before(:all) hacks for minitest

gistfile1.rb

module Fixtures
  #
  # Set up fixtures that will be defined once during startup 
  # and (perhaps) rolled back at the beginning of each test run
  #
  def fixtures &block
    if block_given?
      instance_eval &block
      @fixtures = {}
      (instance_variables - [:@fixtures]).each do |fresh|
        @fixtures[fresh] = instance_variable_get(fresh)
      end
    else
      @fixtures
    end
  end
end

# Before each test, look at the class-variables defined
# and just tragically set them in the instance
#
module TestRunner
  def before_setup
    # todo: start transaction here
    super
    self.class.fixtures.each do |key, val|
      instance_variable_set "#{key}", val
    end
  end
  def before_teardown
    # todo: rollback transaction here
    super
  end
end

# Then include it into your test
class MiniTest::Test
  extend Fixtures
  include TestRunner
end

# And define your test
require 'minitest/autorun'
class ApiTest < MiniTest::Test

  fixtures do
    @test = 5
  end

  def test_fixtures
    assert_equal @test, 5
    @test = 6 # let's see if it leaks
  end

  def test_fixtures_again
    assert_equal @test, 5
    @test = 7
  end

end

this is not perfect because the block instance_eval runs when the class is defined and the file is loaded, rather than right before the file's tests are run. this could be mitigated by saving the block and memoizing it

If you can come up with a nice / intuitive solution, please add to https://github.com/grosser/maxitest, one of the last todos.