🫥 RSpec::StubbedEnv

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👣 How will this project approach the September 2025 hostile takeover of RubyGems? 🚑️

I’ve summarized my thoughts in this blog post.

🌻 Synopsis

An ENV stubbing / hiding library for sophisticated RSpec test suites.

ENV stubbing and hiding via shared contexts for more powerful tests
- ENV hiding via hide_env("FOO") was added in v1.0.2
No need to add dotenv just for the spec suite

describe "my stubbed test" do
  include_context "with stubbed env"
  include_context "with hidden env"
  context "with FOO=is bar" do
    before do
      stub_env("FOO" => "is bar")
    end
    it "has a value" do
      expect(ENV.fetch("FOO", nil)).to(eq("is bar"))
      expect(ENV.fetch("FOO")).to(eq("is bar"))
      expect(ENV["FOO"]).to(eq("is bar"))
    end
  end
  context "without BAR set" do
    before do
      hide_env("BAR")
    end
    it "is nil" do
      expect(ENV.fetch("BAR", nil)).to(be_nil)
      expect(ENV["BAR"]).to(be_nil)
    end
    it "raises error" do
      expect { ENV.fetch("BAR") }.to(raise_error(KeyNotFound))
    end
  end
end

This gem has no runtime dependencies.

I expect the current release of this gem to be compatible with Ruby 1.8.7+,
but it is only tested on CI against Ruby 2.3+,
due to the inherent limitations of GitHub Actions.

🚚 Amazing test matrix was brought to you by	🔎 appraisal2 🔎
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💡 Info you can shake a stick at

Tokens to Remember
Works with JRuby
Works with Truffle Ruby
Works with MRI Ruby 4
Works with MRI Ruby 3
Works with MRI Ruby 2
Works with MRI Ruby 1
Support & Community
Source
Documentation
Compliance
Style
Maintainer 🎖️
`...` 💖	🧊 🐙 🛖 🧪

Compatibility

Compatible with MRI Ruby 1.8.7+, and concordant releases of JRuby, and TruffleRuby.
CI workflows and Appraisals are generated for MRI Ruby 2.4+.
This test floor is configured by ruby.test_minimum in .kettle-jem.yml and
may be higher than the gem’s runtime compatibility floor when legacy Rubies are
not practical for the current toolchain.

The amazing test matrix is powered by the kettle-dev stack.

How kettle-dev manages complexity in tests

Gem	Source	Role
appraisal2	GitHub	multi-dependency Appraisal matrix generation
appraisal2-rubocop	GitHub	RuboCop Appraisal generator integration
kettle-dev	GitHub	development, release, and CI workflow tooling
kettle-jem	GitHub	Appraisals & CI workflow templates
kettle-soup-cover	GitHub	SimpleCov coverage policy and reporting
kettle-test	GitHub	standard test runner and coverage harness
rubocop-lts	GitHub	Ruby-version-aware linting
turbo_tests2	GitHub	parallel test execution

Federated DVCS

Find this repo on federated forges (Coming soon!)

Federated DVCS Repository	Status	Issues	PRs	Wiki	CI	Discussions
🧪 galtzo-floss/rspec-stubbed_env on GitLab	The Truth	💚	💚	💚	🐭 Tiny Matrix	➖
🧊 galtzo-floss/rspec-stubbed_env on CodeBerg	An Ethical Mirror (Donate)	💚	💚	➖	⭕️ No Matrix	➖
🐙 galtzo-floss/rspec-stubbed_env on GitHub	Another Mirror	💚	💚	💚	💯 Full Matrix	💚
🎮️ Discord Server		Let’s	talk	about	this	library!

Enterprise Support

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📊@Pointy Haired Boss: An enterprise support subscription is “never gonna let you down”, and supports open source maintainers

Alternatively:

✨ Installation

Install the gem and add to the application’s Gemfile by executing:

bundle add rspec-stubbed_env

If bundler is not being used to manage dependencies, install the gem by executing:

gem install rspec-stubbed_env

⚙️ Configuration

🔧 Basic Usage

You must configure RSpec to use the :expect syntax, or some compatible alternative.

