So far, you have seen how to model your infrastructure, provision hosts in the cloud, and what goes into a cookbook. One important aspect of developing cookbooks is writing tests so that your recipes do not degrade over time or have bugs introduced into them in the future. This chapter introduces you to the following concepts:
Understanding test methodologies
How RSpec structures your tests
Using ChefSpec to test recipes
Running your tests
Writing tests that cover multiple platforms
These techniques will prove to be very useful to write robust, maintainable cookbooks that you can use to confidently manage your infrastructure. Tests enable you to perform the following:
Identify mistakes in your recipe logic
Test your recipes against multiple platforms locally
Develop recipes faster with local test execution before running them on a host
Catch the changes in dependencies that will otherwise break your infrastructure before they get deployed
Write tests for bugs to prevent...