A simple way to retry examples in RSpec using filters and around

rspec_retries.rb

# Based on https://gist.github.com/1718985

# Usage:
# 1) Put in spec/support/rspec_retries.rb
# 2) Call from spec_helper.rb: "RSpec::Retries.setup(config)"
# 3) Change around filter to suit your needs.

# Example output:
# ..............
#
# spec/requests/something_spec.rb:10: "should do something" failed.
# Retrying, attempt 1 of 5.
# Retry successful.
#
# .....

# You need something like this:
# SPECS_ARE_NOT_LOCAL = (ENV['USER'] == "jenkins")

module RSpec::Retries
  COUNT = 5

  def self.enable_retries?
    # Only retry certain failures without Spork. I.e. either in CI, or locally
    # without Spork, typically when running the whole suite for some reason.
    if Spork.using_spork?
      false
    else
      SPECS_ARE_NOT_LOCAL || ENV['ENABLE_RETRIES']
    end
  end

  def self.setup(config)
    config.include RSpec::Retries

    if enable_retries?
      config.around(:each, :retry) do |example|
        run_with_retries(example, COUNT)
      end

      config.around(:each, :sphinx) do |example|
        run_with_retries(example, COUNT)
      end

      config.around(:each, :js) do |example|
        run_with_retries(example, COUNT)
      end

      # This is perhaps because run_with_retries calls example.run which probably doesn't include around filters?
      def config.around(*args)
        raise "We can't have multiple arounds in this project because of the way retries are implemented."
      end
    end
  end

  def run_with_retries(example_to_run, retries)
    retry_header_shown = false

    retries.times do |t|
      self.example.instance_variable_set(:@exception, nil)
      example_to_run.run

      break unless self.example.exception

      raise self.example.exception if self.example.exception == Interrupt # Allow exiting with ^C

      info = "#{self.example.location.gsub(/#{Rails.root}\//, '')}: \"#{self.example.description}\""
      attempt = t + 1
      Rails.logger.error("DEBUG_LOCKUPS: #{Process.pid} #{info} ATTEMPT: #{attempt}")

      unless retry_header_shown
        puts "\n\n#{info} failed."
        retry_header_shown = true
      end

      # We restart sphinx when a test fails that uses it in case thats the problem.
      # RSpec::ThinkingSphinx.restart_if_started

      # Clears away let's.
      # Without this we got errors where factories appeared to create records without ids, which
      # resulted in errors like "No route matches....  :foo_id=>#<Foo id: nil,"
      self.class.run_after_all_hooks(self)

      puts "Retrying, attempt #{attempt} of #{retries}.\n"
    end

    if e = self.example.exception
      puts "Retries failed.\n\n"
      new_exception = e.exception(e.message + " [retried #{retries} times]")
      new_exception.set_backtrace e.backtrace
      self.example.instance_variable_set(:@exception, new_exception)
    elsif retry_header_shown
      puts "Retry successful.\n\n"
    end
  end
end

run_after_all_hooks seems to have become run_after_context_hooks in Rspec 3.4.