plugin shouldn't changes reporters unless activated

[zenspider]

Offending code is here:

https://github.com/kern/minitest-reporters/blob/775d1e1072e793e39931340391e0e8f55e45d5e4/lib/minitest/minitest_reporter_plugin.rb#L70-L74

Which makes the wrong assumption that if the gem is installed, it must be used. It should be activated via some mechanism, but NOT through minitest's plugin system. I suggest requires or other config in the test_helper or equivalent.

See jeremyevans/minitest-parallel_fork#3 for another example where this is messing with other plugins.

[os97673]

@zenspider please clarify the definition of "activated" here. Is call of Minitest::Reporters.use! enough to consider the gem activated?

[zenspider]

Yeah. Any user intervention that explicitly says "I want to use this". A flag, env var, or explicit call would be fine. Simply requiring that file isn't enough.

[os97673]

@zenspider I've been looking at the code and it looks like the only place where we could do anything with reporters is plugin_minitest_reporter_init() but the only way user can inform us he/she wants to use minitest reporter is either env.var or cli switch. Another option would be to add our reporter with others and do anything in it only if user calls use! but than would will "share" stdout with SummaryReporter and ProgressReporter minitest adds or rails reporter which is added to provide "better" reporter for rails developers.
So, currently plugins have a choice: try to live with (at least two reporters minitest adds) or force user explicitly enable them (cli param or env.var) and fail to provide the functionality w/o this (this could be ok for minitest-reporters, but definitely will not work for rails).
Another problem: every plugin will have to invent its own way to enable itself (perhaps it should be done in a common way by minitest itself).
So, do you still believe that pluging auto-load is a great feature? If yes, could you please help me to understand how Rails are supposed to provide their own default runner w/o forcing user specify it explicitly and how it will work with Rails+another plugin when user wants to use the latter instead of Rails?

[rajsahae]

I'm not sure if this is helpful or related to the same issue but I found that simply installing this plugin (but not using it) broke the normal ProgressReporter output for Minitest. Somehow the DelegateReporter was not properly calling prerecord on the ProgressReporter. Uninstalling the plugin fixed things. Is this related or should I open a separate ticket?

[os97673]

I'm not sure if this is helpful or related to the same issue but I found that simply installing this plugin (but not using it) broke the normal ProgressReporter output for Minitest. Somehow the DelegateReporter was not properly calling prerecord on the ProgressReporter. Uninstalling the plugin fixed things. Is this related or should I open a separate ticket?

I'd suggest to file a separate ticket with the test (pointer to the test repo) to reproduce the problem so I could check if this is the same problem or not.

[barrettkingram]

This issue hasn't had any activity for some time. Perhaps it's no longer a concern or other plugins have already introduced workarounds. If this behavior is still causing problems, I think there may be some value in reviving the idea in #237. Otherwise, I will close this out.