= timecop

* http://github.com/jtrupiano/timecop

== WHAT THIS FORK DOES

This is a fork of the Timecop gem. This fork make use of file caches to store the offset and values of the mock time objects. This allows different processes to read and write to the mock objects. The motivation is to enable Culerity to use timecop.

== Cache Files

Two timecop cache files are created in your home directory. They are .timecop-cache.time.cache and .timecop-cache.offset.cache

== DESCRIPTION

A gem providing "time travel" and "time freezing" capabilities, making it dead simple to test time-dependent code.  It provides a unified method to mock Time.now, Date.today, and DateTime.now in a single call. 

== FEATURES

* Freeze time to a specific point.
* Travel back to a specific point in time, but allow time to continue moving forward from there.
* Timecop api allows arguments to be passed into #freeze and #travel as one of the following:
  * Time instance
  * DateTime instance
  * Date instance
  * individual arguments (year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
  * a single integer argument that is interpreted as an offset in seconds from Time.now
* Nested calls to Timecop#travel and Timecop#freeze are supported -- each block will maintain its interpretation of now.

== USAGE

Run a time-sensitive test

  joe = User.find(1)
  joe.purchase_home()
  assert !joe.mortgage_due?
  # move ahead a month and assert that the mortgage is due
  Timecop.freeze(Date.today + 30) do
    assert joe.mortgage_due?
  end

Set the time for the test environment of a rails app -- this is particularly helpful if your whole application is time-sensitive.  It allows you to build your test data at a single point in time, and to move in/out of that time as appropriate (within your tests)
  
in config/environments/test.rb

  config.after_initialize do
    # Set Time.now to September 1, 2008 10:05:00 AM (at this instant), but allow it to move forward
    t = Time.local(2008, 9, 1, 10, 5, 0)
    Timecop.travel(t)
  end

=== The difference between Timecop.freeze and Timecop.travel

#freeze is used to statically mock the concept of now.  As your program executes, Time.now will not change unless you make subsequent calls into the Timecop API.  #travel, on the other hand, computes an offset between what we currently think Time.now is (recall that we support nested traveling) and the time passed in.  It uses this offset to simulate the passage of time.  To demonstrate, consider the following code snippets:

  new_time = Time.local(2008, 9, 1, 12, 0, 0)
  Timecop.freeze(new_time)
  sleep(10)
  new_time == Time.now # ==> true
  
  Timecop.return # "turn off" Timecop
  Timecop.travel(new_time)
  sleep(10)
  new_time == Time.now # ==> false

== DEPENDENCIES

* None

== INSTALL

* sudo gem install timecop-cache

== REFERENCES

* "0.2.0 release":http://blog.smartlogicsolutions.com/2008/12/24/timecop-2-released-freeze-and-rebase-time-ruby/
* "0.1.0 release":http://blog.smartlogicsolutions.com/2008/11/19/timecop-freeze-time-in-ruby-for-better-testing/