WrongScopeError: `name` when `use_active_record = false`

[matiasgarcia]

I have the following spec:

require 'rails_helper'

describe Command do
  it 'foo' do
    Command.new
  end
end

Using RSpec 3.9.1 + Rails 6.1 I get:

RSpec::Core::ExampleGroup::WrongScopeError: `name` is not available from within an example (e.g. an `it` block) or from constructs that run in the scope of an example (e.g. `before`, `let`, etc). It is only available on an example group (e.g. a `describe` or `context` block).

  0) Command foo
     Failure/Error:
       raise WrongScopeError,
             "`#{name}` is not available from within an example (e.g. an " \
             "`it` block) or from constructs that run in the scope of an " \
             "example (e.g. `before`, `let`, etc). It is only available " \
             "on an example group (e.g. a `describe` or `context` block)."

       `name` is not available from within an example (e.g. an `it` block) or from constructs that run in the scope of an example (e.g. `before`, `let`, etc). It is only available on an example group (e.g. a `describe` or `context` block).
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:746:in `method_missing'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/activerecord-6.1.0/lib/active_record/test_fixtures.rb:102:in `run_in_transaction?'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/activerecord-6.1.0/lib/active_record/test_fixtures.rb:116:in `setup_fixtures'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/activerecord-6.1.0/lib/active_record/test_fixtures.rb:10:in `before_setup'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-rails-3.9.0/lib/rspec/rails/adapters.rb:126:in `block (2 levels) in <module:MinitestLifecycleAdapter>'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:450:in `instance_exec'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:450:in `instance_exec'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:381:in `execute_with'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:614:in `block (2 levels) in run_around_example_hooks_for'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:345:in `call'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:615:in `run_around_example_hooks_for'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/hooks.rb:472:in `run'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:460:in `with_around_example_hooks'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:503:in `with_around_and_singleton_context_hooks'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example.rb:254:in `run'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:633:in `block in run_examples'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:629:in `map'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:629:in `run_examples'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/example_group.rb:595:in `run'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:121:in `block (3 levels) in run_specs'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:121:in `map'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:121:in `block (2 levels) in run_specs'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/configuration.rb:2031:in `with_suite_hooks'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:116:in `block in run_specs'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/reporter.rb:74:in `report'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:115:in `run_specs'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:89:in `run'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:71:in `run'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/lib/rspec/core/runner.rb:45:in `invoke'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/lib/ruby/gems/2.5.0/gems/rspec-core-3.9.1/exe/rspec:4:in `<top (required)>'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/bin/rspec:23:in `load'
     # /home/mgarcia/.rbenv/versions/2.5.7/bin/rspec:23:in `<main>'
     # 
     #   Showing full backtrace because every line was filtered out.
     #   See docs for RSpec::Configuration#backtrace_exclusion_patterns and
     #   RSpec::Configuration#backtrace_inclusion_patterns for more information.

[pirj]

Did it work on prior versions of Rails, or is it a new project?

I see a couple weird things here.

 0) Command foo

was it really 0?

Kindly appreciate if you could test your setup against rspec-rails 4.0.1 and also branch rails-6-1-dev (see PR #2398) by setting the following in your Gemfile:

gem 'rspec-rails`, github: 'rspec/rspec-rails', branch: 'rails-6-1-dev'

Yet another approach would be to quote Command:

RSpec.describe 'Command' do

I'd love to see Command's source to make an informed judgement.

[amilligan]

I can verify this is definitely a problem with Rails 6.1 compatibility. We make heavy use of the latest released rspec-rails (4.0.1) with the previous version of Rails (6.0.3.4) with no problem. Upgrading to Rails 6.1 causes the above error over and over.

We haven't been able to try the rails-6-1-dev branch, because of dependency hell. Bundler gives us a whole bunch of this:

Bundler could not find compatible versions for gem "rspec-support":
  In snapshot (Gemfile.lock):
    rspec-support (= 3.10.0)

  In Gemfile:
    rspec-collection_matchers x86_64-darwin-19 was resolved to 1.2.0, which depends on
      rspec-expectations (>= 2.99.0.beta1) x86_64-darwin-19 was resolved to 3.10.0, which depends on
        rspec-support (~> 3.10.0) x86_64-darwin-19

    rspec-rails x86_64-darwin-19 was resolved to 4.1.0.pre, which depends on
      rspec-support (= 3.11.0.pre)

Running `bundle update` will rebuild your snapshot from scratch, using only
the gems in your Gemfile, which may resolve the conflict.

I actually came across the pull request you referenced above (#2398) before this issue. It looks like that will solve this; it would be great to get a pre-release gem out.

[pirj]

You'll have to point to unreleased branches of other repos (core, support, expectations, mocks) as well:

gem 'rspec-support`, github: 'rspec/rspec-support', branch: 'main'

There's a lot of development going on ATM, no promises on pre-release versions, sorry.
Stay tuned for 4.1.

[pirj]

Really appreciate if you could check if you are still experiencing this problem against 4.1.0.pre and 3.11.0.pre. Please feel free to reopen the ticket in this case.

[JonRowe]

Reopened because I want to investigate, I haven't seen anything like this so far.

[JonRowe]

I'm going to investigate over the weekend and look to releasing a new version with 6.1 support, but can someone provide me with a spec example for this? The one above would be fine if the source for Command is provided.

[bmulholland]

@JonRowe A blank class will do:

require 'rails_helper'

class Command; end

RSpec.describe Command do
  it 'foo' do
    Command.new
  end
end

[matiasgarcia]

The solution for this was upgrading to rspec-rails 4.0.1.
According to the changelog on 4.x.x was introduced the compatibility with Rails 6.x.

I was confused because as a dev I would expect this version to not be downloadable for Rails 6.1.

[matiasgarcia]

@pirj It might be zero because the spec doesn't even run, it's a bug. Command is an AR model.

class Command < ApplicationRecord
end

[pirj]

There's no good way to prevent us from future breakages due to incompatibilities introduced by Rails. E.g. you can use rspec-rails 2.99 with Rails 6.1, but it doesn't mean you should, since most probably it won't work.

[bmulholland]

Upgrading to rspec-rails 4.0.1 does not resolve this issue for me.

If there's a tight connection with rails, perhaps there should be a corresponding restriction on what versions of Rails this gem can be installed with?

[pirj]

There is this https://github.com/rspec/rspec-rails/blob/main/features/README.md#rails

rspec-rails 4 supports Rails 5.x and 6.x. For earlier versions of Rails, you need rspec-rails 3

We could set a hard constraint on Rails version, e.g. to ~> 6.0.0 for rspec-rails 4.0.x, but that would:

1. force to update to newer rspec-rails along with Rails update
2. prevent users from updating Rails early and submit issues and patches, leaving all the burden on maintainers

[bmulholland]

@pirj Are there special instructions for installing the preview versions? I'm getting Could not find gem 'rspec-rails (= 4.1.0.pre)' in any of the gem sources listed in your Gemfile.