When you need to make a protected/private property public for testing/inspection.

gistfile1.php

<?php

# ignore
use \Way\Console\Guardfile;
use Mockery as m;

class GuardfileTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {

    public function testCanOverrideDefaultPath()
    {
        $file = m::mock('Illuminate\Filesystem\Filesystem');
        $guardFile = new Guardfile($file, 'foo/bar');

        # When we need to inspect private properties, 
        # let's use a helper method.
        $pathProperty = $this->makePublic($guardFile, 'path');

        # Use getValue($instance) to fetch the value of the prop.
        $this->assertEquals('foo/bar', $pathProperty->getValue($guardFile));
    }
    
    protected function makePublic($obj, $property)
    {
        $reflect = new \ReflectionObject($obj);
        $property = $reflect->getProperty($property);
        $property->setAccessible(true);

        return $property;
    }

}

Great gist. Thanks.