How do I globally configure RSpec to keep the '--color' and '--format specdoc' options turned on

As you can see in the docs here, the intended use is creating ~/.rspec and in it putting your options, such as --color.

To quickly create an ~/.rspec file with the --color option, just run:

echo '--color' >> ~/.rspec 

One can also use a spec_helper.rb file in all projects. The file should include the following:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  # Use color in STDOUT
  config.color = true

  # Use color not only in STDOUT but also in pagers and files
  config.tty = true

  # Use the specified formatter
  config.formatter = :documentation # :progress, :html,
                                    # :json, CustomFormatterClass
end

Any example file must require the helper to be able to use that options.

In your spec_helper.rb file, include the following option:

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.color_enabled = true
end

You then must require in each *_spec.rb file that should use that option.

If you use rake to run rspec tests then you can edit spec/spec.opts

http://rspec.info/rails/runners.html

Or simply add alias spec=spec --color --format specdoc to your ~/.bashrc file like me.

One thing to be aware of is the impact of the different ways of running RSpec.

I was trying to turn on the option with the following code in spec/spec_helper.rb -

Rspec.configure do |config|
  config.tty = $stdout.tty?
end

calling the 'rspec' binary directly - or as 'bundle exec rspec' and checking $stdout.tty? will return true. invoking the 'rake spec' task - or as 'bundle exec rake spec' - Rake will invoke rspec in a separate process, and $stdout.tty? will return false.

In the end I used the ~/.rspec option, with just --tty as its contents. Works well for me and keeps our CI server output clean.