspec }
  watch('test/test_helper.rb') { :test_unit }
  watch(%r{features/support/}) { :cucumber }
end

guard 'rspec', :version => 2 do
  watch(%r{^spec/.+_spec\.rb$})
  watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb$})     { |m| "spec/lib/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
  watch('spec/spec_helper.rb')  { "spec" }
  watch('spec/factories.rb') { "spec" }

  # Rails example
  watch(%r{^app/(.+)\.rb$})                           { |m| "spec/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
  watch(%r{^app/(.*)(\.erb|\.haml)$})                 { |m| "spec/#{m[1]}#{m[2]}_spec.rb" }
  watch(%r{^app/controllers/(.+)_(controller)\.rb$})  { |m| ["spec/routing/#{m[1]}_routing_spec.rb", "spec/#{m[2]}s/#{m[1]}_#{m[2]}_spec.rb", "spec/acceptance/#{m[1]}_spec.rb"] }
  watch(%r{^spec/support/(.+)\.rb$})                  { "spec" }
  watch('config/routes.rb')                           { "spec/routing" }
  watch('app/controllers/application_controller.rb')  { "spec/controllers" }
  # Capybara request specs
  watch(%r{^app/views/(.+)/.*\.(erb|haml)$})          { |m| "spec/requests/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
  # Context specs
  watch(%r{^app/contexts/(.+)\.rb$})                  { |m| "spec/contexts/#{m[1]}_spec.rb" }
end

guard 'livereload' do
  watch(%r{app/views/.+\.(erb|haml|slim)})
  watch(%r{app/helpers/.+\.rb})
  watch(%r{public/.+\.(css|js|html)})
  watch(%r{config/locales/.+\.yml})
  # Rails Assets Pipeline
  watch(%r{(app|vendor)/assets/\w+/(.+\.(scss|css|js|html)).*})  { |m| "/assets/#{m[2]}" }
end

spec_helper.rb

ENV["RAILS_ENV"] ||= 'test'
require File.expand_path("../../config/environment", __FILE__)
require 'rspec/rails'
require 'rspec/autorun'
require 'spork'
require 'capybara/rspec'
require 'capybara/webkit/matchers'

# Requires supporting ruby files with custom matchers and macros, etc,
# in spec/support/ and its subdirectories.
Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}

Spork.prefork do
  # This code will be run each time you run your specs.
  RSpec.configure do |config|
    config.include Devise::TestHelpers, :type => :controller
    # ## Mock Framework
    #
    # If you prefer to use mocha, flexmock or RR, uncomment the appropriate line:
    #
    # config.mock_with :mocha
    # config.mock_with :flexmock
    # config.mock_with :rr
    require 'database_cleaner'
    config.before(:suite) do
      DatabaseCleaner[:mongoid].strategy = :truncation
    end
    
    config.before(:each) do
      DatabaseCleaner.clean
      ActionMailer::Base.deliveries.clear
    end
    # If true, the base class of anonymous controllers will be inferred
    # automatically. This will be the default behavior in future versions of
    # rspec-rails.
    config.infer_base_class_for_anonymous_controllers = false
    Capybara.javascript_driver = :webkit
  end
end

Spork.each_run do
end

class Helpers
  def self.test_log_path filename
    if (ENV['TDDIUM_SESSION_ID'])
      File.expand_path("#{ENV['HOME']}/results/#{ENV['TDDIUM_SESSION_ID']}/#{ENV['TDDIUM_TEST_EXEC_ID']}/") + '/' + filename
    else
      File.expand_path('log/') + '/' + filename
    end
  end
end

I'm seeing a bunch of problems here include:

• Falling back to Listen polling on OSX Mountain Lion
• Refusing to run any tests (even after hitting enter to trigger all tests)
• Running all tests always even if it should only run a few based on the guard rules
• Just being plain slow, taking 10-20 seconds to start tests on a single file even though the rails environment is supposed to be pre-loaded (as I understand it anyways)

I should note all problems listed are intermittent with the exception of the last one.

• Regarding your spec/spec_helper.rb, I think you should move more into the
  Spork.prefork block. I'm not 100% sure of the behavior of parts that are
  outside of it, but that is what I'm used to seeing.
• Regarding Listen polling, isn't that a matter of having something like this in your Gemfile?:

case RUBY_PLATFORM
when /linux/i
  gem 'rb-inotify'
when /darwin/i
  gem 'rb-fsevent'
end            

• I'm not sure about the refusal to run tests when manually hitting enter. bundle exec guard -d should tell you more.
• Running all tests is expected to happen after each successful pass of an rspec triggered by a watch rule. You can disable that like this:

guard 'rspec', all_after_pass: false

• Being slow: Needs some more info.
  • Are you seeing the Starting Spork for RSpec output before these slow runs? (That means it's restarting all of Spork, basically nullifying the benefits of Sporking).
  • Are you properly using DRb? (That means having --drb in the .rspec file or on the cli: option of the guard 'rspec' call)
  • I'd advise you to check out spork -d's output, but it seems like it's not working on Rails 3.2.7 right now: sporkrb/spork/#206
  • Can you gist some of the guard -d output?

Let me know how it goes!
—☈