Unexpected Rspec Results using Timecop

Question

Here is the basic idea of the spec:

before :each do
  Timecop.freeze(Time.local(2012, 07, 01, 12, 0, 0)) #frozen at July 1st, 2012 at noon
  #create record code
end
it 'shows how long ago the message was recieved' do
  Timecop.travel(Time.local(2012, 07, 02, 12, 0, 0)) #move to July 2nd
  page.should have_content "1 day ago"
end
after :each do
  Timecop.return #release freeze
end

It errors out with:

expected there to be content "1 day ago" in "less than a minute ago"

I'm displaying <%= "#{time_ago_in_words(m.created_at)} ago" %> which I would expect to be exactly 24 hours different. What am I missing?

Check `log/test.log` to see whether the record is being created with the expected attributes. — zetetic, Jun 28 '12 at 23:24

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 05 '12 at 18:05

The problem was misunderstanding then purpose of the travel method versus the freeze method.

Freeze stops time at the selected moment, Travel sets time to the selected moment but it travels freely from there.

I solved the problem by replacing Travel with Freeze in the example.

Unexpected Rspec Results using Timecop

1 Answers1