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.expect_with(:rspec) do |c|
    c.syntax = :expect
  end
end

Require the library in your spec/test helper somewhere:

require "rspec/stubbed_env"

ENV stubbing

is opt-in, via a shared context, rather than global.
does not affect the real ENV at all. It is a true stub.
has the same scope as a before, subject, or let at the same level.

See the spec suite for detailed examples.

# This is normal, without stubbing, ENV is not set
describe "vanilla" do
  it "has no ENV stub" do
    expect(ENV.fetch("FOO", nil)).to(be_nil)
    expect(ENV["FOO"]).to(be_nil)
  end
end

# With a stubbed ENV!
describe "my stubbed test" do
  include_context "with stubbed env"
  before do
    stub_env("FOO" => "is bar")
  end
  it "has a value" do
    expect(ENV.fetch("FOO", nil)).to(eq("is bar"))
    expect(ENV["FOO"]).to(eq("is bar"))
  end
end

ENV can be stubbed trough the stub_env method, or key/value pairs to be stubbed can be
provided directly to the include_context call:

describe "my stubbed test" do
  include_context "with stubbed env", "FOO" => "is bar"

  it "has a value" do
    expect(ENV.fetch("FOO", nil)).to(eq("is bar"))
    expect(ENV["FOO"]).to(eq("is bar"))
  end
end

By default, hash accessors such as ENV.to_hash and ENV.to_h are not stubbed.
This keeps partial ENV stubs narrow. When code under test needs a hash snapshot,
opt in with stub_env_hash_accessors:

describe "my stubbed hash snapshot" do
  include_context "with stubbed env"
  include_context "with hidden env"

  before do
    stub_env_hash_accessors
    stub_env("FOO" => "is bar")
    hide_env("SECRET")
  end

  it "has a mixed real and stubbed hash" do
    expect(ENV.to_hash).to(include("FOO" => "is bar"))
    expect(ENV.to_hash).not_to(have_key("SECRET"))
  end
end

The helper is separate from stub_env arguments so real environment keys such
as "to_hash" remain ordinary stubbable keys.

If you want to make stub_env method available globally (without the include_context call),
you can add in the spec_helper.

I do not recommend the global approach, as it results in a loss of clarity
on which tests are testing ENV-based behaviors. Here’s a foot-gun if you want it.

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include(RSpec::StubbedEnv::StubHelpers)
  # Or you could include the context globally
  # config.include_context "with stubbed env"
end

ENV hiding

is opt-in, via a shared context, rather than global.
does not affect the real ENV at all. It is a true stub.
has the same scope as a before, subject, or let at the same level.

See the spec suite for detailed examples.

# This is normal, without hiding, ENV is set
ENV["MY_PATH"] = "/home/doodle"
describe "vanilla" do
  it "has ENV with nothing hidden" do
    expect(ENV.fetch("MY_PATH", nil)).to("/home/doodle")
    expect(ENV["MY_PATH"]).to("/home/doodle")
  end
end

# With a hidden ENV variable!
describe "my hidden test" do
  include_context "with hidden env"
  before do
    hide_env("MY_PATH")
  end
  it "MY_PATH is not set" do
    expect(ENV.fetch("MY_PATH", nil)).to(be_nil)
    expect(ENV["MY_PATH"]).to(be_nil)
  end
end

ENV variables can be hidden trough the hide_env method, or variable names to be hidden can be
provided directly to the include_context call:

describe "my hidden test" do
  include_context "with hidden env", "MY_PATH"

  it "MY_PATH is not set" do
    expect(ENV.fetch("MY_PATH", nil)).to(be_nil)
    expect(ENV["MY_PATH"]).to(be_nil)
  end
end

If you want to make hide_env method available globally (without the include_context call),
you can add in the spec_helper:

I do not recommend the global approach, as it results in a loss of clarity
on which tests are testing ENV-based behaviors. Here’s a foot-gun if you want it.

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include(RSpec::StubbedEnv::HideHelpers)
  # Or you could include the context globally
  # config.include_context "with hidden env"
end

🦷 FLOSS Funding

While galtzo-floss tools are free software and will always be, the project would benefit immensely from some funding.
Raising a monthly budget of… “dollars” would make the project more sustainable.

