Test-driven development for cookbooks using ChefSpec

Test-driven development (TDD) is a way to write unit tests before writing any recipe code. By writing the test first, you design what your recipe should do. Then, you ensure that your test fails, while you haven't written your recipe code.

As soon as you've completed your recipe, your unit tests should pass. You can be sure that your recipe works as expected – even if you decide to refactor it later to make it more readable.

ChefSpec is built on the popular RSpec framework and offers a tailored syntax to test Chef recipes.

Let's develop a very simple recipe using the TDD approach with ChefSpec.

Getting ready

Make sure you have a cookbook called my_cookbook and the run_list of your node includes my_cookbook, as described in the Creating and using cookbooks recipe in Chapter 1, Chef Infrastructure.

How to do it…

Let's write a failing test first. Then we will write a recipe that satisfies the test:

1. Create your spec file:

   mma@laptop:~/chef-repo ...