why are steps still randomized

[jpwynn]

Given spec/features/test_spec.rb

require 'rails_helper'
require 'rspec-steps'
RSpec::Steps.steps "why are these steps done in random order?" do 
  it "step 1" do
    expect("a").to eq("a")
  end
  it "step 2" do
    expect("a").to eq("a")
  end
  it "step 3" do
    expect("a").to eq("a")
  end
  it "step 4" do
    expect("a").to eq("a")
  end
end

running rspec spec/features/test_spec.rb twice gives:

why are these steps done in random order?
  step 1
  step 4
  step 3
  step 2
Finished in 0.09078 seconds (files took 2.48 seconds to load)
4 examples, 0 failures
Randomized with seed 57459

and then:

why are these steps done in random order?
  step 2
  step 4
  step 1
  step 3
Finished in 0.08662 seconds (files took 2.5 seconds to load)
4 examples, 0 failures
Randomized with seed 39988

[jpwynn]

I'm using Rails 5.0.1 and Rspec 3.5:

rspec (3.5.0)
  rspec-core (~> 3.5.0)
  rspec-expectations (~> 3.5.0)
  rspec-mocks (~> 3.5.0)
rspec-core (3.5.4)
  rspec-support (~> 3.5.0)
rspec-expectations (3.5.0)
  diff-lcs (>= 1.2.0, < 2.0)
  rspec-support (~> 3.5.0)
rspec-mocks (3.5.0)
  diff-lcs (>= 1.2.0, < 2.0)
  rspec-support (~> 3.5.0)
rspec-rails (3.5.2)
  actionpack (>= 3.0)
  activesupport (>= 3.0)
  railties (>= 3.0)
  rspec-core (~> 3.5.0)
  rspec-expectations (~> 3.5.0)
  rspec-mocks (~> 3.5.0)
  rspec-support (~> 3.5.0)
rspec-steps (2.1.1)
  rspec (>= 3.0, < 3.99)
rspec-support (3.5.0)

In rails_helper.rb have:

config.use_transactional_fixtures = false

[IdahoEv]

Randomizing order is an optional feature of rSpec and isn't appropriate for use with rspec-steps. I would check your ./.rspec and ~/.rspec files for the --order rand command. In a project using rspec-steps, you'll want --order default instead.

[IdahoEv]

If you really need random order for the rest of your specs, you may be able to tell just the steps specs to run in order by tagging those example groups with { :order => :defined } as described here in the rspec docs https://www.relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-core/docs/configuration/overriding-global-ordering

[jpwynn]

Adding :order => :defined did the trick, thank you.

RSpec::Steps.steps "why are these steps done in random order?", order: :defined do

And that makes perfect sense, however I was fooled by the README saying "The examples above will be run in order" which I understood to mean part of the steps' behinds the scene magic was to prevent randomization.

Perhaps it would be good to show order: :defined in that example code on the REDAME?

If I had to guess, many or most moderately complex projects probably do rely on randomization for everything except the Steps, to better uncover unintentional sequential dependencies, so explicitly addressing the need to disable that for Steps is probably a good idea.