Ideal Ruby Project Structure

Ideal Ruby project structure

I think that is pretty much spot on. By default, Rubygems will add the lib directory to the loadpath, but you can push any directory you want onto that using the $: variable. i.e.

$:.push File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../surfcompstuff')

That means when you have say, surfer.rb in that dir, you can require "surfer" anywhere and the file will be found.

Also, as a convention, classes and singletons get a file and modules get a directory. For instance, if you had the LolCatz module and the LolCatz::Moar class that would look like:

lib/
  appname.rb
  lolcatz/
    moar.rb

That is why there is an lib/appname folder because most libraries are in the appname namespace.

Additionally, if you try running the command newgem --simple [projectname] that'll quickly generate a scaffold for you with just the bare essentials for a Ruby project (and by extension a Ruby Gem). There are other tools which do this, I know, but newgem is pretty common. I usually get rid of the TODO file and all the script stuff.

What's the standard file structure of a Ruby project?

There isn't necessarily any set way to define a Ruby project. But, generally RubyGems have this file structure:

.
├── bin
│   └── mygem
├── Gemfile
├── lib
│   ├── mygem
│   │   └── version.rb
│   └── mygem.rb
├── LICENSE
├── mygem.gemspec
├── Rakefile
└── README.md

Of course, there is also other directories and files in the project root, for tests, .ruby-version, etc.

Directory layout for pure Ruby project

Bundler includes the necessary infrastructure to generate a gem:

$ bundle gem --coc --mit --test=minitest --exe spider
Creating gem 'spider'...
MIT License enabled in config
Code of conduct enabled in config
      create  spider/Gemfile
      create  spider/lib/spider.rb
      create  spider/lib/spider/version.rb
      create  spider/spider.gemspec
      create  spider/Rakefile
      create  spider/README.md
      create  spider/bin/console
      create  spider/bin/setup
      create  spider/.gitignore
      create  spider/.travis.yml
      create  spider/test/test_helper.rb
      create  spider/test/spider_test.rb
      create  spider/LICENSE.txt
      create  spider/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
      create  spider/exe/spider
Initializing git repo in /Users/francois/Projects/spider
Gem 'spider' was successfully created. For more information on making a RubyGem visit https://bundler.io/guides/creating_gem.html

Then, in lib/, you create modules as needed:

lib/
  spider/
    base.rb
  crawler/
    base.rb
  spider.rb
    require "spider/base"
    require "crawler/base"

Read the manual page for bundle gem for details on the --coc, --exe and --mit options.

What's the preferred directory structure of a non-Rails project with RSpec?

Build your project like a gem, as that's where you'll probably end up.

Your code goes in the lib directory.

my_first_project/
├── bin/
│   └── runme.rb
├── lib/
│   ├── my_first_project/
│   │   ├── user.rb
│   │   ├── widget.rb
│   │   └── ...
│   └── my_first_project.rb
├── spec/
│    └── spec_helper.rb
├── .rspec
└── my_first_project.gemspec

How do I set up a basic Ruby project?

To get a good start, you can use the bundle gem command and rspec --init.

~/code $ bundle gem my_lib
      create  my_lib/Gemfile
      create  my_lib/Rakefile
      create  my_lib/LICENSE.txt
      create  my_lib/README.md
      create  my_lib/.gitignore
      create  my_lib/my_lib.gemspec
      create  my_lib/lib/my_lib.rb
      create  my_lib/lib/my_lib/version.rb
Initializating git repo in /Users/john/code/my_lib
~/code $ cd my_lib/
~/code/my_lib $ git commit -m "Empty project"
~/code/my_lib $ rspec --init
The --configure option no longer needs any arguments, so true was ignored.
  create   spec/spec_helper.rb
  create   .rspec

• code goes in lib
• specs go in spec
• test data or documents go in spec/fixtures/
• Require all your ruby files in lib/my_lib.rb. You can define your exceptions in that file, too, or in their own files -- according to your own preference.
• C source files go in ext/my_lib
• shell scripts and executables go in bin

When in doubt, just look at how other gems are laid out.

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Further information:

You should add rspec as a development dependency in your gemspec to make things easier for other developers

1. Edit my_lib.gemspec, adding gem.add_development_dependency 'rspec' and gem.add_development_dependency 'rake' near the bottom.
2. Add Bundler.setup and require 'my_lib' to the top of spec/spec_helper.rb to ensure your gem dependencies are loaded when you run your specs.
3. Add require "rspec/core/rake_task" and task :default => :spec to your Rakefile, so that running rake will run your specs.

While you're working on your newest creation, guard-rspec can save you time and hassle by automatically running your specs as files change, alerting you to spec failures.

~/code/my_lib $ git add spec/spec_helper.rb
~/code/my_lib $ git commit -am "Add RSpec"
~/code/my_lib $ vim my_lib.gemspec # add guard development dependency
~/code/my_lib $ bundle
~/code/my_lib $ bundle exec guard init
~/code/my_lib $ vim Guardfile # Remove the sections below the top one
~/code/my_lib $ git add Guardfile
~/code/my_lib $ git commit -am "Add Guard"

After you're happy with your creation, push it up to github

# create a github repository for your gem, then push it up
~/code/my_lib $ curl -u myusername https://api.github.com/user/repos -d '{"name":"my_lib"}' 
~/code/my_lib $ git remote add origin git@github.com:myusername/my_lib.git
~/code/my_lib $ git push

Then, when you're ready to release your gem on Rubygems.org, run rake release, which will walk you through the steps.

~/code/my_lib $ rake release

Further References

• The Rubygems patterns guide (and home page), from Matheus Moreira's answer. They're really great references
• How I Start by Steve Klabnik
• Exercise 46: A Project Skeleton from Zed Shaw's Learn Ruby The Hard Way
• New Gem with Bundler video on Railscasts
• docs

Ruby and Cucumber Project Structure

You can easily set up cucumber for use with rails by using the cucumber-rails gem https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-rails

Then in your Gemfile add

group :test do
  gem 'cucumber-rails', :require => false
end

Next you'll want to

bundle install

And then use the generator to set up cucumber in your rails app

rails generate cucumber:install

This will set up your cucumber code under the features directory in your app.

Then you can run your cucumber using

 ./script/cucumber

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