Automatic Re-Recording

Over time, your cassettes may get out-of-date. APIs change and sites you scrape get updated. VCR provides a facility to automatically re-record your cassettes. Enable re-recording using the :re_record_interval option.

The value provided should be an interval (expressed in seconds) that determines how often VCR will re-record the cassette. When a cassette is used, VCR checks the earliest recorded_at timestamp in the cassette; if more time than the interval has passed since that timestamp, VCR will use the :all record mode to cause it be re-recorded.

Background ()

Given a previously recorded cassette file "cassettes/example.yml" with:

--- 
http_interactions: 
- request: 
    method: get
    uri: http://localhost/
    body: 
      encoding: UTF-8
      string: ""
    headers: {}
  response: 
    status: 
      code: 200
      message: OK
    headers: 
      Content-Length: 
      - "12"
    body: 
      encoding: UTF-8
      string: Old Response
    http_version: "1.1"
  recorded_at: Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:58:44 GMT
recorded_with: VCR 2.0.0

And a file named "re_record.rb" with:

$server = start_sinatra_app do
  get('/') { 'New Response' }
end

require 'vcr'

VCR.configure do |c|
  c.hook_into :webmock
  c.cassette_library_dir = 'cassettes'
end

VCR.use_cassette('example', :re_record_interval => 7.days, :match_requests_on => [:method, :host, :path]) do
  puts Net::HTTP.get_response('localhost', '/', $server.port).body
end

Cassette is not re-recorded when not enough time has passed

Given it is Tue, 07 Nov 2011

When I run ruby re_record.rb

Then the output should contain "Old Response"

But the output should not contain "New Response"

And the file "cassettes/example.yml" should contain "Old Response"

But the file "cassettes/example.yml" should not contain "New Response".

Cassette is re-recorded when enough time has passed

Given it is Tue, 09 Nov 2011

When I run ruby re_record.rb

Then the output should contain "New Response"

But the output should not contain "Old Response"

And the file "cassettes/example.yml" should contain "New Response"

But the file "cassettes/example.yml" should not contain "Old Response".