HACKING.md

How to hack on RVM

Fetch and try test suite on your rvm installation

Note that the vboxtest approach is now outdated. It's better to use the rvm-test test suite which lives in a separate git submodule. (It's separate in order to allow reuse when hacking on rvm2).

$ git submodule init    # Register the rvm-test submodule in .git/config
$ git submodule update  # Check out the rvm-test submodule

Now read rvm-test's README.md and follow those instructions to make sure you can successfully run the tests (you will need rvm already installed).

Set up test installation of rvm

You need a test rvm install to run the test suite against:

$ git clone https://github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm  # or your own github fork
$ cd rvm
$ rvm switch ~/path/to/rvm/test/install          # choose a path here
$ ./install

This will create a test installation of rvm in ~/path/to/rvm/test/install, and as long as $rvm_path points to it, this will be used when running the tests. This means you can safely break the test installation without risking breaking your main rvm installation.

If you want to do manual testing on the CLI against this test installation, you also need to do:

$ rvm reload

To get back to using orginal rvm installation run:

$ rvm switch ~/.rvm

Hacking RVM via TDD (Test-Driven Development)

First write a test for the behaviour you expect. For details on how to write new tests, see rvm-test's README.md. Then run the test:

$ NOEXEC_DISABLE=1 tf --text rvm-test/fast/foo_comment_test.sh

It should fail. Now repeat the following steps until the test passes:

1. hack the changes in your rvm src tree
2. run `./install`
3. re-run the test (you can also manually test via rvm commands on the CLI)

Now git commit, git push to your github fork, then issue a pull request, and if it is accepted then your place in hacker heaven is secured.

Getting help

If you get stuck, you should ask on #rvm-test or #rvm on Freenode.