Rspec Retry causing error: Errno::EPIPE: Broken pipe

[csalvato]

We currently use rspec-retry with the following configuration in our spec_helper.rb file:

require "codeclimate-test-reporter"
require 'rspec/retry'

CodeClimate::TestReporter.start
FakeBraintree.activate!

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.before do
    FakeBraintree.clear!
  end

  config.include ShowMeTheCookies, :type => :feature

  config.expect_with :rspec do |expectations|
    expectations.include_chain_clauses_in_custom_matcher_descriptions = true
  end

  config.expect_with :rspec do |c|
    c.syntax = :expect
  end

  # rspec-mocks config goes here. You can use an alternate test double
  # library (such as bogus or mocha) by changing the `mock_with` option here.
  config.mock_with :rspec do |mocks|
    mocks.verify_partial_doubles = true
    mocks.verify_doubled_constant_names = true
    # Prevents you from mocking or stubbing a method that does not exist on
    # a real object. This is generally recommended, and will default to
    # `true` in RSpec 4.
    config.around(:each, type: :helper) do |ex|
      config.mock_with :rspec do |mocks|
        mocks.verify_partial_doubles = false
        ex.run
        mocks.verify_partial_doubles = true
      end
    end
  end

  # show retry status in spec process
  config.verbose_retry = true
  # show exception that triggers a retry if verbose_retry is set to true
  config.display_try_failure_messages = true

  # run retry only on features
  config.around :each, :js do |ex|
    ex.run_with_retry retry: 3
  end

  # Run specs in random order to surface order dependencies. If you find an
  # order dependency and want to debug it, you can fix the order by providing
  # the seed, which is printed after each run.
  #     --seed 1234
  config.order = :random

  config.raise_errors_for_deprecations!
end

On our CI we sporadically see these errors on various different specs:

Got 0 failures and 3 other errors:

     1.1) Failure/Error: visit root_path(r: @campaign_code, utm_campaign: "foo", utm_source: "bar", utm_medium: "baz")
          
          Errno::EPIPE:
            Broken pipe
          # ./spec/features/funnel/checkout_spec.rb:22:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
          # ./spec/spec_helper.rb:46:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'

     1.2) Failure/Error: ex.run_with_retry retry: 3
          
          Errno::EPIPE:
            Broken pipe
          # ./spec/spec_helper.rb:46:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'

     1.3) Failure/Error: ex.run_with_retry retry: 3
          
          Errno::EPIPE:
            Broken pipe
          # ./spec/spec_helper.rb:46:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'

While the specs are always different, the pattern is the same:

1. Visit some path - get Broken Pipe
2. ex.run_with_retry retry: 3 - get Broken Pipe
3. ex.run_with_retry retry: 3 - get Broken Pipe

Since we are doing 3 tries, it looks like there's a broken pipe on the first try on line 46 of spec_helper.rb:

  # run retry only on features
  config.around :each, :js do |ex|
    ex.run_with_retry retry: 3
  end

I'm having a hell of a time debugging this issue, but it seems like something is sporadically breaking our retry process. I haven't found anyone else with this issue through Google, and am not quite sure how to debug it from here.

Any thoughts?

[csalvato]

Doing more research on my end, it seems like this is related to Poltergeist/PhantomJS, not RSpec::Retry. Closing for now. :) Thanks!