Guard fail : "Error: exit code 1" (Spork and TestUnit) - ruby

Question

I'm new to TDD on Rails and I want the right tools. TestUnit+Spork+Guard seems perfect to me, but I can't make it work. The setup seems right, but when I launch Guard, this happens :
Ruff% guard --debug
16:08:59 - DEBUG - Command execution: which notify-send
16:08:59 - DEBUG - Command execution: emacsclient --eval '1' 2> /dev/null || echo 'N/A'
16:08:59 - INFO - Guard is using NotifySend to send notifications.
16:08:59 - INFO - Guard is using TerminalTitle to send notifications.
16:08:59 - DEBUG - Command execution: hash stty
16:08:59 - DEBUG - Guard starts all plugins
16:08:59 - DEBUG - Hook :start_begin executed for Guard::Spork
16:08:59 - DEBUG - Command execution: ps aux | grep -v guard | awk '/spork/&&!/awk/{print $2;}'
16:08:59 - DEBUG - Killing Spork servers with PID:
16:08:59 - INFO - Starting Spork for Test::Unit
16:08:59 - DEBUG - guard-spork command execution: ["exec", "spork", "testunit", "-p", "8988"]
Using TestUnit, Rails
Preloading Rails environment
Loading Spork.prefork block...
Spork is ready and listening on 8988!
16:09:05 - INFO - Spork server for Test::Unit successfully started
16:09:05 - DEBUG - Command execution: notify-send Spork Test::Unit successfully started -t 3000 -h int:transient:1 -i /home/simplonco/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247#railstutorial_rails_4_0/gems/guard-2.3.0/images/success.png -u low
16:09:05 - DEBUG - Hook :start_end executed for Guard::Spork
16:09:05 - DEBUG - Hook :start_begin executed for Guard::Test
16:09:05 - INFO - Guard::Test 2.0.4 is running, with Test::Unit 2.5.5!
16:09:05 - INFO - Running all tests
16:09:05 - INFO - Using testdrb to run the tests
16:09:05 - DEBUG - Command execution: testdrb -I"lib:test"
Running tests with args ["-Ilib:test"]...
Usage: testrb [options] tests...
Error: exit code 1
Done.
"Error: exit code 1" is making me crazy, Guard won't launch the tests. I found nobody with the same problem.
When I modify a file, Guard recognize it and launch himself. Then this happens :
10:51:42 - DEBUG - Hook :run_on_modifications_end executed for Guard::Test
10:51:42 - DEBUG - Start interactor
10:58:06 - DEBUG - Stop interactor
10:58:06 - DEBUG - Hook :run_on_modifications_begin executed for Guard::Test
10:58:06 - INFO - Running: test/models/user_test.rb
10:58:06 - DEBUG - Command execution: testdrb -I"lib:test"
Running tests with args ["-Ilib:test"]...
Usage: testrb [options] tests...
Error: exit code 1
Done.
I spend a lot of time on guard's documentation, can't find anything. Bundle exec guard don't work better. I tried to make a new app from scratch : "Error: exit code 1" again.
My Guardfile :
guard 'spork', :cucumber_env => { 'RAILS_ENV' => 'test' },
:rspec_env => { 'RAILS_ENV' => 'test' } do
watch('Gemfile')
watch('config/application.rb')
watch('config/environment.rb')
watch('config/environments/test.rb')
watch(%r{^config/initializers/.+\.rb$})
watch('Gemfile.lock')
watch('spec/spec_helper.rb') { :rspec }
watch('test/test_helper.rb') { :test_unit }
watch(%r{features/support/}) { :cucumber }
end
guard :test, drb: true do
watch(%r{^test/.+_test\.rb$})
watch('test/test_helper.rb') { 'test' }
# Non-rails
watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb$}) { |m| "test/#{m[1]}_test.rb" }
# Rails 4
watch(%r{^app/(.+)\.rb}) { |m| "test/#{m[1]}_test.rb" }
watch(%r{^app/controllers/application_controller\.rb}) { 'test/controllers' }
watch(%r{^app/controllers/(.+)_controller\.rb}) { |m| "test/integration/#{m[1]}_test.rb" }
watch(%r{^app/views/(.+)_mailer/.+}) { |m| "test/mailers/#{m[1]}_mailer_test.rb" }
watch(%r{^lib/(.+)\.rb}) { |m| "test/lib/#{m[1]}_test.rb" }
end
The test group of my gemfile :
group :test do
gem 'turn'
gem 'guard-test'
gem 'guard-livereload'
gem 'guard-spork'
gem 'spork-rails'
gem 'spork-testunit'
end

Answer 1

Looking at spork-testunit I see that the expected usage is
testdrb -Itest test/your_test.rb
whereas Guard executes
testdrb -I"lib:test"
Comparing those two, I see that the Guard command lacks the path to the tests, this is why Spork complains:
Usage: testrb [options] tests...
Error: exit code 1
This looks to me like you have a Guard configuration or a project structure/test naming issue, but it's hard to tell without seeing your Guardfile and know something about your test files.
In general Guard::Test looks at your test path that is configured with the test_path option and is test by default. It then tries to find your test files by a specific pattern, which are then passed to the command execution. This is of course only true if you run all tests.
The patterns are:
Dir[File.join(path, '**', 'test_*.rb')] +
Dir[File.join(path, '**', '*_test{s,}.rb')]
So depending on your test file naming pattern, you can verify it in the rails console:
rails c
[1] pry(main)> Dir[File.join('test', '**', '*_test{s,}.rb')]
=> []
Here it fails for me, since I use RSpec, but it should return a list of all you test files if everything is fine.