Travis CI is a free continuous integration testing service. However, it is really fragile and will break more than it will work.

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If you choose to use it anyway, learn the lessons we already learnt:

Use a compatible Rubygems for Rails 2.3 on Ruby 1.8.7

Ruby 1.8.7 is not compatible with current Rubygems versions (> 2.0). Runnig rvm rubygems latest-1.8 --force will fix this and install Rubygems version 1.8.29.

To make Travis CI do this, add before_script: rvm rubygems latest-1.8 --force to .travis.yml. However, if you run tests for multiple Ruby versions, you need to add before_script: travis:prepare to .travis.yml. In Rakefile add this block:

namespace :travis do

  desc 'Things to do before Travis CI begins'
  task :prepare => [:compatible_rubygems]

  desc 'Ensure compatible Rubygems version for Ruby 1.8'
  task :compatible_rubygems do
    if RUBY_VERSION == '1.8.7'
      system "rvm rubygems latest-1.8 --force"
    end
  end
  
end

Don't let Travis CI install a debugger

… cause it will fail. To have Travis CI skip installing a debugger gem but still have it in development, add this line to .travis.yml:

bundler_args: --without development

Then move any debugger gem (debugger, ruby-debug) into the :development group. Example:

gem 'debugger', :platform => :ruby_19, :group => :development

Add a travis-testing branch

To keep your master branch clean of "Trying to fix Travis CI (again)" commits, have a branch travis-testing that you can sqash and rebase once Travis CI is happy. To make Travis CI run tests on that branch, add these lines to .travis.yml:

branches:
  only:
    - master
    - travis-testing