How to test edit_resource?

[rmoriz]

Chef DSL's edit_resource should be test-able as well. see:

• https://coderanger.net/rewind/
• https://docs.chef.io/dsl_recipe.html#edit-resource

What do you think?

[lamont-granquist]

you gotta leave a more useful bug report.

AFAIK it should be testable.

there's bugs around use_inline_resources like #793 which need to get fixed or else a lot of the use cases for edit_resources will be broken, but that has nothing to do with edit_resources directly.

[rmoriz]

Okay, i'll try to provide a specific example:

# cookbook1::default
file '/tmp/test' do
  content 'original content'
end


# cookbook2::default
edit_resource(:file, '/tmp/test') do
  content 'super new content'
end

the original file resource is easy testable, but how can i verify that cookbook2::default does the edit_resource right (e.g. updated content attribute)?

I would think of something like:

  cached(:chef_run) { ChefSpec::ServerRunner.new.converge('cookbook2::default') }
...

  expect(chef_run).to edit_resource(:template, '/etc/file').with(
    content: 'super new content'
  )

… however edit_resource is not a resource so maybe another way is needed:…

  cached(:chef_run) { ChefSpec::ServerRunner.new.converge('cookbook2::default') }
...
 
  resource = chef_run.file('/etc/file')

  expect(resource).to edit_resource('file[/etc/file]').with(
    content: 'super new content'
  )

My goal is to explicity test the "edit_resource" action because usually I'll use it by modifying/wrapping external cookbooks.

(updated)

[lamont-granquist]

its exactly the same way. look for the file resource on the resource collection to have gotten constructed with the 'super new content' content.

[lamont-granquist]

@tas50 i think this one is closable

[rmoriz]

Unless there is a way to test those resource modifications, this issue isn't resolved and chefspec just lacks a feature to do to that...

[lamont-granquist]

you don't test the implementation details.

testing this:

file "/tmp/foo"

edit_resource(:file, "/tmp/foo") do
  content "foo"
end

is the same as testing this:

file "/tmp/foo" do
  content "foo"
end

which in both cases is just this:

  it 'should install zsh package' do
    expect(chef_run).to create_file('/tmp/foo').with(content: "foo")
  end

it doesn't matter if its written using edit_resource or not, what you're setting up expectations on is the final construction of the resource collection. how you get there is irrelevant.

[olebel]

Recommended approach is to do not test library cookbook resources, excluding any library "include_recipe" appearances.

Common pattern for using "edit_resource" is to edit resources that's defined in library, that we don't test.

Chefspec drop failures, when it meets edit_resource with template/file from library cookbook.

What's recommended way to use Chefspec in such situations?

[rmoriz]

@olebel why not?