We welcome both individual and corporate sponsors! We also offer a
wide array of funding channels to account for your preferences.
Currently, Open Collective is our preferred funding platform.

If you’re working in a company that’s making significant use of galtzo-floss tools we’d
appreciate it if you suggest to your company to become a galtzo-floss sponsor.

You can support the development of galtzo-floss tools via
GitHub Sponsors,
Liberapay,
PayPal,
Open Collective
and Tidelift.

📍 NOTE
If doing a sponsorship in the form of donation is problematic for your company from an accounting standpoint, we’d recommend the use of Tidelift, where you can get a support-like subscription instead.

Open Collective for Individuals

Support us with a monthly donation and help us continue our activities. [Become a backer]

NOTE: kettle-readme-backers updates this list every day, automatically.

No backers yet. Be the first!

Open Collective for Organizations

Become a sponsor and get your logo on our README on GitHub with a link to your site. [Become a sponsor]

NOTE: kettle-readme-backers updates this list every day, automatically.

No sponsors yet. Be the first!

Another way to support open-source

I’m driven by a passion to foster a thriving open-source community – a space where people can tackle complex problems, no matter how small. Revitalizing libraries that have fallen into disrepair, and building new libraries focused on solving real-world challenges, are my passions. I was recently affected by layoffs, and the tech jobs market is unwelcoming. I’m reaching out here because your support would significantly aid my efforts to provide for my family, and my farm (11 🐔 chickens, 2 🐶 dogs, 3 🐰 rabbits, 8 🐈‍ cats).

If you work at a company that uses my work, please encourage them to support me as a corporate sponsor. My work on gems you use might show up in bundle fund.

I’m developing a new library, floss_funding, designed to empower open-source developers like myself to get paid for the work we do, in a sustainable way. Please give it a look.

Floss-Funding.dev: 👉️ No network calls. 👉️ No tracking. 👉️ No oversight. 👉️ Minimal crypto hashing. 💡 Easily disabled nags

🔐 Security

See SECURITY.md.

🤝 Contributing

If you need some ideas of where to help, you could work on adding more code coverage,
or if it is already 💯 (see below) check issues or PRs,
or use the gem and think about how it could be better.

We so if you make changes, remember to update it.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for more detailed instructions.

🚀 Release Instructions

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Code Coverage

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🪇 Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting with this project’s codebases, issue trackers,
chat rooms and mailing lists agrees to follow the .

🌈 Contributors

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Also see GitLab Contributors: https://gitlab.com/galtzo-floss/rspec-stubbed_env/-/graphs/main

⭐️ Star History

</a>

📌 Versioning

This library follows for its public API where practical.
For most applications, prefer the Pessimistic Version Constraint with two digits of precision.

For example:

spec.add_dependency("rspec-stubbed_env", "~> 1.0")

📌 Is "Platform Support" part of the public API? More details inside.

Dropping support for a platform can be a breaking change for affected users. If a release changes supported platforms, it should be called out clearly in the changelog and versioned with that impact in mind.

To get a better understanding of how SemVer is intended to work over a project’s lifetime, read this article from the creator of SemVer:

“Major Version Numbers are Not Sacred”

See CHANGELOG.md for a list of releases.

📄 License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of
the MIT .

© Copyright

See LICENSE.md for the official copyright notice.

🤑 A request for help

Maintainers have teeth and need to pay their dentists.
After getting laid off in an RIF in March, and encountering difficulty finding a new one,
I began spending most of my time building open source tools.
I’m hoping to be able to pay for my kids’ health insurance this month,
so if you value the work I am doing, I need your support.
Please consider sponsoring me or the project.

To join the community or get help 👇️ Join the Discord.

To say “thanks!” ☝️ Join the Discord or 👇️ send money.

💌 💌 💌

Please give the project a star ⭐ ♥.

Many parts of this project are actively managed by a kettle-jem smart template utilizing StructuredMerge.org merge contracts.

Thanks for RTFM. ☺️